DAY 10 CAIRO, EGYPT

After an early wakeup we went for breakfast and ran into Rita and Jules in the restaurant. We found out later we were in the wrong place because they started turning people away and sending them somewhere else. I have no idea where we were supposed to go.
We paid our dinner bill which was 33 for the 2 of us and met the rest of the bus at 7 and got on our way.

The first place we went was the Citadel where Mohammed Ali is buried in the Mosque that is all made of alabaster. I am sure there is so much that I have forgotten that will come to me at odd times and I'll just toss it in. There are 97 pyramids in Egypt; the first one was built by King Josep and he is buried either in the temple or next door in the pyramid in Sakkara. My mind is jumbled and Enid isn't around to straighten it out.

Then we went back to the great pyramids of Giza which are 2600 years B.C. The biggest was built for King Cheops, it took 130,000 slaves, 2,3000,000 blocks weighing 2 1/2 tons each and took 20 years to complete. It is made of limestone and there is nothing holding the blocks together. It encompasses 33,000 acres of space. While we were there some people were able to take camel rides and those of us that just wanted to take pictures got caught in a sand storm that had the sand slamming into our faces and eyes. The people that were wearing contact lenses were affected the most.

Before I forget, Islam, our accountant after collecting all the money for the tour got off at one of our stops holding his briefcase in one hand and brass knuckles in the other hand. This is a serious place. When the street vendors became too aggressive the bodyguards had to chase them away. I feel like I've spent my life traveling in a bus or van.

Then we went to the Sphinx but to be honest I was too tired to even get out of the bus so Enid got out and even picked up 2 Egyptian head dresses.

Then we finally went for lunch in a restaurant called Caviar which thankfully is not what they served. We had a choice of fish (fish, shrimp, and calamari) or chicken and beef. Everyone at our table except Enid and I chose fish and it came with french fries and fried rice. The shrimp were prawns with the heads, eyes and shells still on and not very appetizing. We waited and waited and waited some more and they finally came over with white rice and french fries and then we waited some more. We were due to board the bus at 3 and it was 2:50 when they finally brought over skewers of chicken, peppers and onions which happened to be delicious. Some of the fish people even had some of the chicken. They must have run out of beef by the time they got to serving us but that was okay.

Then we went to the Papyrus Institute to see how it is made and to purchase some if we wanted. Some of the things were magnificent. We also got the cartouches that we were able to order this morning after seeing how the first ones came out and realized what a bargain they were.

Finally at 4:30 we got on the bus and headed back to Alexandria to get back on the ship for 2 glorious restful sea days. We got back close to 7:30, tired, weary and maybe even a little grouchy and the nicest thing that happened was in that beautiful building when our bags (very heavy bags) went through the x ray machines they (the crew) asked if we wanted them to bring the bags to our cabin.
That was the best part of our day. The only thing that would've been better was if they would have carried us to our cabin instead of the bags.

All we did was drop our jackets off in the cabin, race up to the buffet and grab a fast bite. We couldn't wait to jump in the shower and get the sand off our bodies and out of our hair.