Our days in Cairo

Dear Friends,

[I've tried to edit this post so the photos are around their description.]

Let's see how far I can get before we have to head down to breakfast (not very exciting here at

 the Pavilion of the Winter Palace here in Luxor--here's a photo of it's gardens that are quite

 pretty).

 After that we check out of the hotel, meet with Basam to check out a couple more Nile cruise

 boats (we checked out 3 yesterday with our great guide Ahmet who is with us for the whole trip). Then we check onto our boat, have lunch, then meet Ahmet for a tour of Luxor temple (we did Karnac temple yesterday with him).

But now back to the beginning:

On the first day we took it easy and rested and walked the grounds of the hotel a bit.

The next day was an easy day with a visit to Heliopolis, the center of sun worship and then the citidel. This is a photo of an obilist that is the only thing [other than a pharoh statue] now remaining now at Heliopolis, the ancient cult center for sun worship.

We next went to the citidel which is the highest point in Cairo and home of a fortress and some great mosques. The rest of the photos are from there. Notice the one with the pyramids off in the hazy distance. This gives an idea of how amazing the pyramids must have looked thousands of years ago when seen from a distance with no pollution and no modern buildings!

The day started with a great, really great breakfast at the Mena house. I felt adventurous and have their stewed fava beans which looked like a pot of thick soup beans. You take a bowl, but a little tahini in it, then the beans, then some cumin, ground red pepper, salt and olive oil and smash it all up. It then looks like chunky refried beans, but it tastes great! With pita bread (they don't call it that here) it is wondeful. They also had some of the best falafels that I've ever tasted. Wow! it was really good.

All that along with fresh fruit, some nice pastries, juices, etc. made for a really nice start for the day.

We met Ahmet at the lobby at 11am and then met our driver who we'd have until we made it to Luxor. They were both wonderful. 

Thank you for the energy you've been sending. We've been really going and going and going and are starting to get tired. I don't know what availability of the internet will be once we are on board the ship. So this may be the last post for a while.

Love and more love,

Frank

 the next will be some views from the citidel which is the highest point in Cairo and also home of a fortress and some great mosques.

PS--TT and Puff both say "Hi!" and say they're having a lot of fun.