Blogs from Lower Egypt, Egypt, Africa

I'm ready to fly out of Jeddah around lunch time on Saturday, but I only need to be in Lubumbashi, Congo on Tuesday lunch time! What do you do in between, knowing that the amount of airlines available is pretty limited! I could have spend 1-2 days in Johannesburg, but that's already in the plan for May. So instead, Cairo is the plan! Been to Cairo tons of times, the latest being only 20 months ago, so let's try to do something new! This trip has been booked for a while. The hope was to have the opening of the new grand Egyptian Museum done by Spring 2024. Well, at the speed it's going, they will be ready by the end of 2024, maybe! The good news is that they are running a pre-opening phase. For ... read more

So, despite the lovely view and the potential of fireworks (of which our neighbours were proving plenty), we didn’t quite manage midnight…but set an alarm for 5 mins before. The hotels and houses in front let off a few…not the Opera House but not too shabby. We decided on a lazy morning to give Beeb some more recovery time, and then headed in to Khan El Kahlili for some lunch. Another delicious serving of juices and some tasty chocolate filled things gave us some energy for perfume buying and general wandering. But there’s only so many conversations one can have about ‘best price’ before it becomes overwhelming, so we jumped in an Uber and headed to the Egyptian Museum. It’s in a state of flux as the new museum in Giza is “opening” but no one ... read more

People dream of the moment they set eyes on the wonders of the world in Cairo. Perhaps the view from our airbnb isn’t what has filled travellers with awe across the centuries but it’s filled our hearts with joy having a shower and somewhere to stretch out before we head to Aswan. ... read more

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