Our first stop this morning was near the Hyatt Hotel on the banks of the Nile River. There Mohamed directed us to a mini-marina of sail boats, feluccas, for a ride on the Nile. It was to be an hour ride. But it was morning and the boatman, dare I say sailor, was asleep. Indeed, a quick look at all the boats found boatmen still sleeping. But the man in the galabeyya at the dock got the boatman up. He seemed unperturbed that we interrupted his sleep and went to find his breakfast and get ready.
There was no wind so, even though he unfurled the sail, the boatman had to use his long stick to push the boat out into the Nile. And so we slowly moved out.
The sun had risen and was starting to warm us up on the boat so the boatman pulled a canvas over the iron ribs above us giving us shade in addition to the gentle breeze, it was quite pleasant. Wanda loved it, the girls seemed to be enduring it to get to the next thing (to eventually be done and to go back to the hotel to swim). I enjoyed it, spent much of the time talking with Mohamed about various subjects. We talked about the Cairo Tower that was easily seen and that led to talking about Russians past and present in Egypt. There was a huge mansion, built like a replica of the White House, on the river and Mohamed told me it was the house of the first president of the Republic of Egypt back in 1952. Today it is being renovated as a museum. We talked about how there are no crocodiles in the Nile now, at least below the dam.
Eventually a small breeze kicked up and we were using the sails. The boat made one lazy circle and in an hour we were back at the dock. Everyone made a pitstop at the Hyatt in their beautiful 5 star restrooms before piling back in Ashraf’s minivan and heading to the Egyptian Museum.
The Egyptian Museum was as I remembered it long ago, a grand old lady but overwhelmed by the artifacts stuffed within and the crowds that come daily. Yet it was a testimony to the vision of several Egyptologists over a century ago. Mohamed took us on his abridged tour of the museum, one that is somewhat more kid friendly. And the girls did well in listening. He is engaging, telling stories and asking them leading questions. So we went from the old kingdom section to middle kingdom to new kingdom. We visited the King Tutankhamen exhibit, both the room with the gold sarcophagus’ and the surrounding area with all the other relics found. An amazing discovery by Howard Carter in 1922. On everyone’s mind, from myself to Wanda, to the writer of the National Geographic guide to just about everyone who has contemplated this discovery; if an 18 year old boy king is buried in this fashion can you imagine what the most powerful pharaohs must have been buried with?
It was about 1 p.m. when we got out of the museum having stopped and looked at a quarter of it and having ‘driven by’ about ½ of it (maybe not even that much). But even I was ready to go, my back was stiff and hurting. The girls wanted to eat at McDonalds again and Mohamed, though he had another suggestion, acquiesced. I tried not to react because the girls were in a good mood at that point and why spoil it? It’s hard to tell pre-teens that they have a whole life in front of them in NA with McDonalds’ opportunities. Ah well, the food is good and there is ice cream . . .
So we got back to the hotel by mid-afternoon. We had stopped to shop in a cotton shop, where Mohamed directed us, but the quality didn’t match the prices. So when we got back to the Grand Pyramids Hotel we actually went into their little shops and I ended up buying 2 polo shirts, Egyptian cotton and personalized with my own cartouche (my name woven in hieroglyphics). Wanda and the girls bought some things as well. Then everyone went swimming.
We needed to eat supper and by this time of the week we had run out of new options in the hotel. One of the restaurants was too expensive, the Thai restaurant we had eaten at twice, the Italian restaurant was good but also expensive, another outdoor restaurant didn’t serve good food. While eating at McDonalds for lunch, Wanda and I had seen other restaurants there and it didn’t look so far from our hotel so why not walk? It was a beautiful early evening. The heat of the day was waning. There was still a lot of traffic and people but that was OK. Wanda thought she had seen a Pizza Hut and that was enough to entice the girls to go with us. So we walked and walked. What we thought was going to be about a kilometer turned about to be more like 2 kms. But it was a pleasant enough walk. Unfortunately when we got to the cluster of restaurants we saw earlier, there was no Pizza Hut. There was a Pizza King and the McDonalds we ate at earlier and a Hardees. So we ate at Hardees. The girls had to be persuaded (what’s a Hardees?) but in the end, after we had eaten there, they agreed it was good. Hardees has won over new customers. Still we haven’t eaten cushary here yet. Maybe in Alex.
The end of the evening after a pleasant walk back was to be an enjoyable watching of USA-Ghana in the World Cup. Unfortunately it ended badly for Team USA. I stayed up until midnight watching the defeat 2-1 in overtime (or extra time as the Brits say). I think I’ll root for the winner of the England-Germany match for the rest of the tournament. Sunday we linger at the Grand Pyramids Hotel and leave at 10 a.m.
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