The official Day 1

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Wednesday April 21, 2010, the actual first day of the tour begins. This morning was the first time we were to become a “family” for the next 10 days. We got the wakeup call at 6:30 AM, prearranged by our tour guide Mohammed. A quick shower and down we go to breakfast and the first meeting of the gang.
Now Cathy and the boys know from experience that this first meeting leaves a lasting impression and true to form several people “left their impression” immediately. The first interaction was with the 6 people who felt they were the only ones on the tour. This group consisted of and oriental woman and her husband (late 20’s), a middle aged man and his wife, and a slightly older husband and wife (Aussies All).
Rick and I sat down at an empty table behind young husband and wife who were sitting alone at their table of 6 seats (4 empty) and miss prissy turns to me and says, "We are sitting there."
Now my boys know my reaction, and my wife is now appalled on my behalf, but I had to state the incredibly obvious, “no actually I am sitting here and you are sitting there”. Round one to me, (Sorry Cathy but you really should not leave me alone among idiots).
Next we encounter “Mr. George” our resident octogenarian and mean as a pit bull. He is dressed in a blue bank shirt from somewhere in the US, jeans and a floppy hat with the meanest look on his face I ever saw before 7 AM.
Then we run into Allona of lost luggage fame. Seems she was the one I spoke of earlier. She still has no luggage and I feel no hope of seeing it again.
Then we have the NICE Aussies, the ones my boys love to travel with. We have four this trip who are early 60’s, retired and on a 9 week vacation just doing a “walkabout”. They are not in the same foursome just happen to be here on this Trafalgar portion with us.
There will be more to describe as they become noticed.
So breakfast once again consists of a buffet and was wonderful…except for the eggs. The traveling Farina Family knows well the problem with eggs overseas; the locals just cannot cook them so they can be eaten. Egypt keeps the tradition alive. I know better but Rick has to see for himself. And he does with the first bite which is spit out immediately, followed by the classic Rick “what the hell was that” (Cathy and the boys can hear him say it now)
Breakfast done and it is time for our first meeting and preparation for the day’s events. We meet in the lobby with the Tour Manager Ehad who tells us that at 4:30 PM SHARP we must be back in the lobby for our second meeting and payment for the extra excursions. Rick and I have already decided we did not need the extras as they really were not worth the efforts so we are good to go.
After the meeting we count heads and discover we have only 22 people with 12 who could not join us due to closed airspace in Europe. For this group it is GREAT as a smaller number makes for a better experience. So off we go to our nearly empty bus and our first stop, Memphis the capitol of old Egypt.
Here also we are introduced to Mohammed our tour guide for the week. He is about 28 years old, damn good looking and with a Master’s Degree in Egyptology well educated and very knowledgeable. He is also patient, something we will test throughout the next 10 days.
So we board the bus and of course one of us is late…Mr. George. Now the boys know what this means, he will be late or lost every time we need to be back on the bus. Off for the 30 drive to Memphis and the Colossus of Ramses II and the Alabaster Sphinx.
We arrive in Memphis to cool breezes and clear skies. Depart the bus, grab the camel backpacks and off we go. Travel note: If you travel where it is potential to be warm buy a camel backpack. This is a backpack with a built in water bladder that feeds through a tube to provide most needed cooling water. This was a lifesaver already on day one for both of us. Do not leave home without it.
The Site is well preserved but a bit small so we do not have to be here for much time. We first see the misnamed Alabaster Sphinx. Misnamed because it is made of limestone and not Alabaster. We learn that the word Sphinx comes from the Greek and means “to bind together” the word was first used by Herodotus. The statue is carved from a single stone a requirement for all Egyptian statues.
We also see several well preserved statues of Ramses II each with his left foot forward. These therefore are funerary statues made after death as having the left foot forward is the first step toward the west and into the afterlife. If the feet are together or the person is sitting, it is a daily life statue; you see dead people cannot sit upright.
Next in a separate room is the Colossus of Ramses II found in the bottom of the Nile in the 1900’s. The feet and ankles are missing but the rest of the statue is indeed huge and very well made of a 40 plus foot 1000 ton single stone. It was believed to stand at the entrance of Memphis by the Nile as a welcome from the King. Memphis is now a small unimportant part of Egypt but once was the seat of power. (Mr. George was late to the bus)
From Memphis we move on to Sakkara where we come face to face with the Step Pyramid, now I am really excited because we all have seen this image on the TV a thousand times and there it is not 10 feet from me, so close I can actually walk up and touch it.
The Step Pyramid is the first attempt at building such a structure. It is called STEP because it is actually 6 rectangles built one on top of the other with ever decreasing perimeter giving the illusion of a pyramid with steps rather than a straight line up the sides.
This pyramid is not hollow and actually sits atop the burial chamber. The actual tomb is 98 feet below ground. The site is amazing to behold, unfortunately it is marred by hawkers, selling every form of junk possible.
Our guide is well known to the hawkers as a no nonsense guy but they still harass those in our group who stay to the outskirts of the group and especially the women.
We leave the site unscathed by the hawkers and look for Mr. George, who apparently went back to the bus early!
Off to lunch as we are starving and it is already 12:00PM. We head to Sakkara (the restaurant) where we are greeted by a musical group and a basket for donations. A pound lighter we head down the stairs to watch the lovely lady making bread in a wood fired outdoor oven where she shows us how to make bread and how to leave bread (yup another pound in the basket)
Lunch is in a beautiful outdoor open air tent with fans and family style tables. We are treated to local Kabobs of chicken (excellent), (wonderful) and beef (inedible) with sides of hummus, eggplant, pickled vegetables, rice and potatoes. Dessert of “fresh” banana (well it was fresh sometime) and all for 220 pounds ($44 for two). A potty run and off we go back to the bus.
We head off to our first of what I like to call the “buy it here” trap. Trafalgar, like every other tour group in the world has their favorite places to take their tours to help them “buy things that are guaranteed” by Trafalgar (and for which the guide gets a cut of the sale). We stop at Akhnaton School for Rug making.
First let me say “Cathy I am sorry for what happened here”. As you know I have no sales resistance what so ever. I can be talked into buying anything and often I am. So I must rely on the help of Cathy and the boys to pull me out. Unfortunately, they were not here to help me and I could not rely on the comfort of strangers, so……
Here we learn about making rugs from silk and cotton and wool. The process is amazing and so are the rugs (amazing =expensive). (Cathy if I were you I would stop reading for a bit or at least get a drink)
The school is truly a school where young children are taught to make rugs. They work 2 - 3 hours a day after school and are well paid. OK it is really a sweat shop where young kids sit for 3 hours a day on a board and make rugs by hand.
These kids can make a 3X5 rug in a month just tying knots or silk or cotton. We watched them work, four to a rug, with no pattern and the fastest moving hands I ever saw. They seemed happy and we were assured they were treated well and earned good money and were well prepared for a future better paying job.
Now after the step by step tour of rug making, where do you think we end up? In the show room of course. (Cathy remember my lack of sales resistance above and my suggestion of a drink, maybe two).
The rugs are everywhere (guys remember Morocco? You stopped me then where are you now when I needed you?). The salesmen are everywhere. I was surrounded. I was shown dozens of rugs all beautiful and all $4900 NOT POUNDS FOLKS DOLLARS.
NO, NO, NO I repeat over and over. Show me something smaller I beg. (Get me the hell out of here I think). Soon I am finally released from the showroom with my rug wrapped and ready to take home! I am sure she will love it (or I am sure I will enjoy sleeping on it as it looks so comfy).
We now head to the greatest known archeological site in the world, the Giza Plateau. There are 66 known pyramids through Egypt with 9 at the Giza Plateau. The most famous three of course Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaurs, built by father, son and grandson built to house their body after death. This site also has the great Sphinx which is more than 5000 years old and has been seen by, Herodotus, Mark Antony, Cleopatra, Napoleon and of course Barak Obama.
We spend the next 3.5 hours at the site. We touch the great pyramid and actually climb on the outside for an up close and very personal look. Damn we lost Mr. George again. It is amazing with 3,000,000 stones weighing an average 3.5 tons each. The second pyramid is a “perfect pyramid” in that Khafre was able to get the angle right (52 degrees 30 seconds) to make the perfect pyramid, where is dad used 56 degrees and so his pyramid is a little off at the top. (I thought it looked Ok).
We also went INSIDE another pyramid, this one of the Queen Mother of Khafre. What an experience. You have to enter a hole in the north side of the pyramid (all pyramid doors are located on the north side. The square hole is about 3X4 and goes down 16 meters at angle of more than 45 degrees! It is STEEP, SMALL and HOT. I crawl mostly on my backside and use my feet as breaks to keep from falling straight down. At the bottom there is another passage way for 10 meters followed by a ladder down 10 feet to the most amazing empty room I never hoped to see. Yup, there was nothing and I mean absolutely nothing there. Mr. George however was there, we were looking for him, damn that guy is slippery.
Getting down was half the fun, getting out was twice the fun! I hunkered over and faced down and just motored my feet slow and steady right up the ramp and outside sweating and a little out of breath but out in the air. I can now say I was inside a pyramid.
Folks I gotta tell you something. It is after 11 PM here is Cairo and I have to get up at 4 AM to catch a flight to Aswan. So I am going to call it quits for tonight and catch you all up tomorrow. Good night!

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