April 29

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Thursday April 29, 2010
We get our wakeup call at 7 this morning but Rick was already up and showered by then. Today is departure day from the Miriam and we prepare to leave at 8:00 AM for the Luxor airport and our 1 hour flight to Cairo.
It was hard to say good bye to our floating hotel but off we were for the ride to the airport. We boarded our charter flight along with 2 other tour groups at 10 AM soon we were winging through clear skies to the heart of Cairo.
We are staying in Cairo at the 5 star hotel Ramses by Hilton, but we are told our rooms will not be ready until after 2 PM. Not one to sit and wait Mohammed has some visits planned for us.
First stop is the Citadel of Saladin. This huge fortress was built by the Sultan Saladin as protection from the Christian Crusaders, whom he defeated in Jerusalem. Since the crusaders we defeated before reaching Egypt and Cairo the fortress was never attacked and so stands beautiful on a hill overlooking modern Cairo.
Within the walls of the fortress lies the Mosque of Mohammed Ali (not the fighter). The mosque is adorned with alabaster columns and wall coverings. Within the mosque our tour guide Mohammed teaches us about the Muslim religion and their beliefs and customs. It is a very interesting scholarly lecture and helps us all to appreciate better what we are seeing. It also helps us to learn that we are not that different from real Muslims. It is the extremists that we need to fear who use the religion as a weapon, something the Holy Koran does not condone. A real educated Muslim would not follow an extremist as the true Muslim would know the extremist is wrong and is acting politically and not religiously. Anyway it was educational.
From here we went to another mosque, The Mosque of the Sultan Hasan. Unlike the Mosque of Mohammed, which is a tourist stop and no longer a functioning mosque for prayer, the mosque of Hasan is a currently active mosque.
We learn about facing Mecca, the requirement for a pilgrimage to Mecca is only required if you can do it physically and financially. We learn about Ramadan and fasting and many other points of the Muslim customs.
When we are done we headed to our hotel and FOOD. Now where does one eat in Cairo? McDonalds of course! A group of us waited for me to wrestle with the ATM machine, Ii am out of money completely, and after a few trials and tribulations we find a working machine and cross the street from the hotel for some good old Americana.
Since the McDonalds is in a shopping mall we split up and agree to dine in our hotel, our last dinner together as a family and off we go our separate ways.
Rick heads for a nap and I head to shop.
Now shopping in Cairo is not like shopping at home. I am walking along and am stopped by David, a shop owner who hands me his card and offered to take me to his shop to see his merchandise. As we all know I have no sales resistance and off I go.
It is the custom is Egypt to sit and talk with the shop owner before you buy anything. David brews me a hot tea and we chat about politics and America. He has a brother in law in Denver and a family in Cairo.
He and I chat about this and that for a half hour. Soon I see some very high quality ladies blouses for 40 pounds ($8) and some more papyrus and a beautiful Pyrex glass fragrance burner. The Papyrus is of two cartouches, name plates, on each side of a royal wedding. I have our names in hieroglyphics painted in the cartouches and walk out with my purchases for 160 pounds ($32).
I head back to the hotel to update the blog and a quick shower before dinner.
Dinner this evening was a group affair engineered by Ellen. We dined in style in the hotel at the Citadel Restaurant.
Ellen arranged for a large table to accommodate 16 of our family of 22. Some others ate early and others chose to eat on their own.
I enjoyed a grilled sea bass which was excellent. Others had American steaks, roast duck, rack of lamb or salmon. Laughing and drinking we dined for 2 hours not wanting the time to pass too quickly as this was our last meal together.
I left at 10 PM for a much needed rest. Tomorrow we get up at 7:30 AM for breakfast and our final city tour.
I called Cathy this evening and learned that I have made a grievous mistake. Unfortunately my soon to be daughter in law spells her name as Lily and I failed to recall properly and mistakenly I had her cartouche made as LiLLy. I pray for her forgiveness and ask for her indulgence as I love her but I cannot spell. Sorry Lily, I will never forget the spelling ever again.

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