Egypt!
I just made a Picasa album, and sent out an invitation to most of you. If you did not get it, and you want to view the pics, pls let me know. Pls don’t use the g-mail account connected to Picasa but our normal Hotmail account if you like to leave comments. Thanks.
We loved Egypt. We have seen so many impressive things. The first day we were in Cairo where we had a private guide to show us around. We traveled from one place to the other in a private mini-van. A very busy day but well organized. The guide was a lovely girl, she kept the kids entertained the whole day. We went to Giza, where the big and most famous pyramids are, and the sphinx of course. We did a camel ride for about 30 min around the pyramids, very touristy but we enjoyed it a lot.
I just made a Picasa album, and sent out an invitation to most of you. If you did not get it, and you want to view the pics, pls let me know. Pls don’t use the g-mail account connected to Picasa but our normal Hotmail account if you like to leave comments. Thanks.
We loved Egypt. We have seen so many impressive things. The first day we were in Cairo where we had a private guide to show us around. We traveled from one place to the other in a private mini-van. A very busy day but well organized. The guide was a lovely girl, she kept the kids entertained the whole day. We went to Giza, where the big and most famous pyramids are, and the sphinx of course. We did a camel ride for about 30 min around the pyramids, very touristy but we enjoyed it a lot.
Ever heard the noise a camel makes? I had never heard anything like that before, real weird sound. We saw how papyrus is made, and ended up buying some (still have to buy frames for it). We went to the Egyptian Museum as well, for the tired kids not the most exiting part of the day, but we could have spent there much more time. The kids were very interested in finally seeing the mask of Tutankhamon, which they knew from the many children’s books about Egypt that we had read with them to prepare for the trip. Most of the books showed pictures of the mask. For me the most interesting part were the mummies. Hard to believe they are so old. They were in glass coffins, you couldn’t touch them but you could study them from so close, incredible.
At night we had a tour on the river Nile with a small sailing boat
We took a flight to Aswan, and a guide showed us around. This young man was also very nice to the boys. Apparently, in Egypt you have to go to University for 4 years to study history before you get your license to be a guide. It’s illegal to be a guide without that license and you can be imprisoned for 3 years if you do. That’s why all the guides have such excellent knowledge and can answer all your questions. We saw the big dam, and took a little boat to a temple on an island. Later we entered the boat for the Nile cruise. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it turned out really well. We had two rooms opposite eachother; they were small but fine and had their own bathroom. Meals were included (buffet style) and were all really good. Most people get stomach bugs in Egypt, well, we ate and enjoyed everything and only Romke had one day some trouble (luckily not too bad). Food in Egypt is good, let me tell you that.
Lars was a little afraid of the Nile crocodiles, but we didn’t see one. The boat traveled for some hours and we disembarked at night to visit a temple. It was nicely lit, and special to visit at night. That was how the whole cruise was, sail for some time, and than visit a temple (the guide showed us around), sail, visit. I forgot how many temples we saw exactly.
At night we had a tour on the river Nile with a small sailing boat
We took a flight to Aswan, and a guide showed us around. This young man was also very nice to the boys. Apparently, in Egypt you have to go to University for 4 years to study history before you get your license to be a guide. It’s illegal to be a guide without that license and you can be imprisoned for 3 years if you do. That’s why all the guides have such excellent knowledge and can answer all your questions. We saw the big dam, and took a little boat to a temple on an island. Later we entered the boat for the Nile cruise. I didn’t really know what to expect, but it turned out really well. We had two rooms opposite eachother; they were small but fine and had their own bathroom. Meals were included (buffet style) and were all really good. Most people get stomach bugs in Egypt, well, we ate and enjoyed everything and only Romke had one day some trouble (luckily not too bad). Food in Egypt is good, let me tell you that.
Lars was a little afraid of the Nile crocodiles, but we didn’t see one. The boat traveled for some hours and we disembarked at night to visit a temple. It was nicely lit, and special to visit at night. That was how the whole cruise was, sail for some time, and than visit a temple (the guide showed us around), sail, visit. I forgot how many temples we saw exactly.
The most impressive by far I found the hieroglyphs. According to the guide they are just how they found them, they brushed them off, and that’s how you can see them now. I can hardly believe it, they are 2500 to 4000 years old, and most of them look perfect. Of course, it hardly ever rains in Egypt, but still. I couldn’t stop taking pictures of them. The boys were fine just playing with the sand and filling their hats with stones that were everywhere.
The end of the trip was Luxor where we visit the famous Luxor temple, the Karnak Temple and the valley of the kings where they have found the tomb of Tutankhamon. We didn’t visit his tomb, we were told it was not that impressive because all the treasures are in the museum. We visited 3 other tombs and again, I have to use the word impressive, because that’s what it was.
From Luxor we took a night train back to Cairo, which brought back a lot of “interrail” memories for Romke and me.
In Cairo we had the same lovely girl to guide us and we visited some churches, a synagogue and of course the big mosque. It reminded me of the blue mosque in Istanbul, we were allowed to sit down and look at the beautiful ceiling, and try to take pictures. We went to the big tourist market as well. I think I never get used to the hassle of making an agreement on the price of an item. But walking around with 3 little blond boys seems to attract every Egyptian and we ended up many times playing a little game or something together with them. Because I was almost all the time with my family, Egyptian men were not hostile against me. I was warned that every blond European girl is seen as a hooker. Of course I was wearing long sleeves and more or less long skirts. All in all I haven’t felt unsafe in Egypt or badly treated (we’ve only been in tourist areas of course) .
From Cairo we were transported in a private minivan to Taba, it took 7 hours riding through the Sinai dessert. Taba is located at the Red Sea, and walking distance from Israel. The resort was beautiful, outside the resort there were no shops or anything else to go. The first day we were not yet familiar with the “resort rules”. This is: “wake up early, run outside to mark a beach chair at the poolside with a towel/ bottle of sunscreen/ flip-flops. Do the same with a beach chair at the sea side. Then go and have breakfast. Leave all the stuff on the chairs for the full day, even if you know you will not be around for a couple of hours.” So the first day it was very hard to find two empty chairs to sit on with the five of us. And the second day you have to decide: “do I join this madness, or do I stay normal but have no chair to sit on?” I’m ashamed to admit we joined in by taking 4 chairs at the sea… The sea was great. There was a large (artificial) sandy beach, and a lot of pebbles. The kids built of pyramids, and small stones were the mummies. But after 3 days even the kids got bored not going anywhere. So we’re definitely not r
esort people.We celebrated our 16th anniversary on the balcony of our room with a private dinner (the kids sound asleep in the next room). Just perfect.
I also celebrated my birthday there, and got a nice “habby” birthday cake from the resort.
Back to Cairo took another day of traveling, and we took a night flight back, arriving in Prague at 7.15 on a Monday morning, going back to school and work at the normal time.
