Eurasia 2012

Slept in til the alarm went off at 6am so that was pretty good.

Another pretty good breakfast although no beef bacon today :(

Drove through Tahrir Square (nothing much happening at the moment there).

Tahrir Square and Mogamma Al Tahrir
Photo by Dad

Statue and mosque southwest of Tahrir Square

Our first stop was Salah Al Din Citadel, a big old fortress that apparently was never attacked, so is in remarkably good condition.

View towards Mosque of Muhammad Ali

View towards Mosque-Madrass of Sultan Hassan and Al-Rifa'I Mosque

Salah Al Din Citadel

Tower in the citadel and Mosque of Muhammad Ali

Didn't really see anything much of the fortress except the outer walls, but instead went to the Mosque of Mohammed Ali.

Mosque of Muhammad Ali

Al-Nasser Mohammed Ibn Kalawoun

Entrance to Mosque of Muhammad Ali

Courtyard in Mosque of Muhammad Ali

There were a whole group of very scantily clad girls in front of us, so they were given robes to cover up. They were also the ones throwing their shoes down soles-down on the carpets inside the mosque. hrmm.

Interior lighting in the Mosque of Muhammad Ali

Chandelier in the Mosque of Muhammad Ali

Roof of the Mosque of Muhammad Ali

Minbar in the Mosque of Muhammad Ali

Mihrab and Minbar in the Mosque of Muhammad Ali

Mosque of Muhammad Ali

There's a pretty good view from outside. Should have been able to see the pyramids but it was too hazy today.

View west from the citadel walls

View west towards central Cairo

Mosque-Madrass of Sultan Hassan and Al-Rifa'I Mosque

Salah Al Din Citadel
Photo by Dad

Next stop was a shopping area with narrow alleys and bazaars. But apart from some stuff near the entrance square, nothing much was open, and I wasn't really interested in anything anyway.

Belly dancer outfits in Khan el Khalili

Metal lanterns for sale in Khan el Khalili

Streets in Khan el-Khalili
Photo by Dad

Hookahs for sale at Khan el-Khalili bazaar

Met up at the meeting place in this nice café, which was a little reminiscent of something out of a movie. All it needed was ceiling fans!

Our guide Mohamed having a smoke

Back through the CBD and back through Tahrir Square.

Al-Hussain Mosque
Photo by Dad

To the Egyptian Museum.

The Egyptian Museum

Sphinx outside The Egyptian Museum

Security here is pretty strict here as well - xrays at the courtyard entrance. You can take photos in the courtyard but not inside. So if you want to take your cameras in to photograph the building, you then have to leave your camera at the checkpoint at the outer entrance, where you get a token for retrieval.

So into the building, another xray bag check.

We had the guide for a while and he took us round and showed us a few things. Then he gave us an hour to explore, but we asked for an hour and a half. Of course you could see maybe 5% of the museum in that time. hrmm. So we went in to see Tutenkamen. Spectacular! And all the stuff in his tomb - amazing! Then went and saw the royal mummies (100LE extra). Then some aimless wandering. There was this creepy guy in the animal mummy room who kept staring at me wherever I went, so really couldn't concentrate on the room until he eventually left :(:( So did our wandering then left, then came back to the hotel.

The Egyptian Museum

The burnt out National Democratic Party Headquarters building

Had to fight the internet connection (it's ~$18 for 24 hours :( ) but the connection in my room was stuffed so had to get onto tech support for them to fix it. Blah.

At 6:30 we got picked up to go to a Nile dinner cruise.

Entrance to The Pharaohs Cruise

Obelisk at the cruise terminal

Getting food was quite chaotic, but was nice enough (they carved up a *massive* turkey! - or maybe it wasn't massive to American standards, but looked pretty big to me!).

On board the Golden Pharaoh Dinner Cruise boat

Our group on the Golden Pharaoh Dinner Cruise boat

Another colourful dinner cruise boat

Nile Lilly lit up

There was a belly dancer, and a whirling dervish, and some singer. But after dinner we all headed up on deck to watch the lights. The boat mostly went round in circles in a little section of the Nile, so didn't get it to see all that much.