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| Having visited the mosque we then headed over to an old Coptic church. Nearby were many interesting dwellings and alleyways. | ||||||||||||
 Someone's home in Cairo |
 Sweeping the street |
 Cobble stone walkway |
 Cobblestone alley |
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 Anne standing in a small cobblestone alley |
For anyone who has never visited a third-world country it's difficult to actually describe the conditions that exist. The pictures you see on this and the other pages somewhat describe what life must be life for the citizens of Egypt and Cairo, but they don't fully describe what you encounter when visiting these countries. Some of it is pretty hard to believe, for example: At the end of our trip we took an overnight train from Aswan back to Cairo. We had first class accommodations with a sleeper cabin. The glasses in the cabin were filthy and unusable, but the bed appeared clean. Early the next morning as we were arriving in Cairo Anne and I were looking out the window. There were hundreds of people walking to work along the tracks. Some were dressed in suits, others in work clothes and children dressed for school carrying their books. Amidst all of this activity and people traffic I was literally dumbfounded to see laying in the dirt the carcass of a donkey that had died quite some time ago. Its flesh had long since decayed and the only thing remaining was the hide and bones. It lay flat on the dirt and people were walking around it. When it died it was left exactly where it was for time and nature to take care of. I would have thought that they would have removed it. Donkeys are indeed beast of burden in Egypt. |
 Alley leading to the Coptic church we visited |
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Another funny (to me) story happened while we were in Egypt. Several in our group decided to take a dinner cruise on the Nile one evening. Zenab made the arrangements and we met in the lobby at the appointed time. Zenab negotiated the cab fare with the driver and told him where to take us and when to pick us up. She then instructed us not to pay the driver until he returned us to the hotel. Had we paid him beforehand the chances of our getting back to the hotel would have been slim. On the cruise the eight of us sat at a table for ten. Anne and I sat next to each other on the outside of the table. Next to me was an empty seat, then a small opening and a table for two. Shortly after we arrived a well dressed Egyptian couple arrived and took the table for two nearby. He was dressed in a suit and she in full Muslim attire. Having had dinner Anne and I visited the desert table and selected a few choice items to share. Arriving back at the table we placed the plate between us and, as we enjoyed the treats, we rested our forks on the plate between bites. When the entertainment began, a belly dancer, the Egyptian couple changed positions. She took the outside seat with her back to the dancer and he the inside seat. It was clear he was enjoying the belly dancer quite a bit and she was not at all happy about that. As he smiled and enjoyed the dance she continually kicked him under the table. At no time did she ever turn to look at her. During his excitement with the dancer he accidentally knocked his fork onto the floor and didn't notice that he had done so. When the dance was over and he began to pay attention to his desert he noticed his fork was missing. I could see him looking around for the fork and followed his eyes to the plate that lay between Anne and myself with our two forks resting on it. Before I knew it, he was half standing and leaning toward me with his outstretched hand. To my amazement he was going for one of the forks on our plate. I quickly intercepted his hand and pointed to his fork laying on the floor. He simple nodded and secured another fork from the waiter. I've laughed about that many times since it's happened. One of our last stops in Cairo was the site where Anwar Sadat was assassinated some years earlier and the monument they erected in his memory. |
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 The reviewing stand where Anwar Sadat was assassinated |
 Monument to Sadat |
 Sadat's Tomb |
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This concludes the last page of the pictures from Cairo. We saw so many more wonderful things in Cairo but, because of rules and regulations, we weren't allowed to photograph them. I wish I had pictures of all the wonderful things we saw in the Egyptian Museum, but it wasn't possible. We, of course, bought the mandatory tour books with lots of pictures in them, but I cannot put them on these pages because of copyright laws. Our next stop on our tour of Egypt would be even better than Cairo with some magnificent ruins to see and enjoy. Join us as we travel to Luxor, Egypt, the site where the mighty city of Thebes originally stood as the capital of the Egyptian Kingdom for centuries. At Luxor we would tour the magnificent Temple of Karnak and travel across the Nile to visit the Valley of the Kings and Queens. This would prove to be the highlight of a magnificent trip.
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