Saturday, October 2

Port Said, Egypt. Now Jill’s purse and my sandals have officially been to all seven continents!

We took a tour to the Pyramids at Giza, had lunch at a Marriott Hotel that is in a huge palace built in 1869 to house important guests for the opening of the Suez Canal, then went to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and finally back to Port Said. It was over 3 hours on a very nice but snug bus each way, and I hope I never again get that close to a heat stroke! Hotter than hot the whole way especially at the Museum which is not air conditioned in any way. I swear I discovered that there are even sweat glands inside my sinuses! But I was actually at the Pyramids!!! It was really really exciting! (See photo, note that there are no camels anywhere near us.)

Our no-knee-room bus was one of about 8 or 10 buses that traveled in convoy in both directions. Each bus had a security guard on board armed with a LARGE modern-but-evil-looking hand weapon under his dark suit coat. There were also two escort vehicles bracketing our group. I never discovered whether they were police or military. They were the Nissan equivalent of a jeep with flashing lights and 3 men in the back of each armed with rifles. Aside from giving the tourists a feeling of safety, their main purpose appeared to be clearing traffic for the convoy (Gangway! Tourists coming through!)

The guide on our bus, Eman Bahaa, was absolutely fabulous! She studied comparative religion at university and got her degree in Egyptology in 1989. She studied and worked several years with Zahi Hawas, and spent two seasons on the dig at the Pyramid workers’ complex at Giza. She’s a free lance guide, and has guided a whole raft of famous people visiting Egypt over the years including many visiting dignitaries from other countries. We were so lucky to have her on our tour! And she also went way out of her way to make sure that I got to do as much as I could. For example, at the Sphinx, before she headed off with the main group, she pointed me to a café where I could sit in the shade with a fantastic panoramic view of the Sphinx and all the pyramids while the others all went and stamped around in the sun.

So, while typing this, I have managed a room service hamburger and a whole bunch of “fluid replacement.” I don’t know when I can actually post this as tomorrow and the next day are also long day tours in Israel. And don’t anyone look for postcards from Egypt because I didn’t have time to do any shopping for them.