Port Said for Cairo

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There is nothing much to do in the city of Port Said so we decided to use some more of our "credit" and take a ship's tour to Cairo. Both of us had been to Cairo before but never together. The coach took the desert road from Port Said to Cairo. This was very interesting as the road runs parallel to the Suez Canal for part of the way and if you look towards the canal you can sometimes see a huge ship apparently sailing through the fields (see photo).

However, driving through Cairo was not such a fun experience. We passed the Ministry where D worked 25 years ago on the way to the Egyptian Museum where we saw King Tut's death mask and all the other loot from his tomb. We also saw various other mummies and sarcophagi, hieroglyphics and statues and carvings. Apparently if you were to spend one minute looking at each exhibit it would take 9 months to look at the entire contents. We only had an hour and a half (which wasn't long enough) but we have both been before so sympathies to those for whom it was their first time.

Next we travelled to the 5 Star Mina House Oberoi Hotel where we had a fantastic lunch before heading up to the Pyramids of Giza. Here we got ripped off by a man with a camel (20 Euros - he wouldn't make the beast lie down to let us get off! until we paid) but still got some nice photos and some scarab beetles. Again we were rather rushed but managed to see the pyramids and the Sphinx. However, seeing the Sphinx was rather like a rugby scrum with everyone fighting for photo shots - we were fit enough to run to take a look in the 10 minutes we were allowed here! We are glad we have seen it together but would both have been disappointed had we not been previously at a more leisurely pace.

A far as we were concerned, the final stop on the trip (papyrus institute and general bazaar) could have been left out completely; but unfortunately was part of the institutionalized tourist rip off! Like other passengers we would have been happy to purchase any genuine Egyptian goods and artifacts but do not enjoy wasting time being exposed to tourist tat, particularly when we are a captive audience. We were given 30 minutes here as opposed to ten minutes a the Sphinx! The trip back to the ship was, inevitably, after such a long day rather tedious. However it did end on a high note with us haggling for various bits and pieces for our themed Egyptian night (yet to happen - so look out for that blog) on arrival back in Port Said.

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