Dendera and Tour of SS Misr – Day 10

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Today the SS Misr set sail at 4.00am to Qena. A lie in today, breakfast at 8.00 am. Just before arriving at Qena we passed under a bridge which was too low, so the sunshades and funnel were lowered. The usual ship’s hand was on deck to check the height of the bridge. I had to jump to touch the underside of the road bridge.

Shortly afterwards we docked at Qena and boarded our coaches, along with the German contingent who were still in tow. We all wondered where the coaches went at night time, the guides always brought on some food for the drivers. I think some passengers were mystified as to why we had to remove all our possessions. Anwar joked that the coaches went off to Somalia for the night.

The short bus trip had us at Dendera . As usual as at all Egyptian sites, your bags are X-rayed, and you pass through a metal detector which beeps away as each person passes through. No one taking any notice.

The Temple at Dendera was fabulous with excellent engravings. A not-to-be missed is the zodiac on the ceiling of a chapel in the Temple of Hathor. This was originally taken to France for examination. The Egyptian Government asked for it back. Several years later it arrived and was placed back in its original location. Later is was discovered to be a plaster of Paris copy, the original stolen (?) one by the French is in the Louvre.

Back to the boat for lunch, which set sail for Luxor where we were to spend the next couple of nights. Just before tea we had a tour of SS Misr. This took us in to the galley, which had several separate rooms various different preparation, such as meat & pastry. The galley looked very clean and very stainless steel. They showed us the bottled water they used.

We then went, much to R’s delight, to the engine room to see the two steam engines which provided the propulsion for the boat. The SS Misr was launched on 28th May 1918. She was built by Lytham Shipbuilding and Engineering Company in Preston, Lancashire. The boat was owned at one stage by King Farouk when she was converted into a luxury yacht. She has been renovated, but still uses steam engines for propulsion. There are two engines, each with two cylinders, one high pressure and the other low pressure. The boiler is a modern diesel fired boiler that can generate 4.2 tons of steam an hour at 10 bar. She now carries tourists up and down the Nile from Cairo right through to Aswan, and destinations in between.

There was a diagram of the original boat before it has three floors added in the restoration, extended in height and width. I can understand how to add the height, but how do you make the boat longer and wider, surely there can’t be much which is original? Of the three floors added, I expect one is considered to be the deck at the top, or maybe it’s the crew quarters below the main floor.

I now know what the loud noise is outside our cabin. There is a powerful fan which sucks in cool air to be blown into another plant room which has generators and other equipment. Unfortunately, our cabin on the lower deck, is on the same side as the fan and nearest to it, so it is affected the most by the throbbing noise. People on the other side, further forward and higher up would not hear it at all. Note for when I take the Aswan to Cairo cruise, don’t book cabin 201.

Before Dinner we had another George Hart lecture, this time on the “Valley of the Kings”, where we would be visiting in the morning.

Abydos – Day 9

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Today was meant to be a very early morning start for out boat, 3.30, but somehow it was delayed an hour or so. We arrived at Al Balyana along with the German boat. They made it to Abydos before us, but we were told they would be rushing on elsewhere. The coach trip to Abydos was slow with the convoy of several coaches being herded through the narrow streets to the temple. These streets ,with the milling, waving people, are not designed for traffic, especially large coaches.

As well as us and the Germans at Abydos, there were crowds of Egyptian school children. Anwar showed as the mud walls and the smaller temple of Rameses II first. We had just finished with this before we became inundated with school children. A quick look at the Nilometer, and then up on to the roof of the Temple of Seti I. Next a tour of the temple, with huge columns, and high ceilings. Where the roof had been cleaned of black mould, there were delightful coloured ceiling paintings. The more able also visited the catacombs which entailed a short ladder, followed by a low three foot drop on entry. Our tour leader advised it was not for short legs, so R declined. (We were told that a Nilometer was used to check the level of the Nile from which the priest could determine the amount of tax to be paid by the farmers.)

The engravings on the limestone, and even the sandstone were exquisite. It is such a pity that the Roman/Christians disfigured so much of what they thought was inappropriate. There was also a wall carving listing the cartouches of all pharaohs up until that time, excluding five (Hatshepsut, Akhenaten, Smenkhkare (who was perhaps Akhenaten’s wife Nefertiti), Tutankhamun & Ay). We should have remembered these five cos they formed a question in the quiz.

Some lovely large bats were also roosting in the temple. By this time we had the temple almost to ourselves, the Germans and school children had all departed. I really did need a human figure in some of the pictures to show the true scale of the temple.

Back at the boat, we continued our cruised south with the Germans behind. We passed through a lock in a new barrage at Nagaa Hammadi, which had recently been built to replace the old barrage. Here we also saw masses of pied kingfishers. It was now starting to get dark, the sunset was very red, presumably because of all the smoke from crop burning which was happening all around us. In a short, distance was an old lock no longer in use, because the water was now higher. It now has a small, swinging road bridge. Ships passing through have to operate the swing bridge manually. Four of our crew operated a large capstan which they run around, and the bridge slowly opened. The Germans followed and, we assume, closed the bridge.

We then travelled on to the town of Naga Hammi (aka Abo Homar) where we moored up outside a restaurant blocking the view of the Nile from the diners. Here we had dinner on our boat, waiting for the two large swing bridges to be opened, a road bridge and a rail bridge.

Everyone was in bed before the bridge was opened, but I noticed at 11.00 pm we had started to move, so rushed up on deck to witness the passage through the bridges. Three large boats had waited, us and the Germans and another boat travelling north in the opposite direction. The bridge opening was late in the evening to reduce the chance of the bridge sticking from the expanded rail tracks from the day time heat, or was it because there was less traffic and no trains coming by?

We shortly moored up again for the night on the south side of the bridge. The reception & waiting staff, who were normally well-dressed, appeared now to be all in dress-down, jeans and T-shirts. Think they were surprised to see me prowling around with a camera.

Cruise day to Sohag – Day 8

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Today was a cruise day, the second in a row. (Yes, R slightly shocked by it.) We left Asyut early in the morning. Shortly after we set sail, I stood on the cabin balcony in my shorts and admired the still water, the bank and dawn. A reflective photo opportunity. The police boat alongside must have wondered what I was doing at 5.30 in the morning. Strange we were due to leave at 6.00 am, and we must have already been travelling for 30 minutes.

Back to bed for a couple of hours and then breakfast. Keeping with my breakfast diet, fruit most days with the odd omelette every other day.

Good opportunities to photograph river life as we travelled on to to Sohag. A break for lunch, and then a documentary about the Rosetta stone which provided the key to translating hieroglyphs. The same text had been written in Egyptian and Greek, along with the addition of Coptic script, so the code was broken. Alas in this competition to be the first to break the code, the French won.

More river bank watching, it never gets boring, so much to see, the birds, the people, the children waving. Teenage boys, even pause in staring at their phones to wave at us. Strange. Then tea was soon upon us followed by a lecture by George, entitled “Egypt’s Golden Age: The temples of Thebes”. This was to prepare us for the next day’s sightseeing.

Soon dinner was upon us. I can’t remember exactly which days, but we did have some themed Egyptian meals. Instead of a buffet, platters would be placed on the table, and you would help yourself to all manner of goodies. So today I publish one such menu, complete with their spelling. R said the Falafel were the best she’d ever had.

After supper we had another opportunity to have a walk around alocal town, this time Sohag. The boat which had been following was also moored up, we was alongside. This walk about was an organised walk by the tourist agency of Sohag and we were led not to the shops, but to a square/amphitheatre to listen to some traditional Egyptian music. We were given Egyptian flags to wave, music played and we were encouraged to dance. Much to Rosemary’s ire, I was encouraged to dance with a delectable German from the other boat. All this was filmed, presumably for some Egyptian tourist propaganda film. Don’t think they filmed our police escorts.

Egyptian Salad
Tomato, Lettuce, Parsley, Cucumber, Olive Oil

Baba Ganoog (sesame salad)
Sesame, Onion, Aubergine, Parsley, Olive Oil

Goat Cheese with Tomato
Fresh Cream, Feta Cheese, Tomato, Parsley, Olive Oil

Mesh
Fresh Cream, Parmesan Cheese, Blue Cheese, Olive Oil

Fried Aubergine

Fried Green Pepper

Fried Green Pepper (spicy)

Potatoes (French Fries)

Brown Beans

Falafel
Brown Beans, Celery, Onion, Fresh Coriander, Parsley, Sesame

Grilled Chicken

Grilled Kofta (Beef)

Dessert Mahalabia
Milk, Fresh Cream, Cornflower [sic!], Coconut, Butter, Sugar

Cruise day to Asyut – Day 7

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Today was a cruise day, so a relaxing day with lots of unnecessary food to eat. SS Misr was scheduled to leave at 5.30, and arrive at Asyut before sunset. We had a lock to go through just before arriving at Asyut. The barrage and lock had been built by the British in 1902, and a hydroelectric plant was added in the 1980s. Since then, new locks have been built.

Before dinner, there was a talk by our guides Anwar & Sharif about Modern Egypt. He mentioned he was a Muslim but went to a Christian school. The result was he had more holidays and didn’t have to go to school on Fridays and Sundays. His friends and work colleagues were both Muslim and Christian. He painted a very rosy picture of the relations between Christian and Muslim. The country is 15% Christian, while the city of Asyut where we were heading was 50% Christian.

On education, Anwar mentioned there were public schools and private. In many areas, in the public schools, the children were divided into morning or afternoon pupils. I think children should be educated until theye were 15.

With health care, the state provided a very basic level of health care. Better quality health care was available with insurance premiums and schemes run by the companies you worked for.

Though Muslim men could marry up to four women, this was not considered normal and was frowned upon. Sometimes it was good in that you could marry someone in addition who had been widowed and thus could support them. It also seems from what Anwar said, women could earn and keep their own money, while the men had to earn and support their wife. A wife could divorce her husband if he was not supporting her properly. She could complain to the courts if she was asked to pay for example for the electricity bill, which her husband should be doing. She would also get the house, all the furniture and maintenance after the divorce. It was noticeable how many of the women in the audience paid close attention to this part of the lecture.

After the lecture we went through the lock at Asyut before docking in our secure mooring outside the Security Diretorate.

On the trip, I managed to grab some pictures of river life, fishing boats, birds and people farming.

Visit to Tel El Amarna – Day 6

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The SS Misr left El Minya early in the morning and we made our way to Tell El Amarna. The morning was spent eating breakfast, a late one at 7.00am, then a lecture by George Hart on the “Arts in the Reigns of Akhenaten and Nefertiti”. An early morning lecture, so wide awake for this one.

If we were not full enough after breakfast, it was an early 11.30 Lunch. We arrived at our destination of Tell El Amarna and moored up in a small compound next to the waterside archealogical museum.

The whole of the afternoon was spent touring, first were two sites to see close to the river. The first was the small temple of the Atun (Aten). There was not much to be seen, some mud walls and a rebuilt column. A breeze blew and there was a small sandstorm over the walls There had been considerable archaeological research here, and now the site was becoming buried again with sand. Probably a good thing, the mud block walls are very friable, and at least the sand protects them.

Next we drove a short distance to the Palace of Akenaten. We had seen the remains of the decorated plaster floor at the Eygyptian Museum in Cairo. This had been removed because the locals of this village had started to destroy it, fed up with tourists traipsing over their land. We could not get into the site, viewing it from one spot. George was allowed by the guides to speak here. Apparently the archaeologist who excavated the palace had been George’s Mentor.

Back on to the coaches to see Northern Tombs. The coaches split, we went first to see the Boundary Stelae of Akhenaten. This was a huge carving in the mountain, decreeing this to be the boundary of Akhenaten’s land. There were some steps up to the Stelae and a good view of the flat desert to the Nile.

Next stop was a drive up the Royal Wadi to the tomb of Akhenaten. It was nearly 8K along the wadi. Unfortunately, the tomb had been damaged by flash flooding. It was quite dark there, despite lots of lighting, most of which were not turned on. I think the generator had broken, and a small portable one was being used in its place. Large tomb with a long walk down, some anti robber and flooding defenses. Several rooms to be viewed.

Next, we drove to the Northern Tombs, parked in the bus park and walked up to the tombs with our guard. These tombs were high up on the cliff, good views across the desert to the Nile. Pity it was always hazy.

Tomb 4 – Merya/Merire High priest of the Aten. This tomb had some good quality wall carvings and paintings.

Tomb 5 – Penthu served at court during the 18th dynasty reign of the Pharaoh Akhenaten. The quality of the wall carvings here were poor.

Tomb 6 – Panehesy Chief servitor of the Aten in the temple of Aten in Akhetaten. This tomb again had some good wall carvings, and columns.

These tombs were high up on the cliff and required a short walk up steps to access them. Again good views across the desert to the Nile. Pit it was always hazy.

Our final stop was the museum where there was a reconstruction of rooms from houses and palaces in the region. We were able to walk to the boat and were soon ready for cocktails and dinner. Another boat moored up next to us in the evening.

Visit to Beni Hassan – Day 5

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Today was another 6.00 am rise. We forgo a morning shower so we’d have plenty of time to eat breakfast. We travelled to the Egyptian Cemetery site of Beni Hassan. This was across the river and took an hour or so to get there. The route was very long, going out of the way so that we stayed on the main roads. This was apparently insisted on by the police. On the road we went past a large prison, many women waiting outside, presumably visiting. Getting on to the main road, we went through a toll. Only cars and trucks are stopped to pay, the tourist buses are allowed to pass through for free.

Arrived at Beni Hassan where there was a short walk up the hill to an array of tombs. Good view of the Nile, which was not far away. For much of the Northern part of the river, the green fertile belt is very small on the East side. The West side has a much wider strip. The East side is more rugged and gets higher very quickly.

There were three tombs we were able to view. On this visit we encountered some German tourists who were there before us! We visited three tombs, tomb 15 Baqet from Dynasty 11, tomb 3 Khnumhotep from Dynasty 12, tomb 2 Amenemhet from Dynasty 12. The first and third tombs had excellent paintings.

We now had an hour’s drive back to the boat for lunch, and then out quickly afterwards to the Tomb of Petrosiris. This tomb was on our side of the river, but we crossed over, went on past where we were in the morning (almost), crossed over the river again, and backtracked a way. It would have been so much better if we could have had a packed lunch and continued to the second site. Several hours of time would have been saved.

At Tuna El Gebel we visited the Tomb of Petrosiris. I did not buy a photography ticket, it was around £15, which was the same price as the previous site. I regretted not buying it very quickly, but did get some pictures when the tomb guardian allowed me to do so after I gave him a tip.

After this tomb, we went into the Catacomb galleries. There was a mummified baboon there to be seen. As we entered the one gallery, one of our group fell badly. The consensus was we would not continue. There were bats in the catacomb. I don’t have photographs as it was rather on the dark side. Amazing how many people don’t like bats!!! We regretted not bringing out bat detector. Luckily the person who fell was fine with no after effects.

The way back to the ship was more direct, on the way we stopped off to see a couple of Baboon statues. We then continued on to the ship through the local roads. They were rather busy and it took sometime to reach the ship, despite out police escort.

We arrived back rather late, time for a quick shower, then cocktails and supper. After supper, we went for a walk around the local town of El Minya, with our guides. But it proved to be rather embarrassing, there were 18 of us on the walk, and 21 police protecting us. Armed police, plain-clothed police, young balaclava wearing police, police motorcyclist and a squad car. Traffic held up at each junction. Other people were kept away from us and we moved along in a tight group. We walked up the street past shops, which we could not enter. One of our group was able to purchase a touch. One of the guides went into the shop with him and bought it in record time. But we did manage to shake hands with some young children who were out near the boat enjoying the fine evening.

Back at the cruise boat there was a Folkloric show in full swing. This had already started before we got back, so we caught only the last minutes of the Whirling Dervish. The rest of the dancing was rather mediocre, one person could dance, while the rest watched and followed along slightly out of time.

We remained at El Minya overnight.

Visit to Maydoum Pyramid at Meidum – Day 4

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Early morning starts are not an issue, on holiday I typically wake at random intervals and look out of the window. Rosemary is not always best pleased when I point something out to her, but I don’t want her to miss anything. But she’s often awake, too. Anyway, we woke before the wake-up call, dressed and headed out for breakfast. For breakfast, today I had a small amount of fruit only. The previous day of heavy eating was beginning to weigh heavily on my stomach.

We walked out of the boat before 7.00, clutching our bottles of water. The hour’s drive to the pyramid was through many villages and fields, on a very hazy day. The pyramid was not in sight until we were right on top of it. Loads of three-wheeler taxis, donkey carts etc. Quite fascinating looking at the crops being grown. Alfalfa for the cattle, oranges, bananas, wheat, and masses of garlic. The cultivated area here extended a long way West of the Nile with some large irrigation canals. The roads were mainly tarmacked dual carriage, with speed humps every mile or so. The pyramid was on higher ground, in a dry area. Nearby, there was construction of new factories. LG has a factory somewhere, and we saw a Samsung factory being built. Egypt is trying to encourage construction in the desert instead of the green Nile belt. Crop production needs to increase as the population of Egypt increases.

At this pyramid there was masses of security. The road had barriers, so the buses had to zig-zag down the entry road, police here had solid metal, floor mounted shields. We were the only tourists at the pyramid. Apparently, there are perhaps a couple of tours a day.

As well as the pyramid, there were some tombs of eminent nobles. The chamber tombs were built of mud brick, some going back to the 4th dynasty of the Old Kingdom

The strangely shaped Maydoum Pyramid was started by King Huni at the end of the 3rd dynasty. King Sneferu, 1st pharaoh of the 4th dynasty, is said to have completed it. The height is about 70 meters. The entrance is on the North side and leads to a 57 meter long passage where there are two small chambers and the burial chamber. We were able to walk down a staircase deep into the pyramid to the burial chamber. Well worth the walk down. Steep, cramped, not for the tall bod, and definitely warm down there. Ended in a climb up two wide-runged vertical ladders. With no free hands (my two were clutching my camera & my phone which I was using as a torch), I did find it a tad tricky.

Soon we were back at the boat, which immediately set sail for El Minya. We took the opportunity to investigate the on board shop where we purchased ourselves some traditional Egyptian clothing, for a dinner to be held on some future night, and a stone cat from Sinai (an essential, R told me). Lunch today was huge, an Egyptian lunch. Chicken, beef, lots of salads, dips, sesame, aubergine, tomatoes etc. Small dishes placed on the table for sharing. We’d managed to sit down with two semi-vegetarians. so were rather overwhelmed by the the quantities of meat dishes. One chap had kidney stone problems, so had learnt to avoid raspberries, chocolate, tomatoes and spinach. He said it really helped him avoid the stones forming.

The afternoon was spent recovering from the indulgence, lying around like dead sheep, but we still managed a cup of tea at the appropriate time.

When we returned for lunch, there was usually a towel construction on one of our beds – an animal, flower or human. Do not understand why, but it seems to be standard for cruises.

Today was Friday, the holy day. The calls to prayer appear to be a competition. You are in view of several mosques at the same time, all with slightly differing clocks. At dawn, midday and sunset the call to prayer was particularly vocal, with each mosque appearing to compete with the neighbouring mosques for their congregation. I was not aware of the afternoon and evening prayers. We had another George Hart lecture This time on Pharaohs and Nomarchs (sic, Nomarchs) covering the Middle Kingdom and a preview of the tomorrow’s sightseeing. I do admit that Heavy Eyelid Syndrome does come with these talks.

Then it was time for preprandials and dinner. (We seemed to have abandoned our no-drinking-on-a-school-night rule.)

Cruise day from Cairo to Beni-Suif – Day 3

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We now made a start on our 600-mile Nile river cruise to Aswan. The long cruise from Cairo to Aswan is still a little unusual, not many boats do this stretch. Nile cruises typically run between Luxor and Aswan. The long cruises operated up until 1991 after which the middle section of the Nile remained closed. In the Nineties members of the al Gama’a al-Islamiyya Islamist group fired at tourist vessels and in 1997 the group killed 62 people, mainly tourists, at the site of Deir el-Bahari in Luxor. The Arab Spring in 2011 and ensuing chaos following the election of Mohamed Morsi made policing the river a low priority. It reopened briefly in 2013 until a change was made to Foreign Office advice. The long cruise started again on the 26th November 2014 following lobbying from travel companies, including the local agent Traveline. Traveline owns our ship, the SS Misr, and provided the Egyptian guides for our trip.

We set sail some time early in the morning, around 4 am apparently. I woke Rosemary at 5.30 to tell her we were travelling, and hence “doing things”, which I thought would please her, but she was not best pleased. There was a late breakfast at 8.00, after which we spent the morning on the deck watching the banks go by. It was not very warm, and I was reduced to putting on my Fat Face sweatshirt. There were many birds to spot, Crows, Pigeons, Egrets, Ibis, Swallows and Kingfishers. The Swallows were swooping over the water feeding on insects, the Egrets seemed to be the garbage collectors. Pied Kingfishers were very abundant when you knew where to look. Nice to watch the mix of green fields and housing. Lots of brick works with their tall chimneys. There was also the constant waving and whistling between the people on the shore and boat. We saw a dredger moving along the Nile, I assume it was moving to another location to dig out some of the irrigation canals. Its method of propulsion was to use its digger bucket, dipping the bucket into the water and swinging it towards the back, alternatively on either side.

Other features of the landscape were the number of Dalek-like pigeon lofts. Pigeons are a favourite food in Egypt, not that we were served with any. The number of chimneys on the bank numbered thousands. These were the brick works. Some were derelict, while others were still in use and a small number were actually firing bricks. Egypt has natural gas, so another feature was the number of power cables and power stations on the bank. Some brilliant towers.

To break the day up, we had a talk by the guides, Sherif and Anwar, and then our usual large lunch, back on deck followed by a fire drill (when I found the first life jacket I picked up could not be closed). More time on deck and then tea. After tea, we had a lecture on The Pyramid Age by George Hart. George is a retired Eguptologist from the British Museum. This lecture covered the old period, the Pyramid Age. Just before the lecture started, the tender was launched with a lot of commotion. The tender then had trouble starting its engine, so the accompanying police launch had to rescue them. Unfortunately, the lecture was due to start, so we never saw the outcome of this crisis. I think the tender was launched because of low water levels. I learnt on the last day of the cruise, there was a man at the foredeck of the SS Misr who constantly probed the water to find the depth throughout the whole voyage. I knew there was a crew member who came on deck before we went under a bridge. He would check a height measure against the height of the funnel, and then stand at the front of the boat with the measure upright to make sure we were lower than the bridge. I am not sure what would have happened if we here too high. I can’t believe we could have slowed down in time. If we were found to be too tall, the funnel could be lowered along with all the sun parasols over the loungers. This did happen at one bridge, the crew prepared the deck before we had reached it.

The boat moored up at Beni-Suif at dusk. We were moored up in a secure area, complete with watchtowers, police guards and of course a gated area immediately alongside us.

Dinner, but first cocktails at the bar, Gin Fizz for R and a Mojito for Steve. Tonight was an International buffet. Lamb rack for the meat, and some Red Mullet on the bone for the fish. The Mullet was very nice, though bony. After the dessert came the banging and the cake. Round the room it came, passing Rosemary by. Other tables were asked where the people from room 201 were. I was told by R to go and point out where she was, but somehow I ended up with a glass of red wine instead. Some loss of communication (or perhaps not)! Eventually Rosemary was located and duly received her cake, with a large piece of chocolate with her name iced on. The guides gave her a silver ankh, which was a lot more than I did and very kind of them. She cut the cake and the slices were duly passed around. Another birthday to come I hear.

Early night as we had an early start in the morning, a 5.45 am call for the next day.

Giza and Cairo – Day 2

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Six o’clock alarm, up and breakfast. Headed up the (very) grand staircase for breakfast. The ship’s maitre d’ squirts your hand with disinfectant, a plague of diarrhoea or norovirus would be disastrous amongst the clientele, and advises you on your choice. Breakfast consisted of sticky pastries, cereals (alas no Jordans, which is now sold in French supermarkets), yogurts, fresh fruits, cheeses, breads, boiled eggs, crepes, omelettes. I got stuck behind one client who was trying to explain to the chef what an easy-over egg is.

Soon we were herded onto our buses, clutching our Whispers (radio sound systems) and bottles of water for the trip to Giza and the pyramids.  The road there took us past many rather derelict looking blocks of flats. The Egyptians seem to build reinforced concrete skeleton structures up to around 10 storeys high, using wooden scaffolding. The walls are then filled in with bricks. Many of the apartments are so close together, you could shake hands with your neighbour in the block opposite. So many looked derelict with walls broken down. We were assured by our guide that there was a good property market in these seemingly ruined buildings that had not been completed, often being bought and sold several times over to ensure inflation (30%) did not erode capital.

The pyramids appeared busy to us, but apparently, this was not so. First stop was at a high point to take pictures of the three main pyramids. Then back to the pyramids to see the Solar Boat in its humidity controlled museum. It is a vessel reconstructed from remains found in one of the boat pits sunk around Cheop’s (aka Khufu) pyramid. (We soon discovered everyone in Egyptology has multiple names, some Greek ones, & guises. Sigh. A soon as you thought you’d cracked it and knew who was who, it changed.) The barge was to transport the dead Pharaoh Khufu across the heavens, with the sun god Ra, to his afterlife. The barge, made entirely of Lebanese cedar wood, is over 141 feet long and took 14 years to reassemble. There is evidence of Nile water in the timbers, so perhaps it once floated. We spent some amount of time looking at the old original preserved ropes and the cedar built boat itself. The boat had been found in the 1950s in its original 30 meters long pit, covered with 41 large blocks of limestone weighing about 18 tonnes. These blocks were 4.5 metres long, 1.80 meters high and 85 cm thick. The dismantled parts of the boat were in this pit, placed as 1224 wooden piece in 13 layers.  The whole jigsaw was put together and can be seen here. A model of the original boat has been designed at a scale of 1:10. It shows the boat with 12 oars, ten in the middle, 2 in the stern for the rudder. In addition to the royal cabin in the centre there is a small captain’s cabin at the prow. Interesting construction, the planks were roped together, not pinned.

We were offered an optional visit into the heart of Khufu Pyramid. The ticket was expensive, and we were to go into Meidum pyramid in a couple of days, so there were no takers. Back on the bus, hands disinfected, we were off the to see the Sphinx and the Causeway to the pyramid. As well as the Sphinx, there is the Valley Temple of Khafre built from tremendous granite blocks.

All the sites were heaving with vendors trying to entice you on to their camels or sell you items. We were told it was best to avoid any eye contact or show any sign of interest when passing through such areas. The sales pitches are: one dollar items, which are not the items you will get, but something else, free gifts where they relentlessly chase you down and claim money from you, and cheap camel rides, where they charge you a small amount to get on and take a photo, but a hundred dollars to get off. One chap was offered several camels in exchange for his wife. Fancy not taking up the offer.

Back to the boat accompanies by our police escort. R had not realised there was a police escort, but she had wondered why the vehicle behind us was using its siren and never overtaking. We also had a well-dressed police major on board the coach complete with bulging pocket from his automatic pistol. He had accompanied us around the pyramids earlier. Back on board to disinfectant spray on arrival, hot flannels to mop the brow, and a hot drink to revive oneself. The Egyptians believe a cold drink after being out in the sun is bad for you, you must let the body adjust with a hot drink first. Lunchtime back at the boat was a huge buffet, which could be eaten in several courses.  Normally there is a soup course, then a starter of hummus, other dips, breads, salads, cheeses, cold meats, shellfish. Then the main course, which had potatoes, rice, fish, meat, pasta. Dessert was fruits, cheeses, sticky sweets.  I can see I will be putting on serious weight as the days pass. Rosemary v puzzled as to what was the point of going back for lunch and hence “wasting time”. But the rest of the clientele appeared to think it normal & good.

An hour after our return we were back on the coach to the Cairo Museum, where we had a guided tour of the lower section, taking us through the three ages of the Pharaohs. Then to the breathtaking gold Treasures of Tutankhamun. Free time allowed us to look at more casks and tomb goods such as model figures crafted 4000 years ago. Elsewhere, near Giza I think, there is a new Egyptian museum under construction. When this is complete, all of the Treasures of Tutankhamun will be collated to be under one roof.

I had to buy a photography permit to take photos in the museum, but could not take photos in the Treasures section. Photo permits were to become normal and more expensive than today’s 50 EGP. Thereafter it was usually 350 EGP, about £15 GBP. Some couples with a camera each and different ideas of what needed to be photographed and how, were rather aggrieved.

Back to the coach (hand wash) and police escort, then the boat, (hand wash, hot flannels and hot drink), in time for afternoon tea, complete with sweet, not savoury, nibbles.

The idea was that after afternoon tea, we could wash and rest before the ship’s welcome cocktail hour. (R muttered that we were not here to rest, but to do things.) (All afternoon teas and evening drinks sessions were accompanied by a pianist in the salon, playing on a grand piano.) Our cabin faced out onto the Nile, so we could sit on our balcony looking over the river and watch the sun set, while listening to the call to prayer. Magical.

The welcome cocktail before supper was in the lounge, complete with a tower of drinks. Back down to the Marasem Restaurant (immediate hand wash) for a waiter-served meal. I don’t have a record of what it was. We sat at tables of six – seven people, a few more settings were laid than required, so you had some choice if you were the last person into the restaurant. Most meals on board were self-serve buffet, with soup, entrée, main course (I did once go up for two mains, fish and then meat), (very) sweet desserts and cheese & breads. The wine and beers served was limited to a couple of glasses, this was never an issue as there were many non-drinkers and your glass was topped up regularly. The wine choice was Red, White or Rose and they were all an Egyptian make called Obelisk.

After dessert, there was a loud racket of banging drums as the cooks came out with a birthday cake for today’s birthday. R became worried, could tomorrow be her turn? She was sure the tour company would ask before inflicting this on her (GDPR).

After dinner, we were entertained by a couple of male musicians who played traditional instruments. The Oud a short-necked, pear-shaped instrument like a Lute, and a Qanun.  Arabic Qanuns are usually constructed with five skin insets that support a single long bridge resting on five arching pillars, whereas the somewhat smaller Turkish Qanuns are based on just four. This allows Arabic variants of the instrument to have more room for the installation of extreme bass and treble strings. Qanuns manufactured in Turkey generally feature 26 courses of strings, with three strings per course in the case of all regional variants. Contemporary Levantine designs use Nylon or PVC strings that are stretched over the bridge poised on fish-skins as described on one end and attached to wooden tuning pegs at the other end. (And yes, quite right, I didn’t write that bit.)

And so to bed in our twin berthed cabin.

Off to Egypt

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We set off to Heathrow Long Stay carpark (seemed cheaper than Purple Parking this time) putting the Post Code in the Sat Nav. Why? I have no idea. I never usually use Post Codes on Sat Navs. I thought it was taking me a strange way, a way I would not have driven under my own steam. Never mind, the location was where I anticipated the car park to be, so Google knew best, and there was a faster way with the present road conditions. (No holdups on the M40 / M25, as usual, these roads can be fast moving.) Near to the carpark, Google announced we were to turn left up a road but it had an unmovable barrier. Hummph, back to manual control and drove to where I knew the carpark really was, yes, we had attempted to drive into the carpark from the wrong side. Soon parked and on the airport bus to Terminal 2. Immediately on entrance, we were spotted by the Noble Caledonia representative (Sheila), who took our booking details and retrieved our EgyptAir boarding passes for us, pointing the way to the bag drop. A snack lunch at ‘EAT’ and then we were soon boarding the flight for Cairo. We were seated amongst other Noble Caledonia passengers at the back of the plane along with Sheila. We thought most of the passengers were a smidge older or so than us.

The EgyptAir flight was 4 hours 30 minutes with lunch and snack, no alcoholic drinks were served as this was a ‘dry’ flight. Apparently, in business class, they would open your duty free and pour it for you. At Cairo, we were issued with our visas (tourist tax) and passed quickly through customs. A long wait for our baggage, which was all collected together. Delay waiting for the coaches and the police escort (oh yes, indeed) to arrive, then we were off to the boat with our escort. The coach journey took us on to the Cairo Inner Ring Road. Just before we crossed the Nile on the Southern side of Cario, we left the motorway and headed to the moored boat. I was following this on Google Maps until I realised I had left data “on”! Thankfully I used only 500K of data, so my bill was not too bad. Six pounds a MegaByte is definitely usury.

On the journey around Cairo, we spotted lots of new flats being erected, large shopping malls, and an IKEA and of course McDonald’s and Burger King.

At the boat, the SS Misr, we were thrown slightly by the huge wooden staircase. We were shown to our cabins, where there was a rather large late-night snack waiting for us. We were also issued with the itinerary for the next day, including the time of the early morning start. Alarm calls for everybody were set for 6.00am. We managed to be in bed just before midnight.