Dad’s retirement trip to Egypt!

Tuesday 18th Feb 

As we boarded the plane at LHR we spotted dad’s bald head in the cockpit. He was preparing for the flight, so we didn’t get to chat to him as we boarded. Mum, James and Vrinda were given seats in club, as we made our way back to cattle class.

We had a really good flight – very smooth, and even got a quick visit from the captain halfway through the flight – people were looking at us as though dad was famous! We also got treated to a glass of fizz.

As we came into land, we couldn’t believe the difference in the landscape.

After a brilliant landing (touch and go according to dad), we waited for everyone else to get off the plane so that we could go up to the cockpit briefly and see dad and his first officer Hannah.

Once we got off the plane we followed the captain and BA crew to get a visa and our luggage.

We then went to get a bus to the hotel we were all staying in, the Renaissance Cairo Mirage Hotel. It was lovely and we were welcomed with a welcome drink of habiscous juice which is popular in Egypt and was really nice! We checked in and then went to our rooms to freshen up

We met up again in the club lounge, that dad got us access to because he’s BA crew, for happy hour drinks and nibbles. We had a couple of drinks and snacks and then went down to the hotel’s Chinese restaurant, Ciffron, for dinner.

The decor was lovely and we sat at a big round table with a lazy susan in the middle, designed for lots of sharing food – as you do with Chinese! The food was really good.

We ended up having dinner quite late so were all quite knackered after and we were leaving the hotel at 9am the next morning so we all decided to go back to our rooms for an early one.

Wednesday 19th February

Our alarms went off in the morning and we got ready for the day and then popped down for some breakfast I’m the hotel. There was quite a spread! After a quick breakfast we waited for our tour guide for the day to pick us up. Hannah, dad’s first officer was joining us for our day trip today.

A mini-bus pulled up outside the hotel and we went and met our driver Mohammad and our tour guide Marco, both very friendly and Marco quite a chatter! We introduced ourselves and Marco said Beth is the name of an Egyptian godess!

We had a 45 minute drive ahead of us to get to Giza – part of Cairo (greater Cairo). During the drive Marco told us about the places we were passing through. As we got on the main ring road he told us that the President had decided to widen the ring road to 8 lanes (!!) to reduce traffic. However, he said that the lane markings were just for decoration – and he wasn’t joking. The driving was pretty crazy, and horns beeping all over the place.

We pulled over at a petrol station on the way for a quick stop where Marco picked us up some water and his favourite fig biscuits for the journey.

Anyway, Mohammed got us safely to Giza, where we were going to be seeing the Giza pyramid complex comprising of three pyramids (one being the Great pyramid, which is the largest Egyptian pyramid), their associated pyramid complexes and the Great Sphinx. There are also several temples, cemeteries and the remains of the workers’ village. Each pyramid serves as a tomb for a king and has smaller pyramid(s) for their wife(s).

We started at the Great pyramid, which served as the tomb for Pharaoh Khufu. This pyramid is about 4,700 years old (!), made of 2,300,000 stones(!), with each stone weighing two and a half tonnes!

The visible stones would have been underneath the limestone layer that has mostly now eroded away. But we saw part of it that was still there – the lighter coloured stone to the right of us in the photo above.

Once we’d had a good look, Marco then drove us to a quiet location that he has access to – a helicopter pad with a great view of all three pyramids!

One of Marco’s hobbies is taking ‘fun’ photos – so he then got us doing all sorts of poses with the pyramids…

Marco then offered us the opportunity to ride a camel if we wanted to. Harry, James, Vrinda, Hannah and I took up the offer, while mum and dad decided they’d prefer to watch us. Marco told us that 2 hump camels are from Australia and 1 hump camels are from Sudan.

We got on the camels and rode them around one of the pyramids in a line. It was quite a bumpy ride, but good fun and an experience!

Again they were keen to get us posing for some fun photos!

When we returned, we got off the camels, which was a bit of a shock when they go down…

We were reunited with mum and dad. Mohammed and Marco then took us to see the Great Sphinx, which has the face of a man and body of a lion.

We were then taken to an essential oils aromatherapy store, where we were told about and smelled different scents, while we waited for Marco to bring us some lunch. He had picked up some local falafel pittas, which we ate on the drive to our next stop – they were delicious!

Next stop was an area called Sacara, where the oldest pyramid in the world, Sacara pyramid, is found. The pyramid dates back to 2686 BC. This was a step pyramid rather than a sloped sided pyramid (this came first in the evolution of the pyramid).

We then looked round the ruins of the pyramid complex and Marco took MORE ‘fun’ photos of us!

Marco then said he had one final surprise stop for us! Whenever he had surprises or random stops for us, we did all have a slight on edge feeling! However, it did end up being an amazing toomb that he took us into, with incredibly detailed engraved scenes on the walls that date about 4,400 years old! We looked around the various rooms.

By this point we were all quite pooped – Marco had really fit a lot in for us to see. We all got back in the van and most of us nodded off for the drive back to the hotel.

When we got back to the hotel we all went to rest in our rooms for an hour or so before getting ready to meet in the club lounge for some drinks. We then went down to dinner – we were eating in the Mediterranean restaurant in the hotel tonight. We had our dinner and then went back up to the club lounge to play some card games before bed – cheat and trumps.

Thursday 20th Feb
We were being collected later for the day trip today so Haz and I decided to make the most of the hotel facilities. We went and used the gym for half and hour and then had half an hour swimming in the pool.

We had then built up an appetite for breakfast! We showered and changed and met everyone for breakfast.

We then got our things together and were picked up by Mohammed and Marco at 10:30. We were visiting Old Cairo town today.

When we arrived, Marco showed us the Christian church, Cavern Church, where Jesus lived for three years when he was young. Some of the structures are saw like the columns were from the 6th/7th century. He told us about the ancient Egyptian language Coptic, a mixture of Greek and Egyptian, which is now only still spoken in the churches. It’s very different to the Arabic language that’s spoken now. Coptic is read left to right, whereas Arabic is read right to left.

We then visited a Green Orthodox church, Saint George’s church, which typically is a round church style.

We saw the jail that George was kept in because the emporor wanted him to convert from Christianity to Roman Catholic religion but he wouldn’t be persuaded. He was tortured in various ways, including using the tools below.

He was said to have died three times and each time God revived him, and then the fourth time the emperor beheaded him.

Marco then took us to the oldest church in Egypt, called the hanging church due to it standing on two pillars. The Nile used to flood up to 3 metres high, so they built their church high up. The church dates back to the late third/early fourth century and since it has just been stabalised and additions have been made to it.

Marco showed us some locked away areas that other tourists couldn’t enter!

We then got back in the mini-bus for a short drive to our next activity. We were going on a Felucca on the river Nile, a traditional wooden sailing boat used in the Mediterranean.

We boarded the boat and had roughly half an hour on the boat, relaxing, taking pictures, and Marco even got Harry and I up dancing to some Egyptian music!

After the boat trip, we got back in the mini-bus and Mohammed drove us into Downtown Cairo – the driving and traffic was the craziest we had seen all trip! He took us down various streets to get to Abou Tarek – a restaurant that started out as one man with his small food truck, and is now a six floor eatery and one of the best in Egypt, selling their extremely well known and highly rated local dish – Koshari. It’s basically a mixture of tiny macaroni pasta, chopped up spaghetti pasta, rise, lentils, chickpeas, tomato sauce and fried onions. We got takeaway to eat in the van to save time as Marco still wanted to take us to one more surprise location before heading back to the hotel. It was a huge portion for lunch but delicious!

Mohammed drove us to Marco’s final surprise – a traditional mosque not open to tourists – the Khanqah of Faraj inn Barquq. He knew someone on the inside! It was a beautiful traditional Islamic complex, with an open courtyard in the middle and about 700 years old, built by the Mamluks. He showed us into various rooms including burial rooms and the prayer area. The architecture and detail was amazing and considered one of the most complex architectures in Chairo.

He then unlocked a door to allow us to walk up a spiral staircase up one the the towers to see the view from the top over Cairo – tt was pretty high up. There were some shaking legs! But a great view.

We climbed back down and then got back in the mini-bus for Mohammed to drive us back to the hotel.

We got back to the hotel in just enough time for mine and mum’s extremely cheap massages that we couldn’t resist! £21 for a full body massage – bargain! They were really lovely and relaxing.

We then got ready for the evening and met in the club lounge for our usual pre-dinner drinks and nibbles and then got a golf buggy ride over to the neighbouring sister hotel that dad had had a meal in once before and said was really good. We went to the Lebanese restaurant, Ahlein. The food was amazing and there was a man playing like music on a Lute.

Post dinner we went back to our hotel and up to the club lounge for more cards before bed.

We said how quickly the trip had gone – time to fly home on Friday!