Christmas in Cairo (day 1)

For a short holiday break we thought we should go someplace warm, someplace where we had never been, and see the sights. We decided on Cairo and planned an intensive week of seeing the requisite tourist sights.

Booking on Turkish Airlines from Tbilisi through Istanbul to Cairo, we got to the airport for our 5:30 a.m. departure to find that our outbound flight had been cancelled. Thank you Turkish Airlines and Travelocity.

It was only because the morning Lufthansa flight to Munich was two hours late that we got out, with a new routing of Tbilisi-Munich-Cairo (Egypt Air for the second leg). And so, we had a nice six-hour layover in the snow in Munich.

Arriving in Cairo, it was definitely not snowing.

We made our way to our vaguely pyramid-shaped hotel,

which was decked out Christmas festive,

and also nicely appointed with the important comforts.

The next morning we headed out of town to Saqqara to see the Step Pyramid of Djoser and to visit some ancient tombs.

We then headed back into Cairo to see the more famous Giza pyramid complex.

Even though the pyramids were spectacular, the sights along the way and through the city were just as interesting.

Christmas in Cairo (day 2)

The second day in Cairo was religions and history day for us. We started out with a visit to the Citadel and to the nearby Mosque of Mohamed Ali.

From here there are good views out over Cairo.

Our next destination was the Coptic Christian section of Cairo for a look at some of the non-Islamic shrines. Here we made an interesting stop at the Nunnery of St. George, who is also an important figure in Georgia.

And, again, everywhere we went, the route provided plenty of interesting sights.

We bought bags of spices from this guy.

Tourism & Antiquities Police everywhere. Note the automatic weapons.

That evening we enjoyed a dinner cruise on the Nile river, complete with entertainment by a belly dancer and a whirling dervish.

Curious about what that spinning man does? Check out this short video sample. In the show, he whirls non-stop for about 30 minutes!!

Christmas in Cairo (day 3)

Our third day in Cairo was spent at the Pharaonic Village in the morning and the Khan el Khalili shopping bazaar in the afternoon. Both of these sites are clearly visited mainly by the tourists. The first was surprisingly interesting and educational, and the second was surprisingly horrible.

The Pharaonic Village is laid out to show examples of life in ancient Egypt, with actors in costume representing various scenes of daily activities.

You take a guided tour, led by girls in modern costume.

Shop for junk.

And visit a couple of museums, including a copy of King Tut's tomb as it was found when opened.

Over all, this site was educational, priced affordably (as evidenced by the groups of real Egyptian school kids), and had souvenir shopping at fair prices.

From here we headed downtown for the Khan el Khalili bazaar. We did stop at a working man's lunch cafe for a bowl of kushari.

After lunch we walked down the still interesting streets

until we came to the famous bazaar with it's high-pressure salesmen; "How can I take your money today?" The big disappointment here was that the shops only had the expected tourist souvenir crap, and little or no real products. The only shoppers were foreigners, and the prices were ridiculous.

We realized the next day, when we visited the City Stars shopping mall, that we could also have found the same souvenirs there, without the high prices and high pressure.

City Stars - 7 stories, the 2nd largest shopping mall in the Middle East

And here is another short video... just 17 seconds of driving down a typical street.