Egypt Day 8: The Great Pyramids of Giza and Saqqara

About halfway through our trip someone asked me on Facebook if I had a favorite day so far and at the time I said I couldn't pick. But then Day 8 happened and it was my favorite of all.

I don't want to bury the lede: WE WALKED AROUND THE GREAT PYRAMIDS! We rode camels! We saw the oldest complete stone structure IN THE WORLD! We ate Egyptian food for 3 delicious meals! It was the best damn day.

We woke up early (of course! 5:30 am! one of our later alarms!) at The Conrad to a bountiful buffet breakfast- Landon's favorite thing in the whole world, and said hello again to our Cairo guide (Mohamed), Egyptologist (Ayman), and driver (different Mohamed), all of whom we had met during our half day in Cairo at the start of the trip.

We piled in our van and headed out to Giza, which is part of Cairo, but thanks to the insane Cairo traffic, takes about 45 minutes to get to. The weather was cold and windy- we were clearly not in Aswan anymore and I was underdressed, but standing before us was one of the wonders of the world, the Great Pyramids, so it was okay. I loaned Cora my jacket because she was freezing and I was feeling generous and brave while faced with such human achievement.

There are so many facts and so much history behind these structures, but in short: it took 100,000 workers a year for 20 years to build one pyramid.

A single large pyramid contains 2.3 million blocks of stone, weighing between 3.5 - 17,000 tons each.

The pyramids used to have a completely smooth layer over all the blocks and scientists debate what it was made of and how they did it, but it was destroyed with time and earthquakes so only the blocks underneath remain.

It’s impossible to feel the scale of the pyramids in pictures but they are HUGE and we are small and I don’t know how they could have been built 4,000+ years ago. Simply amazing.

Though competing for the sheer amazingness of pyramids: dogs! It was hard to tear the girls away.

(Look how tiny the people are compared to that pyramid!)

After wandering around the pyramids and listening to lots of stories from our guide, we got back in our van and drove to Panorama Point where you can see all 9 pyramids before you. There are lots of vendors offering camel rides and the whole scene is pretty chaotic.

Our guide knew a man who owned his own four camels and took good care of them, so he waded into the insane morass of people, yelling to his buddy in Arabic. We waited around a bit and then suddenly it was our turn on the camels! They looked healthy and content, so we all climbed aboard- with Cora and I sharing a camel and everyone else getting their own.

My camel was the tallest and very proud of himself, Claire and Landon’s camels were very smiley, and James’s camel preferred not to be touched on his head. They were awesome and so were the views.

Insane to be riding a camel and have a bunch of pyramids photobomb your selfie behind you.

Camels don't move particularly fast and the ride is MUCH more uneven than it looks from afar, but we really enjoyed getting to ride on them and experience travel over that smooth fine sand. It was SO windy- my dress literally could not have been a worse thing to wear- but truly nothing could dull how happy I felt experiencing the pyramids. >

Next up was a papyrus shop where we learned how it’s made (very cool) and bought a piece for the house that's now hanging in our entryway. Then it was lunch buffet at a private club that used to be an extravagant personal residence and had many locals dancing to music around the pool. “Welcome to Alaska!” everyone kept saying when they greeted us (it was 55 degrees out). The pool was beautiful, but definitely no one was swimming.

Finally we drove to Saqqara Necropolis to see the Pyramid of Djoser, or Step Pyramid, which is the oldest complete stone complex in the world. It was built before the smoother ones we saw that morning. Apparently the pharaoh had an idea to build it an basically left it to everyone else to figure out how.

The Great Sphinx, also a giant miraculous structure, guards it well.

The Step Pyramid has some ancillary buildings you can walk through. It was interesting to compare the surrounding temples to those we saw along the Nile. The much older one in Saqqara had no hieroglyphs, no paints or colors, no etchings… just flat columns and smooth walls. The tools and techniques of the elaborate temples in the south hadn’t been developed yet. It's crazy to think the ancient structures were were in just days before were "new" by comparison.

We had a few other stops and a great dinner at the hotel followed by bed time at 9 pm because we were WIPED. It was such a cool day, I remain in awe these wonders exist and we got to see them!

Egypt Day 7: Nubian Village, Aswan, back to Cairo

I really want to finish these recaps and I'm barely halfway through! Let's go back to Egypt. It was the best trip we've ever taken as a family and writing about it brings back the fun and wonder. Especially because early January feels like it was 2 years ago instead of 2 months.

We're picking back up on Day 7- our last day to wake up on the boat where we were docked at our final stop in Aswan. It was supposed to be an empty morning, meant for sleeping in and getting ready to travel back to Cairo, but our guide Jusef, an Egyptian-born Egyptologist, highly recommended a trip to the Nubian Village.

We would go by a small boat that would pick us up from the cruise ship, travel along some lush, greener banks of the Nile, stop at a sandy beach, and visit a Nubian Village for tea, bread, and to see the sacred baby crocodiles. The kids were all in at “baby crocodiles,” and so our alarms were set once more.

We were up bright and early, what even is sleep on vacation?, and boarded a small boat that picked us up at the docked ship to sail to the village.

We rode along banks more lush than those we had seen so far, filled with bushes and birds of all kinds. We stopped at a sandy beach area so we could finally touch this water we'd been living on for 5 days and it was crystal clear and FREEZING cold.

Cora, forever our beach baby, immediately attempted to build a sand castle, but the sand was so fine it couldn't take any shape. It was hard to walk in and you immediately understand why camels with their giant feet and few toes walked so well along it.

There are many Nubian Villages on many small islands around the river, but we stopped at one our guide likes to visit.

He explained as we sailed that the Nubian people originate from Sudan, but have been in Egypt since ancient times. They are generally darker skinned and their language, which is *only* spoken, is competely different from any other language spoken in Egypt. Our guide said he has learned some of their language to get by but his native Arabic isn't helpful at all.

Their architecture is also completely different from anything else we'd seen so far on the trip- their buildings are all soft lines and round curves, with bright colors, and patterns.

And they worship crocodiles. Jusef explained this as a deep part of the Nubian culture- the raising, care, and eventual release of crocodiles.

There are mummified crocodiles outside most buildings, for blessing and protection, and the larger homes often have a baby crocodile, or even an adult, inside. I'm just going to say I felt weird about the crocodiles in their small pens. I'm also going to acknowledge that it is absolutely a deep part of their culture and I don't know that my opinion matters. Our guide insisted they are beloved and well cared for and there is even a crocodile vet who goes from village to village to check on the sacred animals.

The Nubian people were very friendly and we were thankful they invited us into their home. Despite being sandy floored, the homes and city pathways were spotlessly clean and someone was always sweeping everywhere we looked.

We had tea (hot black mint or cold hibiscus; the black mint was by far the best tea I had on the trip) and were offered a hearty homemade bread (a loaf-style, not pita) and dips which again were VERY different from those we had seen so far. It felt like being dropped in an entirely different country.

Once we had our tea and bread, we were offered the chance to hold one of the three baby crocodiles in the home. The patriach who brought our baby crocodile over to us raised them from eggs. When they get bigger they are set free in Lake Nassar. The croc was surprisingly heavy and solid, with a smooth belly, and he calmed instantly if you patted his head. The kids were delighted they got to hold a baby crocodile and Landon has the picture of him snuggling the croc framed in his room.

On our way out we said hello to the camels in the village and the kids got to sit on one. The camels, our first to see up close on the trip, have a lot of personality and also enjoy a head pat.

The boat ride back was lovely and then we were back on our big boat, waiting to be picked up for the airport to fly back to Cairo.

As we learned was pretty standard, our flight was delayed, then more delayed, then mildly chaotic when they decided it was time to board RIGHT NOW, especially since you board a bus and THEN the plane, but we made it to Cairo and back to our old hotel and guide (and fave Egyptian restaurant!).

We ate dinner at the Egyptian restaurant in our hotel every night in Cairo. It was so darn good and so easy (and cheap!). We found we were up early, adventured all day, and then ate at "home" and collapsed in bed right after.

The girls started eating at the more American style restaurant one floor down. They loved getting their own table, eating spaghetti every night, and getting ice cream for dessert. Their total bill each night was about $22.

We went to bed so thankful for all our experiences along the Nile and excited to be back in Cairo to see more of the bustling, crazy, beautiful city!

The next post will be Day 9- my favorite of the whole trip!

Farewell to February

Powering up the personal laptop before bed to squeeze in one more post in this short month. January was 675 days long and February felt like a single week. I'm not sure which is better, but hello to March I guess?

1. Severance Season 2 is so, so good. Don't tell James but I already watched every episode available this season, which is why I can blog while we're watching episode 4 right now on the couch.

2. My new/used treadmill is the only thing that keeps me from living an entirely sedentary life and I save my TV watching for that 30 minutes I walk on a 14% incline at 3.3 mph and sweat more than it seems I should.

3. Other shows I'm loving: Mythic Quest (all caught up!) and The Pitt (so good, frequently emotionally ruinous, I have to space it between the sometimes sharply funny MQ).

4. I am so grateful I'm 3 years out from the SEC, but I am devastated for my friends and former colleagues who are still there, trying to do good work, while they are demonized and their lives made uncertain by a chainsaw wielding psychopath. I feel survivor's guilt every time I read another update. It's so awful and there are so many wonderful people in all sorts of agencies doing excellent, important work who are now unemployed and facing uncertainty and hardship. Unemployment + uncertainty + lack of regulation + lack of investment in science/peopel -- all things that usually really help stimulate economies.

5. Landon got 2nd at State in the 100 fly and it was wonderful and so fun to watch.

My parents met us in Austin to watch the meet and we were all screaming in the stands when he swam in finals. He was 6th at the 50 and then just killed it in his back half to come in 2nd. So proud! He's been trying to break 50 all season and went a 49.46 which is just amazing. (In the video below he's lane 6, 3 up from the bottom of the pool, white cap.)

He also had a 50 free swim off that was SO exciting. He lost by 0.01, but he went a best time at 20.75 - his goal time for the season was to break 21 - so he wasn't disappointed.

And so my baby Landon ended up with a silver medal at Texas state his junior year of high school, just exactly like I did in 2000. Like mama, like son. It makes me all teary-eyed.

6. I turned 42 on Tuesday. I realized about a month ago that I've been telling everyone I'm 42, and writing 42 on any and all forms that ask for my age, for a year, so actually turning 42 felt very anticlimactic. Was I ever 41 if I never realized I was?

It was actually a lovely celebration. My parents came here after Landon's state meet, arriving in Dallas with us late Saturday night. On Sunday my mom and I did our traditional birthday shopping at the clearance Dillards in Irving. We had a blast, as we always do.

Me, in the shoe section: “The thing is I don’t actually need any shoes.”
Mom, scoffs: “Rebecca, what a ridiculous thing to say.”

(She bought me 3 pairs as my birthday present)

That night we went out for a nice dinner, with all 3 kids, for the first time.

It was so, so fun.

Highly recommend Via Triozzi in Dallas.

I wore a new dress I bought with my birthday money from my grandparents and I love it so very much.

7. Claire went to a Valentine's Dance with her friends. The theme had something to do with fairytales so each girl was inspired by a princess. Claire was Cinderella.

8. I got my mammogram done today and finally made the colonoscopy appointment I was told to do last July at my executive physical. My in-office GI visit is in May and I should have the colonoscopy after that. Yay, I guess.

9. While in Austin I drove over to San Antonio with my parents to visit our great-grands. My Grandpa Jim is doing really well! He looks so good and so enjoys our visits and conversation.

My sweet Grandma Mary is almost entirely lost to us. For the first time ever she didn't recognize my mom's voice or seem to know who she was. She doesn't leave her bed and never opened her eyes. Her body looks good- they take incredible care of her, but she largely gone. It's so very hard to mourn someone you loved so much while she is still here and you feel you shouldn't be mourning yet.

10. My outfits continue to bring me great joy. My favorite part is how so many of the pieces Ayron styles are ones I've owned for years. I so rarely buy new items now that I get to see so many new ways to style my old ones.

11. My sweet friend Shelly sent me flowers for my birthday and they also brought me great joy, so I'm going to end with them here.

February you're my favorite month and you're already gone. March, be gentle, please.