Last Day in Cairo

Our last day in Cairo on this leg of the trip and we were off to the Egyptian Museum.  According to the Lonely Planet it would take a person at least 7 months to actually check out all the exhibits in the place so we were quite grateful to have the extremely knowledgeable Viola with us to narrow it down to the most important sections.  Naturally the King Tut exhibit was top of the list even though he was not revered as a pharaoh since he “didn’t really do anything” and was not included in the list of pharaohs carved by the ancient Egyptians!  Ironic that he is probably the most famous of all since his mummy and treasures were not plundered by tomb robbers before they were discovered.  We were amused to see that in some of the exhibits had hand written notes on scraps of paper!!

After the museum we ventured into the Souk…..a labyrinth of narrow alleyways with small shops filled with all kinds of Arabian delights for very good prices!  The sales pressure was pretty intense but you get used to just walking away or raising your hand to tell them to back off.  It feels rude but a necessary evil as they have perfected the art of perseverance.  The aroma of spices and incense filled the air, as did the prayers from the Mosque, broadcasted over loudspeakers for all to hear.  It becomes white noise after a while.  Ardent shoppers that we are we managed to resist the temptation to purchase anything and sought refuge in a delightful café and sat and chatted with Viola until it was time to head to the Citadel, the largest Mosque in Cairo.

Errin and I were not quite dressed in the manner that met with the approval for entry to a Mosque so we were kitted out in green robes…..add to that the blue plastic overshoes and we were looking hot!!  As Viola was explaining the history of the Mosque to us a group of schoolchildren gathered around, much to our amusement.  Viola said that they were very curious to see that an Egyptian lady was speaking a foreign language and they also wanted to look at us as they thought we were beautiful!!  Bless their little hearts!  Anyway, they were full of innocent charm and so we took their photo, then off they went to join their teacher, giggling away.  Viola said that they came from a very small town and had probably not been exposed to Western looks nor Egyptians speaking other languages.

That concluded our tour with Viola, so we bade our farewells and promise to stay in touch through Facebook.  She made our Cairo portion so interesting and her knowledge is remarkable.  Thank you so much – we miss you already!!

We returned to the hotel and enjoyed several hours lounging by the pool……a tough life indeed!  Tomorrow we fly to Luxor and will then board our cruise ship for the next leg of our journey – 5 days on the Nile.

We leave you with various scenes from our time in Cairo.  Enjoy.