Cairo, Egypt November 22- 28
We all got up very early Saturday morning and headed to the airport. We had a few problems but made our flight. Hyrum slept on the short flight. When we got to Cairo we were picked up in a big van and taken to our hotel on an island in the Nile. It took about an hour to get there.
Driving in Cairo is interesting. I thought people used their car horns a lot in Jordan, but it's nothing compared to Cairo. Transportation is also different. We passed this three wheeled motorcycle/ trailer full of chickens with people on top.
Cairo is also much dirtier than Amman. The pyramids are higher than the buildings.
A horse drawn cart going down the street. They use oxen in the fields.
Some of the carts going down the street.
When we drove under a crowded bridge, motorcycles were riding on the sidewalks right by the people!
Small converted "taxi" motorcycles.
Food in Cairo was a bit tricky. We ate a lot of fruit and peanut butter and honey sandwiches.
Here's the view from our hotel room.
The other direction was the Nile River.
On Monday Josh had to do some work at the Embassy.
The kids and I spent the day at the hotel.
They had lots of fun running around the gardens.
We had only been outside about 5 minutes and it started pouring rain! The kids really wanted to play in the rain but their mean, old mom wouldn't let them. In my defense it was cold, VERY VERY slippery, and no extra clothes! We went and had a fancy lunch instead. The kids were so happy to eat something other than fruit and PPB and honey sandwiches.
On Sunday we went to a Papyrus museum. A man showed us how they made it. It takes several weeks!
They were very impressive. We bought 2 pictures. One is like the one above.
After the Papyrus museum we went to the Giza pyramids. We got a carriage and 2 camels to take us around. It was a very bumpy ride!
The kids loved it!
The kids playing on the big pyramid.
So, we wanted a family picture on the pyramid...
Happy faces...
and the crowed taking pictures of the crazy, American family.
Kids with the smallest of the three big pyramids.
It was amazing how big and rugged the pyramids are.
I love this one of Joseph and Katie on a camel.
It doesn't look very tall in the picture!
The kids playing on the pyramid.
Writing carved onto the wall.
More people who wanted a picture with us!
We went inside one of the small pyramids.
The steep passage lead to this room.
Josh and the kids with the camels.
Hannah riding in the carriage.
The Sphinx
Riding back to where our driver was waiting.
The view out the window of the car. It was greener than I expected. Our first three days we had a nice driver and a little car. Good thing there aren't seat belt laws here!
At the Step Pyramid.
Our stop for lunch (more PBB&H, and oranges). Hannah enjoyed feeding all the peels to a donkey!
This was a neat hill at the Step Pyramid you could see pyramids north and south of us.
A small pyramid.
A tunnel at the base of the small pyramid.
Inside one of the ruins. It was full of hieroglyphs! It was really cool!
Back at the hotel, cute baby in the bath!
On Tuesday we went to the Egypt Museum. We weren't allowed to bring our camera inside but here are a few of the outside.
Katie eating breakfast before going in. Yes, more fruit.
My cute nose pickers!
Peeking into the sarcophagus.
The burnt building behind us was from the Egyptian Revolution in 2011. The museum is at Tahiti square where most the riots were.
The kids begged me to take a picture of this cat because it had a green and a blue eye. Here we are surrounded by amazing artifacts and what is most impressive to the kids? A stupid cat!
The front of the museum was a bit intimidating. The road was all ripped up. Just after the entrance the street was blocked off with barbed wire and had lots of big military vehicles behind it. Lots of big guns. Josh says they keep them here so that they don't get crazy riots like they had in 2011.
We waited on the VERY crowed street for our driver.
A guy on a bus taking a video of the crazy Americans. I might go back to America and start taking pictures of all the foreigners!
Wednesday we waited for our ride to pick us up to visit Coptic Cairo. Our ride was an hour late so the kids had plenty of time to play.
I bent down to take a picture of Hyrum and he knelt down too!!
Our transportation the next few days were from the Embassy. We had a driver, a guide, and a whole bus! The kids thought it was awesome, especially after being squished in a small car!
The Coptic area is the Christian part of Cairo. We went in a few churches. One of them was supposedly the church that hid Mary, Joseph, and little Jesus in the basement.
We ate lunch (falaful- Jordan's is better, shwarma- Egypt's is much better, and fries), we bought a few souvenirs, and then headed back to the hotel.
We ate lunch (falaful- Jordan's is better, shwarma- Egypt's is much better, and fries), we bought a few souvenirs, and then headed back to the hotel.
This is an old Roman prison or garrison. The shape of it was interesting. It was a circle.
Tired boy on the way back.
Thursday we got picked up in the bus with the same driver and guide. We went to the Citadel. There's a huge old Mosque there.
We all took our shoes off and went in. Our guide told us a bit of the Mosque. We liked our guide.
It was a pretty building.
Putting shoes back on.
View of the city. Your suppose to be able to see the pyramids from here but the air is too nasty to see anything.
I talked a lot with our guide about religion. She answered all my questions about the Muslim religion and I answered all her questions about our faith. I got to tell her about Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and our Prophet. We also talked about our religions standards. We are very similar in a lot of areas. Our conversation was my favorite part of the day, I don't get many opportunities to talk to other women here because I don't speak Arabic (except la shukran) and they usually don't speak English..
Hyrum hiding in a bush.
We were going to go to the military museum but it was closed, but we did walk around the outside.
Hannah and a soldier.
My silly boys.
The mob! Hannah usually loves the attention but Michael hates it!
A cool old catapult.
I love that they cut Allah (God) into bushes and trees. They do the same thing in Jordan.
A big old aqueduct.
Headed back to our bus.
It was Thanksgiving and when we got back on the bus our guide had made some cupcakes for us.
She was very excited to take us to a restaurant with traditional Egyptian food. It had noodles, beans, rice, and like a spaghetti sauce. It was pretty good.
If you ask the kids what the best part of Egypt was they'd tell you the pool at the hotel.
It was an inside-outside heated pool.
It also had a small kiddy NOT heated pool. It was too cold.
We spent several hours here. The kids loved it! We went swimming everyday except the day it poured.
