Cairo, Egypt

---

For years we have been traveling by air. After working as an American Airlines flight attendant for the last 34 years, My husband Tim and I finally relented to take a cruise...Best idea ever! We started our vacation in Cairo, Egypt with a land excursion and our first order of the day was to visit the Citadel and the Mohamed Ali mosque. The Saladin Citadel of Cairo is a medieval Islamic fortification. It sits perched upon a hill and has a grand view of the surrounding area of Cairo. Next we visited the Mohamed Ali mosque. We put covers on our shoes and went inside. We made sure we were covered so as not to offend anyone. The floor is covered in rugs for prayer. It was an impressive mosque. Outside the mosque there was a man making red fez hats. This was our first introduction to the peddlers who try to get you to buy purses, postcards, beads and stuffed camels. Just look straight ahead and walk. If you say hello, many more come over to you to try to get you to buy their trinkets.

After the Citadel and Mohamed Ali mosque, we traveled to the Egyptian Museum. We went to the gallery upstairs which houses over 1,700 objects unearthed in 1922 from the tomb of the boy-king Tutankhamen. The museum sits on Tahrir Square where the Egyptian Revolution of 2011 took place. The most impressive piece we saw was the gold mask of King Tut. It is 11 kg of solid gold and lined with lapis, red coral and turquoise. King Tut's tomb was found largely intact. We saw beds, chests, thrones, gold jewelry, chariots, clothes, sandals, bow and arrows, and toys. After we saw the King Tut exhibit, we saw the animal mummy room. It contained crocodile mummies, baboon mummies, dog mummies, fish, birds, cats, cows, and an owl. On our way to the pyramids, we encountered our first taste of Egyptian traffic. There are not many traffic lights so everyone is going which ever way they want.

After lunch at the Mena House Hotel, we proceeded to the Great Pyramids of Giza. They are the only wonder of the Ancient World to have survived nearly intact. The oldest and largest of the three is the Great Pyramid of Cheops. It was built approx. 2500 B.C. The two smaller pyramids were Cheop's son and grandson. There were three smaller pyramids near Cheop's pyramid and there are said to be those of his wives. The Sphinx sits nearby and has a lion's body, a human face and a royal beard. We saw many "Ships of the Desert" (camels). Tim wanted me to take a picture sitting on the camel and as I got on it, it got up and started walking with me on it. Tim promptly got on another one and we rode them for a while. Interesting! I held the cutest Egyptian baby and on our way back to the hotel we saw a beautiful sunset over the Nile River

---