Egypt

We had a very long excursion in Egypt, mostly due to the 3-4 hour bus ride each way. {Nile} We docked in Port Said and had a police escort for our convoy of busses both ways. That delayed our return by a good half hour since we had to wait for the busses that visited the Egyptian Museum.

On the way we crossed the Nile river in downtown Cairo. It was split into two branches where we crossed it. It was beautiful and clean as it has been since the Aswan Dam cut off the periodic floods and most of the silt.

Our first stop was the Pyramids. It was hot, dry, and covered with very aggressive vendors. We had a few minutes to walk around and get pictures. It was somewhat amazing to see how close the city comes to the Pyramids. On our way there, we got several pictures of the Pyramids, shot between apartment buildings.

We paid for our pictures to be taken on a camel which was quite a trip. You really have to leave back when that camel stands up or you'll go over its neck! They are are quite tall so you are sitting quite a ways off the ground when you are on one.

Next we drove a short distance to the Sphinx. Our guide said the Sphinx was probably an afterthought that they carved our of an area of stone they could not use for the pyramid blocks. It was quite a bit smaller than I imagined.

We had one more stop to see the Step Pyramid. This is the oldest of the Pyramids and he first to have ore than one level of stonework. The area buildings contained the first known stone archway. It dates back 4750 years to before the time of Abraham.

After the mandatory shopping stop, we headed back for our ship, arriving more than a half hour *past* the all-aboard time. Fortunately we were near the front of the bus convoy so we were able to get to the buffet ahead of most of the people since over 80% of the passengers returned in our convoy.

We are skipping an Alexandria excursion as nothing caught our interest and, after three full days of on-land tours, we are ready for a quiet, relaxing day before another day at sea as we head to Ephesus.