Terry and Amy Arrive

It seemed like we only had a couple of days (it was really nine days) to prepare for the arrival of our guests, Terry and Amy.  We arranged for a whirlwind tour of Cairo and a Nile cruise in the south of the country for them. We accompanied them and enjoyed seeing our favorite country through their eyes.

We met them at the airport with a van, leaving the airport at around 1 a.m. for the trip across the city to our apartment.  It takes about twenty six hours or so get here from Minnesota, usually with a long stopover in a European city such as Paris.

 

 

After a late breakfast, we headed out to the great pyramids of Giza, everyone's "must see" stop.  We started with Ismail, the camel man, and considered the options for a camel ride into the pyramids area.  Ismail keeps a smaller menagerie of animals now than in the past and Linda was disappointed to not find any goats in the stable.

Ismail explained the options available for the camel ride.

  

Terry and Amy would take the camels into the pyramids area and we would meet them at the great pyramid to continue the tour.  Amy climbed aboard the camel and Terry rode a horse for the first part of the trip. His camel was waiting nearby.

 

Meanwhile, Linda and I toured the new Nine Pyramids View hotel next to the stable.  This is one of numerous "boutique hotels" near the pyramids.  These are the best values for visitors, with rates around $50 per night, great service and always a fantastic view.  Here, Linda stands at the corner of the rooftop breakfast area. Imagine eating your omelette while basking in the warm sun and gazing at the pyramids.Can it get any better?

 

(To see the scenery available on the tour, review this previous post on the blog.)  About two hours later, we joined Terry and Amy at the base of the Great Pyramid.

It costs 200 EGP (about $13) per person to enter the pyramids area and twice that to go inside the Great Pyramid.  Many people will tell you that there is nothing inside except Cheops' granite sarcophagus but once you have come this far, you should make the trip inside just to see if you receive some special "pyramid power" - you never know.  Many people do come to meditate and pick up special powers. Hence the signs banning some activities, such as climbing into the sarcophagus for a nap.

Climbing up to the entrance on the north face of the Great Pyramid is as close as you can come to actually climbing a pyramid nowadays, although it was quite a popular activity many years back.  

 

A guard with a whistle flags anyone venturing above the prescribed path although he somehow missed these two girls who would soon pose for a photo.

Food and drink(except water) are prohibited in the area although this vendor is selling ice cream treats.

And, of course, the pesky and persistent vendors selling tchotchkes were prohibited a few years ago.   Somehow they have re-emerged in full force.  We soon became acquainted with this one sitting near us.

As we left the area, I took a picture of the Mena House Golf Course which has been closed for quite some time.  Squeezed into 40 acres, it features eighteen greens but just nine fairways.  I keep hoping to find it back in operation during one of our winter visits. But alas, there are other plans for this land.

 

 

 

Dinner From The Neighbors

 Our neighbors across the hall were delighted to see that Linda had made it back to Cairo.  Soon after our arrival they sent over a tasty beef dish, one that we had never tasted before. We added some leftover chicken and rice from the previous dinner to make a sumptuous meal. When we asked the name of the beef dish we were told, "Spinach". It is indeed, beef in a tomato/spinach sauce, but we expected it would have it's own name.

The beef was very tender.

The next evening they delivered this to our door. Vegetables in sauce, rice, salad and crispy bread.

They are very kind and generous neighbors and we are fortunate to know them.

Food, especially home cooked food, is a fun way to learn about a country

New In The Neighborhood

Since almost two years have past since our last visit to Cairo, much has changed in our neighborhood.  The canal under the elevated Ring Road has been lined with a fence in front of our building and the road widened to accommodate parking.

 

 

A number of small cafes have been built along the canal such as this Mocha Chino, serving a delightful lemonade.

A new mini-mart has been installed about a hundred yards down the street - good for milk, eggs and snacks.

Around the corner from our street, a new bakery has appeared.  It is just to the right of this cart where fresh bananas are selling for 10 EGP per Kg (30 cents per pound)

 

Fresh fruits and vegetables are among are favorite foods in this sunny country.  We usually make a dinner salad each day we are at home.

 

For larger purchases, we walk a bit farther to this "green grocer" for items like a fresh melon.

 

 

 

 

We also can head out about three miles to the Dandy Mall which features a French Carrefour market, comparable in scale to a Walmart or Target.

 

 

 

2022 - Return To Egypt

 It is the 15th of February and we are comfortably ensconced in the Cairo Condo, waiting as Terry and Amy are flying across the Mediterranean Sea on their way to join us for about ten days on the usual whirlwind tour of this historic land.

Linda and I arrived on Feb 5, a bit later than usual in the winter season.

We had originally planned to leave Minneapolis on January 4, but when we took our mandatory Covid test for entry into Egypt, Linda's came back POSITIVE!

Well, we thought, Tom can just go and open things up and Linda will be along in 10 days according to Delta Airlines protocol.  This turned out to be a bad idea. Tom did indeed fly on Jan 4th, but Linda's symptoms, which we expected to be mild (She had previously had two vaccinations and one case of Covid in 2020) turned toward the unpleasant.  

This led to Tom flying home in mid-January where his presence improved Linda's symptoms and disposition considerably. Lesson learned.

Now with a negative test results and a doctor's letter of recovery, to boot, we both headed out on February 4.

Now, a trip to or from Egypt is not a pleasant journey, especially nowadays in the cheap seats.  It takes around 26 hours with about 14-15 in flight and the remainder waiting for connections in Detroit, Atlanta and/or Paris.

So what is new in the "travel to Egypt business?"  After all, it has been two years since we made the trip.

Almost all airports have decent electric outlets among their waiting areas.  Just about all planes have USB charging sockets in the seat backs.  And, best of all, Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris now has a lovely kitten statue in the departure lounge near the L gates.

It looks even better after the sun goes down and the lights come on.

And, a ticket home on Egypt Air - Cairo to Washington, non-stop is readily obtained at the old reliable Delta Tours office across from the old Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square.  It is good that I know my way around Cairo - I originally began via battling the hapless Delta Airlines Internet Virtual Ticket Agent before heading downtown.  (no relation between those two Deltas!)

Catching Up On the Travel Blog - 2021 - Back To The Present!

 I have put in considerable time catching up the past two years travel activities, but am not quite cauight up.  We took one more trip in 2021 - to Hawaii to photograph our 49th state Capitol.  We took a lot of photos, saw a lot of sights and the trip deserves a decent recap on the blog.

But, we are back in Egypt, many new sights are being seen, and soon, more of the old sights too.  So I am just offering one picture from the Hawaii trip with more to come at a later date.

Here it is, the Hawaii State Capitol in Honolulu:

 

 Now it is back to the present with the blog.

Catching Up On the Travel Blog - 2021 - New York And The Return Home To Minnesota

Crossing into New York State, we encountered  a welcome center that showed off the history of the Erie Canal.  This was a heavily traveled route for many immigrants headed to the west - to points like Michigan.  I suspect my Kolkowski ancestors took this route into Buffalo.

 

    

 

 

Farther to the west, we spent the night at Auburn where William S. Burroughs spent a good bit of his younger days working at a bank where he learned the value that his adding machine technology could bring to that industry.  I took a few pictures of Burroughs ancestral sites nestled in this Finger Lakes area.

    

 

Beyond the Finger Lakes, we didn't make many unnecessary stops, so onward to the west we drove.  As always, Wisconsin offered several historic tidbits at their rest stops.

 

 More photos are available here for:

   Erie Canal

   Finger Lakes Area

   Ohio to Minnesota

 

 

 

Catching Up On the Travel Blog - 2021 - Montpelier, Vermont And The State Capitol

 We crossed New Hampshire just north of the White Mountains and began the circuitous route to Vermont's Capitol building at Montpelier.  We stopped at the Vermont welcome center where a kindly state employee took our photo and encouraged us on to "the golden dome."

Montpelier is the smallest of our capital cities in the U.S. with a population of only around 8,000 (before all the state employees come to work in the morning.)  The golden dome is prominently visible as a visitor pulls into town.

 

 We drove on to Burlington to spend the night.  Burlington is a university town with a scenic location on Lake Champlain.  We had to brush a bit of snow off the car the next morning.

 

 Many more photos available at this Flickr Photo Album.

 

 

 

 

Catching Up On the Travel Blog - 2021 - A Visit To The Maine State Capitol In Augusta

After leaving Baltic, we headed north into Maine to photograph capitol number  45.  We stopped for the evening in Freeport.  If that town name rings a bell, it may be because you have placed an order with L. L. Bean.  

We had a nice dinner at Linda Bean's restaurant (She is the grand-daughter of the founder).

Reaching, Augusta, the next day we took photographs of the capitol and also the governor's mansion.

 

 The downtown Augusta riverfront features a nice historic walking tour reminding the visitor of the day when wooden sailing ships were turned out along the port.

 

 More pictures available at this Flickr Album Link.