Cairo -- Oct 6

We are up early and downstairs for breakfast around 7:00 a.m. We finally meet up with Mary and Greg. Breakfast is quite a spread but since we aren't breakfast people we don't load up. Viking orientation follows and we have more of an idea of what is coming up. Then it is on to the buses. Luckily we are on the same bus as Mary and Greg and we head to our first stop which is the Citadel and a mosque. All three guides are Egyptologists but ours is knowledgeable and pushy enough to make sure we see all the highlights.



We stop at a viewpoint that has a panorama of the city and today we are even able to see the pyramids in the distance. 

The mosque is interesting and Hanan explains a bit about the Muslim religion.

We then go to the Egyptian Museum. Again our guide Hanan quickly leads us thru the highlights. The mask and coffin of King Tut is here. Museum is very old and rickety.


As we have driven through the city we see a lot of what we would call tenements -- structures barely livable but lots of them are inhabited. 

We are back at the hotel for lunch on our own but they don't want us to leave the hotel property. So we hope to find something at the mall besides the deli. We do lunch at a Lebanese shisha restaurant. What a delight. The food is awesome and the service impeccable. Mary gets appetizers -- lentil soup, tabbouleh, and hummus served with a most delicious pita bread. Steve has mini Shwarma, I have a chicken fatteh, Greg has a chicken pot pie, called chicken fokhara. With water and 7 cans of diet Pepsi the bill comes to $61 total! We are stuffed and very happy.


Time for a much needed rest before our dinner excursion.

First we head to the Khan el-Khalili market. Crowded, lots of haggling, cool looking stuff but probably all made in China. I do buy stuffed camels for Simon and Sebi and believe I wasn't ripped off too badly.

On to a local restaurant for dinner. We do get a table for four even if it is a little rickety. Dinner is not nearly as good as lunch but still interesting. A tomato soup, tahini, babaganoush, eggplant, mixed grill, French fries!, and a rice pudding. Greg and I have an Egyptian beer. Time to get back to the hotel and crash. 


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