Cairo

From Abu-Simbel we flew back to Cairo and had one more complete day there before flying to Amman, Jordan. We got there late in the day and the airline had not shipped some of our group's luggage so we had to wait around an extra hour at the airport for the next flight coming in from Abu-Simbel.  Then it took 1-1/2 hours to get to the hotel due to rush hour traffic so after checking in and having a cocktail all there was time for was supper.

The part of Cairo where we spent our last two nights was a little more upscale than the area we passed though on our arrival.

The hotel we were at was a Fairmont (I think) and quite nice. The pool area below.

We had a few choices for activities the final day and we chose to visit the Coptic Christian area of  Cairo - WHY? Who knows?  The other choice was the muslim section and we've seen enough of that lately. The third choice was to visit the step pyramid of Saqqara and by all accounts that's the excursion we should have taken.

The coptic christian tour wasn't much. We went to a church where they were having a service and it sounded just like the guy singing at 5:00 AM on the tower in Istanbul. We had a look inside and all the men were on one side and all the women on the other and the women had their head in a bag so it might as well have been a muslim ceremony. Anyway...live and learn!!!

We then went to a coptic christian museum which was interesting but museums aren't our favourite activity.  Didn't take too many pics at the coptic museum but the one below interested me. It shows Adam and Eve before and after the apple in the Garden of Eden.  On the right they are innocent and have no fig leaves as they do on the left. On the right Adam has no external reproductive parts nor does Eve. Bit on the left he may have "grown a pair" and covered them up and Eve has grown a weird looking pair of boobs. At least she grew two and not one like many of the Egyptian women we've seen lately.

After the trip to the christian coptic museum we went back to the hotel for lunch and it was really good...a Lebanese restaurant...I really liked the Middle Eastern food we had in Egypt.

Our last excursion in Egypt was a trip to the Cairo Museum. Interesting stuff and a great way to spend a rainy day or two. They're building a huge new museum near the Giza Pyramids that should be open in 2020 and will be fantastic from the info we've seen.

So just a few pics from the present museum.  There were certain areas where pictures weren't allowed..as as usual the oriental tourists ignored the rules.

Remember - some of these are up to four thousand years old - truly amazing.

There's Hathor again on the right.

The realism of the couple below is incredible. It seems that people looked just like we lok that many years ago.

And what the sphinx looked like, or was supposed to look like, like originally

They had a large King Tut section and this is one place where photos were not allowed everywhere. Below is a picture of what the entire tomb looked like. When I went in Tut's tomb a week or more ago I was only able to see a very small part of it.

King Tut's chair...the real deal.  Doesn't look that comfortable but there were probably cushions.

A couple of real mummies...don't recall the story but these are maybe 3 - 4 thousand years dead.

So that's pretty much it.  One thing we didn't see  is a lot of people living on the street. I don't think that's what this old gal is doing..I think she just has a market on the street.

This old guy was shining shoes for a living.

And I loved this guy checking out his colourful crocs.  

In Egypt everywhere we went we had a guy like this with us on the bus and then with us as we walked around.  What you can't see is he has a machine pistol under his suit coat. We were told he is a policeman. We felt safe with him on the bus with us.

And everywhere we went there were armed, uniformed  police keeping watch. Below at the Cairo Museum.

And just on the street outside our hotel.

I'd say Egypt is pretty safe. Visit it.

Done,