April 17th - 18th Cairo & The Pyramids

They say you haven't experienced Cairo until you've experienced the traffic. Arriving at midnight we thought we'd have to wait till the next day to experience the real Egypt..... our taxi driver had other ideas and insisted on some high speed driving maneovures that had other drivers waving their arms in appreciation of his great flair and expertise. At least that's what we think they were doing!

Friday April 17th - Cairo

Many people warned us that Cairo can be difficult to travel through, but we found it's people to be generally jovial and the city to have a great vibe. We instantly fell for its charms. Walking through the city was quite peaceful and a pleasant breeze blowing down the nile, made for a relaxing walk after visiting the amazing Egyptian museum to take in the vast treasure of Tutankamins tomb. But, as darkness descended upon the city so too did a kind of madness and energy that gave us a much better appreciation for the real Cairo and its inhabitants ..... and we loved it. Everybody comes out at dusk, the traffic turns chaotic, vendors aand streeet bazzars spring up on side streets and the entire city awakens. The people are friendly (at least 1 in 4 is not trying to sell us something) and amongst others we meet Mahmoud, the air traffic controller who used to live in New York, Abrahim who works at the Opera House but also has a shop where he sells his sister's paintings and our tour leader, Mostafa, who is also a qualified Egyptologist and enthusiastic lover of Egyptian food.

Saturday April 18th - The Pyramids (Cairo)

The most surprising thing about the Pyramids is that the city is built up right to the foot of the sphinx but just behind it and the pyramids is the start of the desert. So depending on which way you are facing when you look at the pyramids you can feel like you're in a scene from an old Charlton Heston film or in a Bollywood backlot. The pyramids themselves are huge (the tallest buildings in the world until the 1850's) and awe-inspiring considering they have been standing for almost 5000 years. They estimate that the largest pyramid weighs more than 6m tonnes! It's wonderful to be here and we have to pinch ourselves every now and again to think we are standing in front of the last standing wonders of the ancient world.