Life's a Stitch

We arrived early, back in Cairo for the what is considered the main event of the trip: the Great Pyramid of Giza, the Sphinx and the Egyptian Museum. Today however, it was a stop at the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, originally a historic caravanserai and centre of trade in mid 13th-16th centuries. Now it is the district that houses the massive bazaar, home to souvenir shops, artisan workshops, clothing booths, really anything you want.

In our younger days we might have shopped til we dropped, but this time we are not interested in accumulating stuff and were there for the atmosphere. 

Afterwards we were taken to the suburb called "the 6th of October" to a five star resort, the Movenpick Media City, for our last few nights. We passed by neighbourhoods where the pyramids appeared to be in their back yards.

We ubered across the highway for a couple of dollars to see the Mall of Egypt where I stocked up on family gifts of local spices.

In the morning we boarded the bus for the short ride to the Great Pyramid, the history of its construction still under speculation, but we were guaranteed it had nothing to do with aliens.

 

Mack and Rika went for a camel ride and Rika had the unique experience of being kissed by a camel.

The sphinx was just down the road.

Next stop was back in downtown Cairo, the Egyptian Museum, which felt like a scene from the computer game we played with our kids – the Dagger of Amon Ra.

Back at the hotel the food was delicious, the breakfasts were the best of the entire trip. Each afternoon at 4:00 there was a chocolate happy hour.

When we travel with this company we chose the accommodati0n in the "charm" category along with all but one couple. Those who choose the superior category as usually on their own at different hotels and we like the camaraderie of the group. Charm on our trip to South America exceeded our expectations. On this trip it was average or better and we believed they saved the best for last. We enjoyed a last dinner with some of our travel mates.

The next morning we started our long journey home. I have no complaints about the organization of the trip except for the flights. Today we travelled Cairo to London, London to Dallas, and Dallas home to Vancouver. The flight to Dallas on British Airways was exceptional – the service in particular was outstanding and we were lucky to have upstairs seats.

In between Dallas and YVR we were treated to a spectacular view of the Northern Lights. A magnificent ending to a special trip.

I was today years old when I learned that when an image on this blog appears as a question mark, you can click on it and the image appears. Lifesastitch has been here for over 20 years and I just figured it out. Granted, Typepad, my blogging platform has experienced major technical difficulties in uploading photos only in the past few years. One of these days I'm going to host it myself, but it will take a supreme act of bravery to migrate over 20 years of posts.