Cairo and the pyramids

Hello all you patient people! I'm finally in a place where I can spend some quality time with a computer...so let me catch you up on where I've been and what I've been doing! I am going to do this in sections, so it's not so hard to read...and write! :)

After spending a couple of days in Amsterdam, I flew into Cairo on Jan 12 at around 3 in the morning. Evidently at that time of day, I can't read! So I missed my name on the little card (I've decided that is one of the most comforting things on earth...seeing your name written on the airport card!) and wandered around the arrival hall for a while. Since I didn't know where I was staying, finding someone who knew and would take me there was sort of important!

Finally did and got to my hotel around 4am. I was staying at Mena House, directly across form the pyramids at Giza. If I remember right, this is the location of the graduation of the American School in Cairo. Anyway, below is what I looked out at that first morning! Well, sort of...I hope I explained about the dinosaur. Anyway...it was pretty cool!


Here's what it looked like at night!
After sort of relaxing (read SLEEPING) for most of that first day, I met my "group" which turned out to be me with a guide. No, this was not how I had planned to see Egypt. I had planned to go specifically with a group so that I would have others to do things with. I had even mentioned this to the tour operator, but somehow he missed this part. At this point in the trip, I was not happy about this at all. (Later I grew to enjoy it, but we'll get to that!)

My guide's name was Ayman, and he was a great guy. He was expecting his first child, set to be born at the end of our trip, and was so excited about this. His english was excellent, and he was so considerate of me. The first day we went to the pyramids in Giza. I've always thought that the pyramids were all around Cairo, but I was to discover this trip that Cairo only has a 3. The rest are further up the Nile. The Sphinx is also in Giza, so that was my view of Egypt.

In Giza there are 3 pyramids, built around 3500 BC in the 4th dynasty. (Egypt had 30 dynasties, and it would take a better Egyptologist than I to explain that) The first constructed, and the largest was the pyramid of Khufu, then Khephren and Menkaure (Mycerinus). Every temple is composed of 4 parts. There's the valley temple, used for something..but I can't remember what, the mortuary temple, where the body is prepared for burial, the small pyramids of the queens, and the main pyramid, containing the burial chamber. You really can't see all the extra pieces anymore, they only have foundations left, but here's a picture of all three pyramids.

Next to the pyramids, boats have been found which were buried to enable the king to travel to the other side. These are called "Solar Boats", because they were constructed to take the king to join the sun god Ra. Here is a picture of Ayman with the Solar boat of King Khufu. This was found in pieces and reconstructed. You can tell it was not made to be really used...it's not pegged together but held together with ropes.
Camels were everywhere, and here is one offering "taxi" by the pyramid of Khephren
I didn't get pictures of the inside, but imagine a long tunnel about 4.5 feet tall and 4.5 feet wide leading about half way up through the center of the pyramid to a big empty room (all the cool stuff is in the Cairo museum). Then imagine 400 Japanese tourists heading up that ramp as you...claustrophobic you...are headed down. Nope...don't ever have to do that again!

Next to the valley temple was the Sphinx. It was too cool. When it was found, just its head was sticking out of the sand. They have it uncovered now, and to me it is still as amazing as ever.

Well, that was just the first day!

More to come...
Earline

A whole new year

Happy new year to all you guys. Ap0logies to all of you who keep up with me here on this blog. I've been running like a chicken without a head, and now I'm off again.



You last found me in Panama. Well that trip burned me out. I went back to Antigua, spent one of my best birthday's ever at Earth Lodge, and then CAME HOME!!! I was really ready by then to see friends, sleep in my own bed, all of the things coming home means. What hadn't really sunk in was I don't have a home in Houston any more. I stayed with my friend John, but as kind and welcoming as he is (he met me at the airport with a giant Dr. Pepper!) it's not home.

Here's a picture of the Panama canal...just FYI







I was there for about a week, then went to Austin to see some good friends of mine, then on to San Marcos to watch John graduate! It was wonderful. He is officially a college Graduate now. I'm really proud of him. Nicole was there, and on Saturday, Ryan came in, and Sonia. It was good to see then all. The kids and I went to Mexico for a few days R & R, then we got back and Ryan left for Wilmington, Nicole and Jon left for their grandparents in Ft. Worth, and I went to Monroe to visit Sue. She and I went to Tulsa to see her kids and spend Christmas there. We also went out to OKC to see Mike and Linda (other cousins). It was interesting and fun. I came back into Houston Dec 29. After a couple of days at John's, I went to a hotel for a few days. I just needed some time with no one around. It was great.

Here's one of Sue's granddaughters (Carissa) at Mike and Linda's baking Christmas cookies for us. Yumm...she put in M&M's!

This is another of Sue's granddaughters...Brianna, the oldest.

The next few days were a whirlwind of finishing out our corporate books for the year, and figureing out what is next for Mark and I. I'm getting out of the rehab business. Long term, I just don't see myself there. Mark has other plans, and so it looks like that long time partnership is winding down. It was great, and I don't regret anything, but it's time to move on.



Now for the really fun part. On Jan 7 I started traveling again. I went first to NYC to visit a friend I had made in Guatemala, Grace. She took Tues and Wed off, and we had a ball. We walked the Brooklyn bridge into Brooklyn and wandered around, rode a water taxi around the NY harbor, took in an off broadway play called Yellowface and generally had a blast. At 10pm Wed night, I left for Amsterdam. I slept most of the first day there, but then a friend from Houston came in (Stephen) and we went all over. We shopped, went to see the district where there are pretty red lights around all the windows, and ate crokets and frites with sate! I was in heaven. Of course the one picture I manage to upload before my battery goes dead is one of us in a bar near the Cloisters museum. Tee was thirsty.



I left again late at night (10pm) for Cairo, and got here this morning around 3:30. It took a while to connect with my guide, since evidently I'm unable to read my name that late at night, but we are here and in one of the most beautiful hotels you could imagine. It was dark when we got in, but the bellman said I would be able to see the pyramids from my window. Later, when I couldn't sleep, I went out to my balcony just as the sun was coming up and the pyramids are RIGHT THERE!!!! It was beautiful to watch the pink and blue sky around the pyramids.



Our tour starts tomorrow, so who knows what I will be able to see. One comment, you will see a lot of a certain dinosaur in my pictures from now on. One of my friends, Susan, has a nephew with an imaginary friend who is a T-Rex dinosaur named TEEEEE- Rex! So Teeee and I are traveling together. I found him in Grand Central station with his bags all packed :)



I'm going to try to attach pictures, and we'll see how this goes! Love you guys, take care.

Earline