4th stop - EGYPT

Wow - how awesome is this?! Going to Egypt on a cruise! ;D

When I was originally looking at western Med cruises, I had four ports in mind that I wanted to hit, and figured if we found a cruise that went to three of the four it would be great. I didn't even consider Egypt to be a possibility. But then I saw the itinerary for the Rotterdam - it went to all FOUR of my desired ports, PLUS EGYPT!! It was destined to be....

Anyway, we docked in Alexandria, which is a 3 hour drive away from Cairo, where the Pyramids and the Sphinx are located on the Giza Plateau. But the ship was there long enough to go see the Pyramids, so cool. Donnie, Annie, Greg and I booked a private minivan excursion through the cruiseline - we wanted to be assured of our safety and that if something happened to the vehicle, that the cruiseline would be responsible for waiting and/or getting us back onboard. And we made it a private excursion so that we could spend as much or as little time doing stuff as we wanted - we didn't have to wait for 50 of our not-best friends to meander, shop, get on and off the bus, etc. We thought this would work great - we could leave right away in the morning and get going before all the buses. WRONG. HAL made us wait, feasibly for our safety; all vehicles were supposed to drive in a caravan. In a matter of minutes, the caravan split apart, so we could have left earlier. That is probably the only major gripe I have with HAL - they did not tell us we had to wait for the buses, etc., so we paid a lot extra and ended up not getting the early start we thought we would. One interesting side note - every bus and minivan had an armed guard. I'm not sure if this is a HAL thing, or an Egypt thing, but it was kind of disconcerting.

Anyway... on to the fun stuff.

We of course headed straight to the pyramids. AWE-INSPIRING!!! The rest of the group was rather surprised as we driving through Cairo, turned a corner, and there were the pyramids. When you think about pictures you've seen of the pyramids, or what you learned in school, you think about the pyramids being in the desert in the middle of nowhere. Not anymore! Cairo has experienced huge growth and urban sprawl, and now surrounds the Giza Plateau.

Oh, and if you're wondering about what Greg has in front of him in that first picture, that's a long story that will be addressed later! guess you'll just have to come back for updates in the future!

The third picture of the pyramids shows part of a line. That line is people waiting to go into the pyramid. We absolutely lucked out - when we got there, there was NO line. Going inside wasn't as uber cool as I thought it would be. The tunnel is small, so small I was ducking pretty far down. And the tunnel first went down, then back up a bit. The tunnel ended at the burial room, which is pretty much empty. Granted, the concept is neat - being in the very room that a great pharoah was buried in, but not as awe-inspiring as just seeing the pyramids themselves.

Seeing the Sphinx was purty darn cool too. It's interesting - the pyramids are made out of many blocks of stone, quarried and shipped from miles away, but the Sphinx was carved out of the bedrock. There are still varying theories as to whom the Sphinx is supposed to represent, who had it carved, etc. Some archaeologists are disproving the commonly held ideas. There are also questions about the Sphinx's nose. It can't be proved if it was removed by Egyptians who didn't want the person whom that Sphinx represented to live in the afterworld (I'll explain that shortly), or if was the target practice by Napoleon's army that destroyed the nose.


So, anyway, a little about Egyptians and their noses. It was believed during the time of the Pharoahs that after death, the spirit of a person came out of their nose during the night, which is the time of the afterlife, and then went back into their nose during the day, which is the time for the living. This is why pharoahs had many many statues created in their own likeness. They believed that if somehow their own nose was broken, the nose of a statue would suffice. And even if someone tried to destroy the noses on the statues, there was always the hope that at least one statue's nose would survive intact, allowing the spirit of the pharoah to continue to go in and out of the nose, thus enabling the pharoah to live on in the afterlife.

Another side note - the vendors were pushy at many ports, but were pretty horrible by the Sphinx. They didn't stay in one area, but would come walking after you. A lot of folks were really disgusted with it - you pay to go into the pyramid/sphinx area, but then the vendors follow you around?! Not good. However, something I did at every port, which helped a LOT here, was learn how to say "thank you" and "no thank you" in the local language. Even if my pronounciation was not exact, folks knew what I was saying, and appreciated my efforts. I never had issues with vendors when I said no thank you in their own language.

After visiting the Giza Plateau, we did a quick tour of the Cairo museum. And I mean QUICK!! We were in and out in about 25 minutes. We saw a few highlights, went through the King Tut room, and zipped on out. I personally would have enjoyed more time there, especially with our guide who was very informative. But our little group had decided to fit one more activity into our day...

We had lunch on a riverboat on the Nile River!! At first, the idea didn't excite me all that much. But then it struck me. I'd already boated on the Danube River, so why not the Nile too?! And just thinking about the Nile - how much it meant to the ancient Egyptians - made it a very special thing. Shortly before going on this trip, Greg and I had seen an IMAX movie about the Nile, and so it was very cool being on such a famous, important river.

The boat itself was obviously touristy. In fact - only for tourists. Over the top. It was decorated totally gaudy, and the poor wait staff had to wear goofy outfits. But the food was fab - most things were marked "beef" or "chicken" but besides that, we didn't really know what the items were. None of the salads or desserts were marked. But no matter. For the most part it was nummy.

It was a two-decker ship, with different groups on each deck. The entertainment shifted half way through the cruise, so each group was able to see/hear both forms of entertainment. The belly dancer was the big hit of course!

That was all we had time for in Egypt. Someday I hope to go back to visit the other amazing sites - Valley of the Kings, Karnak, Thebes, etc. And maybe I'll get back to the Cairo museum.

A few interesting things we noted during the long drives...

There are bee houses all over. Apparently it is common to "raise" bees for their honey. And these aren't just little "huts" - some of them are very elaborate.

Construction of houses seemed to be slow - we saw many gates for houses/communities, but nothing else. There were many fenced off areas where there were armed guards posted in towers all around.

And the traffic. OMG. What a nightmare in Cairo. Drivers don't obey any traffic laws there - I guess I don't even know if there are any. We were driving down a 3 lane road, and there were at least 4, and sometimes 5, lanes of traffic driving on it. Then suddenly a motorcycle would white line down the center between the cars, veer right across in front of a vehicle, then zip down the white line again, wherever there was space to fit. I swear, I looked out the window and saw a motorcycle with two inches of our minivan. I thought I was going to have a heart attack.

Out in the country, we saw a mule-drawn cart going through the toll booth on a HIGHWAY!! And we saw many trucks just crammed with people, mostly kids.