Blogs from Cairo, Lower Egypt, Egypt, Africa

Arrived late afternoon and met by hotel driver. This worked well as he gave us an insight into some of the areas which I had been researching. Drove past Kahn el Khalili and through the downtown area. Everyone emphasises welcome and safety At night we headed out to downtown area to get something to eat. Ended up at Abu Tarek, a restaurant that serves Khoshary. It was great fun and there was a certain theatre about the serving! Abou Tarek restaurant: 2 bowls with amusing waiter who put it all together with some theatrics, 2 sprite and rice pudding=$10 Koshary: chickpeas, fried onions, spaghetti, tiny pasta and garlicky tomato sauce. Add squeeze of lemon, vinegar salt pepper and cumin. After dinner we walked home. Streets are busy and people are friendly. One of the streets was ... read more

We got to sleep in just a little more, until about 8 today, before having breakfast and checking out by 9am. So, no free time in the afternoon as was listed in our program, which meant I had to cancel plans with a colleague I had intended to meet up with. Well, we were kept just as busy today as the day before and I knew I would suffer at work on Monday... Egyptian Museum of Antiquities Our first stop and one of the trip highlights was the Egyptian Museum (for some reason, I always default to calling it the British Museum..... take from that what you will....). The new Grand Egyptian Museum is set to open in 2023, but has been delayed many times for various reasons.... so don't hold your breath. But we drove ... read more

Cacophony in Cairo - Piprey on wheels Egypt is a dream destination since time immemorial. In ancient time, Socrates, the Greek philosopher travelled to Egypt to visit the pyramids. I was most excited and planned a 2 week dream itinerary. I am writing a travel series to focus on these fascinating Egypt cities. Cairo was my entry and exit point to Egypt. British Airways flight from London to Cairo was delayed by 1.50 mins because supposedly a crew member had called in sick at the last minute ( and so that they do not have to offer refreshment vouchers applicable for delay above 2 hours). I had a satchet of masala tea and a paper cup. Shopped around for hot water and sipped a masala tea with homemade cheese toastie in a quiet corner at the ... read more

Cairo-nothing more needs to be added, one of those places in this world that conjures up visions of ancient civilizations and cultures...the magical home of Pharaohs, Pyramids, Temples, Tombs, and the Nile, could not wait to get exploring... Funny, Egypt was never really on our radar for some reason, it had come up in conversations over the years but never really stuck strangely enough...with international travel opening up we started chatting about where we should/could go, and unexpectedly we stumbled across an Intrepid tour that seemed to check all our boxes: majority of the major sites covered, small group, all sorts of modes of transportation (Planes, Trains and Automobiles! And buses, feluccas, Ubers, boats...lol...) and about twelve days which is a decent length. Tacking on some beach time on the Sinai Peninsula after the tour seemed ... read more

Shabbat - a real day of rest! I decided to skip shul and daven in the room. I really enjoyed "my time" while Don participated in the group service. At 10.30am I joined the rest of the group and we made kiddush and had brunch which was a special milky meal. Then Rabbi Berman gave a drasha and then it was sleep time! Some people went out for walks, but we just quietly read and rested. We all got together again at 4 pm when we had seudah shlishit with lots of singing. Again the table was set nicely with real crockery and cutlery. Then free time until after shabbat when Rabbi Berman gave an instructive PowerPoint presentation. He explained in further detail some of the scenes and hieroglyphics we had seen and would explore in ... read more