Walk Like an Egyptian

We arrived in Cairo early this morning (6:45 am). Friday is equivalent to our Sunday and is a holy day for Islam (85% of Egypt's population). Therfore, there was very little traffic on our way to the hotel, which was all the way through the city. We are staying at the Four Seasons Hotel at the First Residence. It is everything you expect the Four Seasons to be and more - our view is of the Nile River! Our travel agent has really taken care of us, letting each hotel know that we are celebrating our anniversary. Each place has done something special in some way to help us celebrate and the Four Seasons brought us a delicious chocolate mousse layered cake - yum, yum!

After showering and breakfast overlooking the Nile we met our Egyptologist, Galel. He is so knowledgeable! First we went to the Great Pyramids (one of the Ancient Wonders of the World) and the Sphinx of Giza, as well as the Solar Boat Museum. We went inside the Great Pyramid of Cheops can climbed inside to view his tomb. It was quite a hike up and I felt like a mole in a tunnel (you had to bend down as you climbed - not for the claustrophobic). The inside of the tomb is actually somewhat disappointing because it is not one of the highly decorated tombs. The Solar Boat Museum displays the remains of Cheops' huge funerary boat which was discovered at the foot of his pyramid in the early 80s. When it was discovered, the boat really looked like a pile of wood (cedar to be exact). Excavators put the boat together like a puzzle in complicated steps to display the boat in the museum. The purpose of this boat was for the King's journey to the after world. Afterwards, we went to a papyrus museum to observe how papyrus is made.



This was scarier than Victoria Falls (the camel's name was Charlie Brown)

Our original plan was to go back to the hotel to rest and lay out by the pool, but we decided to go ahead and do The Egyptian Museum. We were scheduled to do it after our cruise, but we were a little nervous that we would be short on time so we went ahead and did it. It was amazing to see the mummies (some of them still had hair - yuck) and all of King Tutankhamon's (King Tut's) antiquities. We even got to see his famous funeral mask (remember the cover of our Social Studies book?).


By this point it was 5:00 in the evening and we were exhausted (remember...we only slept on the plane - and we know what a good night's sleep on a plane is like). We came back to the room to regroup and then headed to a boat on the Nile for drinks. The view was wonderful. Afterwards, we came back to the hotel and ordered room service before retiring for the night.