Egypt

We went to Egypt. It was amazing. We saw sites of many temples and churches. It is amazing this stuff is still around after 5000 years. Some of the many things were the Great Pyramids of Giza, The Sphinx, Edfu Temple, The Step Pyramid(the first one ever built), Kind Tuts gold in the Egyptian Museum, Karnak Temple, Queen Hatshepsut Temple, Luxor Temple, Coptic Cairo, The Valley of the kings, Kom Ombo Temple, Citadel of Qaitbay, the Library in Alexandria and the Nile.

Egypt is not what you imagine. Cairo is very busy. It has 25 million people living there. The roads are crazy and the taxi drivers most talented. After being in a car here I would say New York is tame. People are walking everywhere, even the highways. If they are not driving or walking they are riding a donkey. Thats right I did say donkey. They would load carts with stuff so high you can't even imagine it how it stays on. They then pull this cart with one little donkey. The ladies carry everything on their heads. We even saw a guy on a bike balancing a large tray of pitas on his head. The kajma curse would insist that I fall over if I tried to do this.

The Pyramids are amazing. They let you climb right on them. They are so huge and you can see how they have lasted as long as they have. We also rode a camel here. It was a bit scary and they are very tall!!!!! We then went to the Sphinx which at that point the Kajma curse kicked in and I did fall off a wall. Luckily only my pride was hurt and thanks to my sweet kids they never let it go. We saw the step Pyramid which was the first pyramid ever built.

We went to so many temples but Edfu was my favorite. This one we stopped at on our cruise down the Nile. It is the most preserved. Most of the structure is still there and the carvings and painting are amazing. We went into many tombs. Because these are underground the paint has not faded. You could easily think they were painted only yesterday.

Another thing we did was Coptic Cairo. We visited a few of the historic churches in the area. Including one where Christ, Mary and Joseph hid while he was young from Herod. The church is still in use and it was just an experiance sitting there and knowing that this was a haven for Christ.

The people in Cairo were very nice. Especially because they all thought we were Canadian. I guess if you tell them your American they require more security. They don't want to have an international incident on their hands. They definitely don't want to deal with the American Government if something was to happen to one of their citizens. At no time were we or did we feel like things were unsafe. Unless you consider we will all probably go through nicotine withdrawls since every man there smokes like a chain smoker. Another thing is that the city is very dirty. I don't think anyone knows how to use a trash can and if they do no one must pick them up. The sad thing is you go out to these amazing sites and garbage is just thrown in the corners because even the tourist can't appreciate what they are seeing.

Of course our trip would not be complete if someone didn't get sick and Lucas filled the portion for us. We went to Alexandria and one of the stops was the big library. They don't allow kids in there and our guide had to get the ok from someone higher up. Of course while in there Lucas throw up all over the beautiful floor. It was so bad, but what can you do. They will probably never make that exception again. lol

We had the most amazing experiance and wouldn't trade if for the world. This was something definitely worth doing and would do it all over again.