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24 Hours in Cairo

Like most people visiting Egypt, the pyramids were one of the highlights of the trip that I’d been most looking forward to.

Arriving in Cairo following a quick flight from Luxor at some inhuman hour, I was bundled into a private taxi with a bouncy, energetic guide who immediately took me to a local shop to get me ‘something to wake me up’. The ‘something’ turned out to be a strange mixture called Sugarcane Juice. It did the job, even if an inevitable sugar crash was hovering just around the corner.

Back into the cab, a quick, scary rush down the busy roads and the first stop was to the Giza plateau. Making my way over to the pyramids, crowds of people were looking to get tickets to enter and there was no queuing system – everyone pushing to get to the front. The guide jumped in with more enthusiasm than was strictly necessary, surfacing a couple of minutes later clutching a small ticket that would let me into the centre of two of the pyramids of Giza. For some reason (possibly due to the environmental impact) tourists are only able to enter two of the three pyramids on any given day. I chose the Great Pyramid and the Second Pyramid to explore.

The Great Pyramid is also known as the Pyramid of Khufu and is thought to be the oldest of the seven ancient wonders of the world. The Second Pyramid or the Pyramid of Khafre is so called because it is the second tallest pyramid at Giza. Spending time during the earlier part of my trip to read up on the structures, I already knew that I wouldn’t be seeing ornately decorated interiors, similar to those in the tombs at the Valley of the Kings, however I was just excited to step foot in a pyramid – that’s not something you do every day and I’d always wanted to be Indiana Jones!

Approaching the Great Pyramid, I was surprised by how near I could get to the actual pyramid exterior, the blocks looking even bigger up close. It was fairly claustrophobic inside, the floor sloping upwards in a steady incline and the walls less than an arm’s-span apart. If you are not a fan of small spaces, this is not the trip for you! There were railings on the walls to help move up the incline and the flooring was boarded with slight raised notches every couple of steps. A small cadged light was perched above the passageway, providing dim lighting to direct my steps.

Although the inside of the Great Pyramid’s main chamber was sparse and undecorated, it felt incredible to be standing in the centre of such an iconic and historic landmark. I’ve always been fascinated by ancient Egypt and despite the mustiness, dust and sand, I felt elated to be undertaking such an adventure.

Always one to let my imagination run wild, I couldn’t help but wonder what it would have been like when the pyramid was first discovered, with the archeology teams taking their first steps into the darkness of the structure, unsure of what lay ahead of them in the darkness.

The Second Pyramid was just as exciting and my attention was captured by small shafts in the building, leading upwards to align with the stars. The attention to detail, coupled with the scale of the structure was hard to comprehend. Emerging from the depths of the pyramid, blinking into the light, I achieved my Indiana Jones moment, the noise of the crowds chasing away my imagined rumblings of the unseen, oncoming boulder.

Heading away from the pyramids, the Sphinx was my next destination. It rose out of the dust, flanked by the outlines of the pyramids in the distance. The Sphinx was stretched out at the end of a long pathway, which ran the length of the monument. Actually touching it was just out of reach, but up close, it was stunning to see. Considered to be one of the oldest monuments in Egypt, it was incredible imagine how this must have looked when it was being discovered, half buried in the sand. The plateau was full of people, all being encouraged to take posed pictures to show the scale of the Great Sphinx of Giza.

The final couple of stops of the morning were to the Giza Solar Boat Museum to look at the boats which had been buried nearby, thought by some to have been used as funeral barges.

The afternoon was spent visiting Khan Al-Khalili, a large souk in the bazaar district as well as wandering around the Cairo Museum. The contrast between the hustle and bustle, bright colours and noise of the shopping market and the calm, collected and hushed tones of the museum perfectly illustrated the two sides of Cairo that I’d experienced.

There were multiple treasures within the museum, but unfortunately the unbearable heat inside made it difficult to stay for too long. Regardless of the heat, I was determined to visit the hall of mummies and, the highlight of the museum, Tutankhamun’s burial mask. It was absolutely worth the discomfort and incredible to see.

The day was rounded off with a meal at the Hard Rock Cafe Cairo where I was able to spot one last wonder – Micheal Jackson’s hat from Smooth Criminal! It was a whirlwind 24 hours, with so much packed in to such a short time. I would love to go back some day to take it all in at my leisure. For now, Cairo stays on my list of places to visit again.

Have you ever had a 24 hour visit to somewhere? Would you go back or did you get to see everything you wanted? Let us know in the comments!

Transformation

So I discovered a new thing today -The Daily Post’s Picture Challenge. A new theme is set on a Wednesday each week and the challenge is to share photos of your interpretation of that theme. That means a bonus post this week!

This week’s theme is Transformation and immediately it made me think of sunsets. There is something magical about sunsets, watching the sky change through its cycle of colours as the stars slowly become visible. We’ve had a few stunning sun rise/sets on our travels and I thought that we would share a few:

This was looking out from Dubrovnik towards Lokrum. A storm had passed, the rain had started to dry out and the sun was starting to set. It was beautifully peaceful, the only sound, the lapping of the waves.

One of my favourite places on Earth – Yosemite National Park. Getting ready for a stargazing evening, we had parked up and stood transfixed as the sun went down, casting shadows on the granite face of Half Dome. As the sun dropped, the sky was transformed from a beautiful blue to a blanket of shooting stars.

This was taken at English Bay in Vancouver. We’d had a hectic day exploring what felt like every inch of the city and as the sun set, we sat down against a log on the beach, slowing down the pace of the day and watching the boats out at sea. It was a scene that would stay with us long after the sun tan faded.

Stuck in traffic in LA, the novelty of a full day’s drive on such huge freeways had worn off and we were desperate to get to our hotel. As the sun went down, our energy was rejuvenated at the warmly-lit skies.

Arriving in Carmel, USA we found a hotel just as the afternoon was getting late. Having spent the best part of a week camping, we were all desperate to get showers. The hotel proprietor told us about the amazing sunsets and the best places to watch down on the beach. It was almost dark by the time we made it down to the sand but we stood there transfixed as the stunning oranges turned into full dark, leaving us exhausted but happy for the next stage of our trip.

Where was your favourite sunset? Tell us in the comments.

Magpie and Stump Vs High Rollers

Bowling, drinks and Canadian atmosphere in Banff

The barmaid in the Magpie & Stump obviously wasn’t happy with our selection of drinks – we chose the rum over the tequila and the prices didn’t seem to top us over the threshold of ‘well paying customers’. The slight ‘dishwasher-like’ taste came as a freebie, and lingered around well after the last swallow.
It was a strange place, Mexican style with hundreds of monkey nut shells covering the floor. Our group weren’t sure if this was by design or by lazy cleaning. Either way, the place didn’t have the vibe we were looking for.
After tipping the waitress well, she warmed up a little and told us about a place down the street called High Rollers. From her description, it sounded a bit more our kind of scene.
Hanging a right down the road, we headed down a small staircase where the room opened out into a space big enough for a couple of bowling lanes, a DJ booth, sports on the TV and an eating / drinking area. It was here that our group found the atmosphere we had been hunting down – something between nightspot hangout and first date location.

Sharing a few drinks (including a fishbowl not quite big enough to fit a goldfish in comfortably), we alternated between reviewing our trip, watching the other diners and providing unintentional entertainment for the couple sitting opposite us as they laughed at the competition we had going on between two of our group to finish the fishbowl in record time (there was some cheating going on and the green goo didn’t always seem to disappear as quickly as it should!). The relaxed vibe and friendly bar staff seemed to rub off on the other people in the room and everyone was laughing, smiling and shooting the breeze with the people on their tables – this was the Canadian night out I’d been looking to find.
High Rollers can be found at: http://www.highrollersbanff.com/

Planes, Ships and Space Shuttles: Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, New York

Whilst not all of our group wanted to visit the museum, Wandering Beeb sold it to me on the chance to see a real life space shuttle. Not something you do everyday, I was quite happy to give up a couple of hours of mooching about New York to visit the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum, located on the Hudson River in the Hell’s Kitchen area of Manhattan.

Aircraft Carrier Intrepid served in World War Two, the Cold War and the Vietnam War and is now a floating museum, telling the stories of the crew and the histories of the wars in which it served. It’s a huge museum site, complete with a submarine, space pavilion and Concord. A must for any transport, history or space geeks. I’ll let you guess which ones we are!

Heading on to the deck of Intrepid, the sheer scale was incredible- a number of restored airplanes were on display alongside gun battlements and yet there still felt like there was enough room to fit a good couple of football pitches down the middle. The planes really gave a sense of scale and proportion, making us feel like tiny ants on the flight deck.

A restored third deck gave a really good insight into daily life on Intrepid, with narrow quarters and a uniform grey covering everything, it was difficult to see how the people serving on the ship didn’t experience claustrophobia much more frequently. The contrast between the compressed lower quarters and the wide open spaces of the flight deck were huge.

Growler, the Guided Missile Submarine took us through a tour of the crews area, the torpedo room and the control room. It was hard to reconcile what must have been fast paced, pressured and crowded activity in the submarine during active duty with the calm and quiet museum experience of today.

We spent a serious amount of time walking through the various exhibits, taking loads of photographs and everywhere you looked, there was something new to see or a story to hear. The exhibits really gave a sense of people’s lives serving on Intrepid in a way that other museums sometimes fail to do. The human element was front and centre and this made it much more relatable. I spent most of the visit trying to soak up as many facts and stories as I could so that I could share them with my dad when I got home. It was the kind of place that I thought he would love.

The highlight of the visit was absolutely the Space Deck. Entering the pavilion, we were surrounded by the voices of pilots and mission control. These were actual recordings of their conversations, giving us a real sense of their experiences. The centrepiece of the Space Deck was Enterprise, a shuttle which was part of the NASA Space Shuttle Programme, carrying out test flights outside of the Earth’s atmosphere. There was a real sense of excitement in the room and the surrounding exhibits told a clear story of the development, experiences and history of the Shuttle.

Visiting the Intrepid Museum was a great way of understanding more about history, life on Intrepid and the developments that have take place to progress our journey into space through NASA and the Space Shuttle programme. It was a perfect way to spend a couple of hours and we can truthfully say that have been in the same room as Enterprise, gaining us a couple of extra geek points in any space related conversations!