Ventured into Islamic Cairo yesterday and climbed the spiral stairs of the minarette of the Ibn Tulun mosque - the city's oldest un-restored mosque built AD876-879. From there we had amazing views of the citadel and across Cairo. There was rooftop rubble, rooftop gardens and even rooftop goat pastures! In the evening we drove out past grim-looking miles of brick and concrete apartments that looked uninhabited but for the occasional row of laundry hung out to dry. Then, like the Rockies and Calgary, there suddenly were the pyramids of Giza standing up against the setting sun. We watched a li [View Full Entry]

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Decided to venture out on our own and played chicken with Cairo traffic for five hours and are still alive although we can see why Egyptians pray a lot. We walked past the Cairo Tower and the Opera House and Dr. Ragab's Papyrus Institute which now houses Golds Gym! After a lentil soup lunch at the Swiss Chalet, and getting directions from two girls from Quebec, we finally made it to the Nilometer dating back twelve hundred years that measured the height of the Nile before the Aswan dam controlled the flow. In floods and droughts they paid no tax. [View Full Entry]

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The Nile Hiton, our oasis in Cairo, is located opposite the Egyptian museum, which houses an impressive collection including an overwhelming number of artefacts from the tomb of Tutankhamun. These include the golden burial mask and golden jewellery, and the four coptic jars that contained his preserved liver, lungs, stomach and intestines. On display are the four gilded wooden shrines that nested together like Russian dolls to enclose his sarcophagus and gold coffin. The mummy remains in his tomb in the Valley of Kings in Luxor. There were several royal mummies on display including Ramses II, [View Full Entry]

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Arrived safely. The taxi ride from Cairo airport to our hotel was hard to describe and not for the faint of heart. Our tour van driver today told us that Cairene drivers need three things; good brakes, good luck and a strong heart! Arrow lines show the general line of traffic flow but lane dividers are purely for decoration. Today we visited the pyramids of Giza, Dahshur, Memphis and Saqqara - a full day but very interesting and I realized that I still need much more practice with reading hieroglyphs. We heard that it only rains once in every seven years [View Full Entry]

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The Rosetta Stone is on display at the British Museum in London and is the most significant find in the history of Egyptology. Found by Napoleon's men and later handed over to the English, the Rosetta stone is a slab of black granitic stele that records a decree issued in Memphis in 196BC in hieroglyphics and Greek. This allowed scholars to decipher the hieroglyphs. F has bought a book on hieroglyphs and expects to be fleuent by the time we get to Cairo. K [View Full Entry]

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The British Museum holds in addition to an amazing array of wonders from around the world the Rosetta Stone. This was discovered by Napoleon on campaign in the small town of Rosetta on the Nile Delta and handed over to the English for reparation. It includes [View Full Entry]

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Arrived with bags in sunny London Town and met up with F's sister Pat and mom. Had a stroll around the Serpentine in Hyde park and met Mike Kanton, from Golden!!. Although it was sunny it was also cold and the raincoat came in usefull. This morning we visited the Tutankhamun exhibit at the Millenium Dome in preparation for our trip to the Valley of the Kings. Very interesting but can't wait to see the exhibit in the museum in Cairo. We have 5 different currencies with us. Canadian and US dollars and English and Egyptian pounds and Euros. Infallable youth [View Full Entry]

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Well almost, few last items to pack. Went to Future shop yesterday to pick up a new SD card for my camera. It still amazes me that I can store 1258 pictures on a one-inch square peice of plastic. But we'll be gone for 96 days so thats only 13 pictures a day. That no where near enough so I've doubled up and am good to go for 2516 pictures. Dave that's 105 rolls!!! My good friend Dave still prefers celluloid and he's prepared to go to great lengths to get a good snap. The one good thing about old film [View Full Entry]

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Perhaps I'd better see what my husband is packing. I hope he isn't planning on sharing my beach towel again (and my shampoo and whatever else he can't fit into his backpack.) Those of you joining us to sail the Croatian coast might like to bring a few favourite CD's with you as the boat will likely have a CD player and it doesn't sound as though my husband will have room for any in his backpack! [View Full Entry]

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I managed to drag myself away from some great spring skiing and am now in Calgary trying to pack and tidy up some paperwork. By the time I finished filing the family's tax returns I'll need a vacation. But what to pack?? I borrowed my son's backpack; it looks so small but feels so heavy and it has no wheels! The travel guide books alone require a travelling secretary. I'll take my deck shoes for sailing and walking shoes from the MEC. I'm also taking the cotton pant and shirts that I bought last year on a shoping spree with my [View Full Entry]

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