We are greeted with a city, just waking up. A warm glow from the sun lights up her streets. Camels with their riders and donkey drawn carts clop by, laden with vegetables to sell to the people. It’s a stark contrast to Dubai’s glitz and glamour. Men huddle round barrel fires, smoking pipes in the bushes in the medium strip in a slow start to their day. Apartment buildings are a mix of ornate window trimmings with old brick, or a run down, crumbling faced with beautifully painted, sculptured doors. First stop of the day was at the famed Egyptian Museum. It certainly was a sight to behold. We spent three hours here and barely scratched the surface. We went through so quickly I can hardly remember a thing! Lucky I took like a million photos to help jog the memory later.
On the way to the blue mosque, Ahmed had the car blessed. He signalled to a man who promptly came running over with incense tin. He then proceeded to go around the whole bus and even came inside! We thought that was very funny and cool. The Mohammed Ali Mosque was stunning! The inside was so beautifully decorated with such detail! Again we became a spectacle with people wanting our and especially the kids photos. The girls kept running over to Ayrlie and sometimes Benjamin saying they were so sweet… like honey.
They followed us everywhere. After the Mosque we went to the synoptic churches. We picked up some silver chains and some silver scarab beetles with semi-precious stones ($136Aud). We saw the cave (they have turned into church) that Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus stayed whilst travelling through Egypt to Jerusalem. It’s pretty cool. Then we finally go to pick up our cartouches. Our guide Ahmid has had them made for us overnight, inlaid with our names. We arrive and walk down a little ally to the workshop. Up the windy staircase we find 3 small rooms. One guy demonstrates on mine, how they solder on the hieroglyphs. First they place a very small square of silver on the cartouche. Then they place the letters on top. They use a blow torch to heat the whole thing up and melt the squares. It’s polished with running sand and an electric buffer. They are solid silver and 18ct gold. So beautiful for only $46 each!! Bargain! We eat dinner at the pool bar after being evicted from the pool. The food is so good! We can’t believe it’s the same hotel as breakfast is so bad! We have yummy fish and chicken with hummus and cheesy bread.
