After finishing the Nile River cruise, we flew back up to Cairo for another two nights there. I’m not sure why Uniworld schedules the trip this way — I would have preferred to get all of Cairo up front. But anyway, on this return visit we got to visit the pyramids of Giza, the most popular attractions in Egypt!
On that first night back, it was the culmination of the multi-day celebration of Eid al-Fitr, marking the completion of Ramadan. That night there was raucous celebrating in the streets, with pumping music, horn honking, yelling, sirens, and various other sources of loud noises. Even with the well-insulated windows of the hotel, it was tough to sleep soundly. One of our friends said he didn’t sleep a wink that night, and he looked quite tired during our day of pyramid visiting. At least Cairo has beautiful sunsets!
As I’ve noted in earlier posts, one must traverse a gauntlet of pushy vendors after (or during) pretty much every attraction. But even at the hotel it felt like this too. There are male room stewards who are usually in the hallways outside your room, and often when you pass by they offer you chocolates or ask if they can fold down your bed’s blanket or bring some water bottles, all in the not-so-subtle hope of receiving a tip. It’s frankly exhausting after multiple days. And though all gratuities are provided for onboard ship staff, we heard from others that they were asked by ship attendants for tips.
When visiting sites during a full day of touring, we would at times have to get off the bus, go through a metal detector checkpoint, and then get back on the bus, which had driven through past the checkpoint without any screening, to my knowledge. So I guess if you had a weapon you were supposed to leave it on the bus? And also counterintuitively, metal detector alarms would always blare for each person as they walked through, but no security staff ever did anything about it. So I just stopped taking things out of my pockets when passing through the detectors. These checkpoints seem to be for show. Though perhaps the guards just assume the best for tourists, but maybe they give tougher screening for someone who looks more local? I don’t know. And anyway, if a terrorist group wanted to wreak havoc, they could launch an attack just before the checkpoint because there are tons of tourists there. In any case, I wasn’t concerned.
Driving around Cairo, one gets to see a variety of different areas and some quite unique situations, which made this driving often more interesting to me than some of the sites we visited (especially the shops, haha). It’s entertaining to see four people on one motorcycle, a donkey pulling a huge cart of bananas, a guy holding on while riding on the back of a van, guys peeing into irrigation ditches, drivers ignoring lane lines and stop lights, and so much more. The slums go on forever, with big brick buildings hastily constructed without utilities and with trash strewn about all over. Our guide says that the government is successfully moving millions of people out from the slums to nicer new apartment complexes with utilities and affordable pricing. There’s an effort to tear down the old buildings and reclaim much of the flood plain lands for agriculture. Daily life in the outskirt villages near Cairo is fascinating to see as well.
We thoroughly enjoyed finally getting to visit the pyramids on our final day of touring. I can see why some believe that aliens must have contributed to the pyramids’ creation because it’s just so difficult to envision that humans from 4500 years ago could have built these giant and complex structures. The largest, the Great Pyramid, is not only the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it’s also the only one to remain largely intact! It was additionally the tallest building in the world for more than 3800 years. It was built with well over 2 million blocks, weighing an average of 2-3 tons each, and yet it took only 27 years to complete!
It was a wonderful trip, and I’m so thankful to have gone. I don’t imagine that I’ll ever return to Egypt, so this was a once-in-a-lifetime trip! Leaving Cairo, we found a couple of funny signs in the airport.
As a bonus, based on flight timing, Dad and I stayed one night in Munich after leaving Egypt. Might as well visit the Hofbräuhaus in that situation, made even better with a roaming pretzel lady!
And after Munich, I had the privilege to hang out with two awesome folks in Prague! (Colleen arrived later, after she visited Swedish friends in Iceland)
Today’s ultimate tidbit (TUT): We were told that in years past, European museum curators at the Egyptian Museum cut off noses from Egyptian statues of Nubian leaders to try to hide the fact that they were black Africans. Face the facts, racists!
Today’s Egyptian dad joke: What do you call a decisive defeat of an enemy in Egypt?
Total a-Nile-ation!
Today’s mystery audio recording: In the previous post, the mystery snippet was of a salesman’s pitch at an alabaster store.
For today’s mystery audio, your clue is that this is from Munich, not Egypt. I’m not going to give you the answer because I bet you’ll know it!
Major Meander 
“four people on one motorcycle, a donkey pulling a huge cart of bananas” — given the level of Egyptian hauling moxie, the pyramids seem more plausible! Loved the vids too: captures the feel so much more than photos can. Safe travels back stateside!
Good point! They’re used to piling things high up.