Cairo & The Pyramids

Saturday 12th September - Today we arrived in Port Said at 6am, an hour earlier than our itinerary said – this may have been due to the fact that we put our clocks back an hour before going to bed. We had taken the risk and booked a private tour with Memphis Tours before we left NZ and had advertised on Cruise Critic and easily managed to make up a party of 16. I had got everyone to contact me by email and advise their cabin number so we could contact them onboard and collect their money. I arranged for everyone to meet at 6.45am and I advised the Pursers office of our contact number and the names of the people who were included in the tour. We were off the ship with the ship’s first tour and it was a relief to see a little man waiting holding a sign with our name on it! We had a driver, guide and armed guard on our bus and we were almost the first away in the convoy. The security is amazing and they get us through pretty quickly with armed personnel around and in-between the buses, as well, we went through a number of check points on the way to Cairo which was three hours away. Our guide was fantastic and the guard kept a tight watch on us whenever we got out of the bus. The trip to Cairo was interesting, they drive like crazy and we saw a number of accidents with maybe two that looked as if they were fatal ones. On our arrival we visited the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities concentrating on the treasures of King Tutankhamen including the coffins (three of them) in which he was buried. One of them was granite, the next wood and the next one gold. We also saw a series of chambers – I think four - in which his personal possessions were stored in the pyramid. It was then on to Old Cairo, visiting The Hanging church, the Ben Ezra synagogue and the Mary Gerges church where Mary and Joseph hid in the crypt when they fled into Egypt. We stopped for 30 minutes for a quick lunch then off to the Great Pyramids, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. We saw the Pyramid of Cheops, middle pyramids of Chephren and the little ones of Mykerinos and the Sphinx. We all said that we never, in our wildest dreams, thought that we would ever get to see this part of the world. It is amazing to see things that are up to 4000 years old! We feel so lucky to have the opportunity to do this trip – I know I have said this before – and we have to pinch ourselves often, to actually believe that we are! What we have seen in the last few months is just amazing and lots of memories to take home with us. I hope that my family will sometime have the opportunity to do the same. After the pyramids we were taken to have a quick look at a souvenir shop then to a place where they make paper from the papyrus plant which was really interesting and I bought a small picture. It was then time for our return to Port Said where we arrived at 7pm. We had to be back onboard at 8pm but were allowed to go off again on the dock till 11pm – not through the security gates though - where a number of little stalls were selling bits and pieces. We had to wait until 1am to start our journey through the Suez Canal but by this time we will be tucked up in bed!