Bob and Ann in Egypt and Jordan 2009

Please visit today's slide show.

We had our last breakfast in Cairo for awhile this morning. It was really crowded early because of tour groups from Japan and some American groups one of which was a different OAT tour. We packed up and left the hotel at 8:45. Our first stop was a store selling clothing made from Egyptian cotton. I was ready to buy a shirt but they didn’t have my size in the one I liked. Besides, Ann said that the quality was not great.

Next, we went to to the Egyptian Antiquities Museum. This museum was opened in early 1900 and contains antiquities from over 4,000 years old. It was erected to store and exhibit Egyptian antiquities that would have been plundered, damage or moved to museums and private parties throughout the world. The most popular exhibit is the Tutankhamon wing. It contains all of the relics gathered from Tutankhamon’s tomb including his mask. It was overwhelming.

We touched on other exhibits but the museum had so many things to look at, we just brushed the surface. If you spent one minute looking at each relic, it would take several years to see them all.

I have no photos because cameras are forbidden in the museum. You will have to look at its web site to see some of the things that we saw.

Traffic from the Restaurant

After the museum visit, we had lunch in a Lebanese restaurant. To get to it, we rode up to the top floor of a building in a glass elevator. On the way up, we could watch the crazy traffic that we had just driven through. Our main course was chicken kabobs with rice and mixed vegetables. Our starters included bread (this time we had some thin, crisp bread) with several kinds of dips. We also had fried spinach rolls – somewhat like spring rolls.

We then drove to the airport for our flight to Aswan. On the way, we stopped briefly at a haunted villa built by a Belgian many years ago and at the spot where Anwar Sadat was assassinated.

We arrived in Aswan at around 7:30. Our bags were loaded on our latest bus and we were transported to our hotel, the Basma Hotel Aswan. Because it was getting late, we all decided to head directly to the buffet dinner. It was a nice spread with soups, salads, lots of entrees and yummy desserts.