Egypt is ...
...well...what is Egypt? In any case, one thing: it cannot be described in a few words and should be viewed in at least two completely different categories!
Most people will probably know Egypt from the holiday resorts of Hurghada and/or Sharm-El-Sheik. We also got to know such a resort at the end of the trip: El Gouna - a suburb of Hurghada, but more on that later. A holiday in a resort cannot of course be compared to our first (cultural) part and must be viewed and evaluated completely differently!
Egypt is still struggling with the effects of the two political revolutions and you notice this in every corner when you travel around the country. Money is still so tight in normal households that people have to rely on additional income. And believe me: when an old woman sells tissues on the side of the road, she doesn't do it because she enjoys it, but because she simply needs the money, and still has enough pride not to beg (as many others do anyway). So everywhere in metropolitan areas you come across poor and poorest people, but also villains and scoundrels who know how to take advantage of this. In general, you shouldn't give anything to children who are begging, as their parents send them to beg instead of to school.
A word about euro coins: Many travel guides say that you should not give euro coins in this country because coins cannot be exchanged at banks. But that has now completely changed! In many shops you can even get a better rate if you pay with euros (including coins). And the beggars are already asking for a euro (it seemed to me like in downtown Hamburg: "Do you have a euro...").
But now to our trip:
It was a childhood dream of mine to see the pyramids and the Sphinx. That's why we designed this trip so that we do part 1 'in culture' and then relax and unwind in the second part. And culturally, Egypt, with its 5,000-year-old history, has more to offer than almost any other country!
Let's start the report chronologically - i.e. in Frankfurt ;-)
What can a perfect start to your vacation look like?
For us maybe like this:
What can I tell you: That's exactly what happened!
The only downside was that we couldn't meet our friends because I had just gotten over a bad cold,
but my wife was still in the middle of it,
and we didn't want to endanger our heavily pregnant friend in the slightest - what a pity!!
(Unfortunately my wife couldn't get rid of the coughing fits until the end of the trip...)
Well, another small limitation to the feeling of well-being was the evening meal in the Maredo steakhouse. We haven't had such a taste-free steak in a long time (or at all)!
... was a pure (stupid) transfer day. After breakfast we waited for the taxi, but it didn't come (and THAT from my favorite driver and without a message...). So by Metro to the airport (fortunately it was included in the hotel price - so you saved EUR 35 - you can also see it from that perspective ;-)
We then endured a slow check-in process from Egypt-Air (via Lufthansa).
What was great was that Egypt-Air served all classes of passengers a free hot meal. You can also order as many cold and warm drinks as you like. This is no longer the case with other airlines. On the return flight with Condor there wasn't even water for free!
After the (should I write 'usual' now?) delay with an incredible 5 ( ! ) waiting loops above Cairo, we were surprised several times:
At the hotel we were happy that our guide helped with check-in and, above all, that we got a twin-bed room on the top (tenth) floor, so we had to worry about less street noise. However, when we got upstairs it sounded as if they had forgotten the zero in the 10 and we had moved into a room on the first floor. Stupid sound reflection into the upper floors...
The buffet for breakfast and dinner was great. Diverse, starters and desserts very attractively presented. It was also great that every hotel room was provided with a large bottle of water free of charge every day and the non-alcoholic drinks from the minibar were also free.
Today we will visit the first rubbles:
Memphis - Egypt's first capital - wasn't particularly exciting. An open-air museum with a colossal statue of
Ramses
Little Amenhotep asks his teacher in hieroglyphics class:
"Is Ramses the potent ruler spelled with 2 or 3 testicles?"
II and a few other more or less well-preserved artifacts... that's it!
Afterwards we went to the step pyramid of Djoser, where we also saw the tomb of Imhotep.
After a lunch and the obligatory visit to a carpet weaving workshop, we were driven to the first highlight of our stay in Cairo: the Great Pyramid (Cheops Pyramid)! Luckily I had a light jacket with me because it was a...cold and b... windy ;-)
But it was still (warning: pun alert!) pyramidal. In addition to the Cheops pyramid, there are a few other (smaller) pyramids, including those of mothers and wives, within a menhir's throw. The picture of our homepage was taken here. Entry to the Cheops solar barge on display costs an extra 50 EGP - but it's worth it!
And then the Sphinx! Of course there was a huge rush, but I was still able to take some good pictures (at least that's what I think... see also the image gallery).
The fact that there was another obligatory stop at a perfume retailer didn't bother us - on the contrary! My wife found her long-missing fragrance 'Secret Of The Desert' (and of course bought it straight away - among a few others, including the pendant for me: 'Secret Of The Night' ... ;-)
Happy and exhausted, we returned to the hotel and fell into a deep sleep despite the traffic noise.
Today the culture continues:
The morning of the day was marked by a visit to three churches:
one Coptic, one Jewish and one Protestant.
Afterwards we went to the citadel or alabaster mosque.
What a building! The pictures can only convey the beauty to a limited extent!
to the image gallery
The mosque was built by Muhammad Ali...
No joke, just name duplicity! The mosque was built in the Ottoman style on behalf of Pasha Muhammad Aly between 1824 and 1884 and is therefore also called the Muhammad Aly Mosque. Today it can also be visited by non-Muslims - but without shoes and 'appropriately dressed'.
...is more than worth a visit for visitors with an affinity for Egypt culture! The famous bust of Nefertiti (Nofretete) is in the museum of the same name in Berlin, but in addition to the even more famous mask of Tutankhamen (Tutanchamun), you can find over 100,000 other exhibits here that illuminate all facets of the ancient Egyptian culture.
The new museum is currently being completed and will open in 2020 in the immediate vicinity of the pyramids. There are even more exhibits to be admired here (which are still stored in the basement of the old museum). As a result, not as much money is being put into the old museum anymore, and this is noticeable in some places.
For lunch our boys (driver and guide) invited us to a typical Egyptian snack bar. Dish of pasta, lentils, rice, chickpeas, roasted onions, with tomato sauce and chili in oil (very spicy), very tasty fried bread with salt in the form of chips.
On the way to our sightseeing we also got an impression of how poor Egyptians deal with garbage. A beautiful and long canal was filled with rubbish that was simply thrown into it. Even when driving through the poorer parts of the city, we saw large piles of garbage in the middle of the street with dogs and cats running around. The government is trying to change the situation, but that only works if the population changes their mindset at the same time.
In general, our young driver deserves the greatest respect: wedged in a hellishly honking avalanche of metal, he drove without an accident and confidently got us through the traffic. Never seen so many cars with sheet metal damage. Pedestrians in the middle. But where were the cyclists????
We continue with Aswan and Luxor .
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