Hello our dear readers. For those of you anxiously (impatiently) wating for our final Egypt post, wait no more. We had some stressful and frustrating several days as our move scheduled for Saturday, 3 June, did not happen as our letting agency dropped the ball. Several times.

Anyway, we finally did get moved in a few days later and then I started this post from Atlanta on my way to Michael & Sarah's wedding in Searcy, AR the hometown of Harding University. Unfortunately Cheryl and Sprout could not join me on this trip and we were all very sad about that. Additionally, we had to wait to get our internet connected and spent a week entertaining friends (Becky and RaDora and then Aaron and Ashley) at our home.

Anyway, back to Egypt and our 2 FULL days in Cairo. We started day 1 meeting up with our friends Pete & Carol with our tour guide Hassan. Our first stop was right across from our hotel, the Egyptian Museum. This place is absolutely incredible. There is so much history and immeasureable amount of items of all shapes and sizes in this museum.

We saw a replica of the Rosetta Stone (the real one is, ironically enough, in London) which is how heiroglyphics was diciphered long ago. Of all the peices and collections, the most famous and popular is most likely the burial belongings of King Tutankahmon (King Tut).

It was fantasitic to see all of these pieces and masks, and the sarcophocus in such detail and still full of its golden color. Unfortunatley, cameras are not allowed in the museum so there we cannot offer you much in the way of visual stimulation. What is also amamzing, is even given the noteable size of the Egyptian Museum it's still too small to contain new discoveries and findings. There are hundreds maybe even thousands of other ancient relics buried in the sand as the best method of preservation. These items will remain until a new museum is completed to be even larger than the Louvre (which is not small). Construction was just bidded on, so this won't be ready anytime soon.

Next on day 5 we visited The Citadel which is part mosque and part former military fortress. It was quite impressive to see how this place was built as a fortress and covered in alabaster stone. The inside was so ornate and detailed. The lights in the picture (see our other website) used to contain candles instead of electricity.

After the Citadel, we headed to a large market for souvenirs with all the shop owners telling Cheryl to buy something for the baby. She would respond sometimes by telling them she needed to save money for Caleb. We didn't buy anything at this market, plus it really stresses me out to haggle prices for stuff. Cheryl enjoyed it as long as the Egyptians play along too.

We ended the day with a Sound and Light Show at the Pyramids. The show occured after dark and involved a history of the main pyramids, who built them, and why. It was told as if from the perspective of the Sphynx and proved very informative and interesting. The only random thing was the Egyptian bagpipe players who kicked off the show as people were being seated. Not exactly what we were expecting to see.

We started our last full day in Egypt with probably the most anticipated events of the trips. One of Cheryl's main goals was to ride a camel in Egypt. I was just excited to see the pyramids (Cheryl was too).
So we started by walking around the first pyramid (the one without the odd top) and we walked up to the entrance made by the explorers a long time ago. Years later they found the actual entrance made by the Egyptians. This is the place I was offered 3 wives and several children for Cheryl, only before the baby is born otherwise the deal is off.

Then we went up to a little area up on a hill adjacent to the pyramids for a little ride. Our wonderful tour guide found a camel for Cheryl to ride and she gladly hopped onboard. Then one by one we all went down. Our Egypt travel buddies, Pete & Carol didn't really want to ride camels, but slowly they each got on and then of course I was coaxed on as well. By far the funniest, best part of our trip was riding our camels in the desert near the pyramids, including "driving" them ourselves on the way back to the main area.
We were able to enter into one room in one of the main pyramids but were not allowed to take photos inside the room (which was empty except for one sarcophogus). We then spent the rest of the day touring Memphis (the first capital of Egypt) and the Step Pyramid (the first known pyramid which shows archaelogists how pyramids were constructed). It was a hot and exhausting last day but well worth it.

As we've mentioned before, we definitely recommend that everybody take a trip to Egypt one day, if possible. The history is amazing and everything is so intricate. And seriously, you have to ride a camel.