Day 2 Cairo
Woke up at about eight and felt pretty good, except for a coffee headache. I rummaged around and finally got stuff put together. We have a pot for boiling water and an espresso maker. Egyptian coffee, is more like Turkish coffee, served very hot and very sweet. I just did regular coffee and took a shower – paradise. TBG slept pretty well and he felt good after his shower.
We had purposefully worked in a down day for today – no running off to see the sights, no doing anything at all except resting and resetting our internal clock. I was surprised that I feel really good today, physically. I had thought all the sitting and then all that walking and with a heavy backpack would have done me in, but no.
In fact, after we had breakfast and a nap, we went swimming. The pool was nice, but getting out was a bit chilly. Well, it was really chilly! :D Thankfully we are right by the elevators, so the walk to the room was a short elevator ride up and in.
We messed around and then went down to the bridge café for lunch. It offered regular salads, burgers, but I wanted something different so I tried the hot mezze while TBG had the Giza Grill platter. One or the other would have been enough! Really tasty, though.
The afternoon was spent relaxing and just not doing much of anything. TBG decided he needed to go out and look around, so he walked around the block. He waved at the security cameras by the Russian Embassy and managed to fend off all the ‘helpful’ guys who just wanted to show him their shop, which had been in their family for five generations and needed his help.
On the way back to the room, he saw Ali, our driver, and organized an outing for tomorrow. Despite the museum still being closed, he wants to visit the GEM – Grand Egyptian Museum. And “Oh, gee, it’s right beside the pyramids!” Also, we are going to visit a Carrefour and a government run market.
The plan had been to go out to a restaurant, but when TBG saw the spread up in the Club Lounge, we ended up there for dinner. The food was fabulous and really varied. Even tried some Egyptian wine, which was very good.
Best of all, we met up with some Viking folks (not our tour, but one that was three days into their tour, and another just finishing up. It was lots of fun just chatting with them.
Lights out fairly early, but really bizarre dreams all night. Sigh… must be the Egyptian food.
We had purposefully worked in a down day for today – no running off to see the sights, no doing anything at all except resting and resetting our internal clock. I was surprised that I feel really good today, physically. I had thought all the sitting and then all that walking and with a heavy backpack would have done me in, but no.
In fact, after we had breakfast and a nap, we went swimming. The pool was nice, but getting out was a bit chilly. Well, it was really chilly! :D Thankfully we are right by the elevators, so the walk to the room was a short elevator ride up and in.
We messed around and then went down to the bridge café for lunch. It offered regular salads, burgers, but I wanted something different so I tried the hot mezze while TBG had the Giza Grill platter. One or the other would have been enough! Really tasty, though.
The afternoon was spent relaxing and just not doing much of anything. TBG decided he needed to go out and look around, so he walked around the block. He waved at the security cameras by the Russian Embassy and managed to fend off all the ‘helpful’ guys who just wanted to show him their shop, which had been in their family for five generations and needed his help.
On the way back to the room, he saw Ali, our driver, and organized an outing for tomorrow. Despite the museum still being closed, he wants to visit the GEM – Grand Egyptian Museum. And “Oh, gee, it’s right beside the pyramids!” Also, we are going to visit a Carrefour and a government run market.
The plan had been to go out to a restaurant, but when TBG saw the spread up in the Club Lounge, we ended up there for dinner. The food was fabulous and really varied. Even tried some Egyptian wine, which was very good.
Best of all, we met up with some Viking folks (not our tour, but one that was three days into their tour, and another just finishing up. It was lots of fun just chatting with them.
Lights out fairly early, but really bizarre dreams all night. Sigh… must be the Egyptian food.