April 7, 8, & 9, 2022
After the scorching hot day in Luxor, I laugh at any temperature under 90. And we were well under for all three of these days.
Egyptians undergo an odd personality change behind the wheel of a car. In every other setting, aggression and impatience are frowned upon. But put an Egyptian in the driver's seat and he shows all the calm and consideration of a hooded swordsman delivering Islamic justice. ~ Tony Horwitz
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| A connecting channel between the north and south bound waterways of the Suez Canal. We're cruising north, the container ship is heading south. |
April 7th was not only my sister Linda's birthday, it was our day to rest and recuperate from our truly exceptional excursion to Luxor yesterday. I spent some time reading Book 1 of the Game of Thrones. Now that I know my favorite character gets killed before the final page, I'm finding some others to cheer for. Finding the villains was never a problem. The dwarf, Tyrion, continues to be one of my favorites. I always tend to root for the underdog. No doubt he'd have something pithy to say about me designating him the "underdog." He's the master of droll self-deprecation.
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| Breakfast on the fantail is the best way to start the day! |
On April 8th we transited the Suez Canal for the second time during this cruise, probably something that has never happened on a world cruise and likely never will again. Our trip was smooth and we arrived in Port Said early enough for passengers to disembark should they wish to wander a strange city alone as night is falling. Like Goofy, we're brave but we're careful. We'll wait until our excursion tomorrow!
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| Our next door neighbors, Bill & Judy, snapped this photo of us as the Star sidled up to the dock. |
On April 9th, we rose at 4:30 am, had breakfast delivered by 5:00am, and were in the Star Theater waiting for Bus 2 to be called for boarding. We had a three hour bus ride to Cairo to look forward to.
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| It was impossible to capture in a photo, but most of these fields were being worked by hand. We saw whole families--moms, dads, and children--stooped over pulling weeds, harvesting vegetables to take to market, or arranging the thin black hoses that would trickle water into the soil. |
And actually, I do look forward to the bus rides. I like seeing the countryside. It may be because we live in a town of only 12,000 souls, but I feel like we get more of a sense of the place when we get away from the bustle of cities and into the more rural areas.
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| Our first stop in Cairo was the Egyptian Museum, temporary home to most of the country's antiquities. A new museum is being built and several wings of this institution were being emptied and moved to the new one, which is slated to open in November 2022 |
Our guide led us to the most important pieces in the collection, promising we'd have time to wander on our own later. We were supposed to have an hour and a half here, but it's hard to move a large group efficiently and time always has to be reserved for "shopping." (Can you see my eyes rolling?) But we still enjoyed a number of remarkable pieces. The really priceless King Tut artifacts we were not able to photograph, but his great grandparents, Thuya and Yuya were fair game.
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| One of Tutankhamun's great-grandmother Thuya's three nested coffins. Our guide explained that the death masks had to accurately resemble the deceased so their ka, or soul, could recognize the body when it was time to reunite with it. |
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| Anubis, the jackal-headed deity, came to be revered because real jackals had the unhappy habit of digging up buried bodies and eviscerating them to eat the soft organs. When the exposed bodies were discovered, what was left of them had been better preserved because so much of the moisture had been removed. Anubis is credited with showing the Egyptians how to mummify its kings and queens. |
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| King Tut's canopic jars |
Ancient Egyptians saw the east as the realm of the living since the sun rises, i.e. is resurrected, there each morning, while it sets, or dies, in the west. They took their belief in eternal life from the sun's recurring return.
During mummification, the dead person's brains were pulled out through the nostrils and discarded as of no account. The internal organs were removed through a small incision in the side of the abdomen. Only the heart was left inside because eventually the deceased's heart would have to be weighed against the Feather of Truth, to determine whether the soul was light enough to balance and the person could enter into eternal life.
The organs were stored in alabaster canopic jars which were placed near the sarcophagus in the tomb, so they'd be available as needed. There should be four jars. One of King Tut's was under renovation.
After the museum, we went for our lunch on a Nile River cruise. The food was much better here than in Luxor. Perhaps we'd been late arriving, but at the previous cruise, the meat was dry and tough as shoe leather.
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| The DH & Dave with the whirling dervish performer on our lunch cruise. We'd seen this in 2018 on the Pacific Princess, but that time, it was clearly a mystical, ecstatic experience for the practitioner. This time it was fun to watch but more a performance than an act of worship. There was a belly dancer as well, which for some reason I failed to take a picture of. When the young dancer came out later dressed in normal clothes, Dave didn't recognize her at first. "That's because you weren't looking at her face!" I reminded him! LOL! |
Then we headed for the main attraction--the Pyramids of Giza & the Great Sphinx!
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| Even when you're there, it's hard to get a sense of scale. These structures are so massive. Truly wonders of the ancient world! |
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| The small pyramids in the shadow of the great ones were built for the Pharaoh's favorite wives. You can't hope to spend eternity with the rest of the gods without a consort or two. The site is surrounded by busloads of tourists, and lots of camels available for rides. We were warned against taking close up pictures of them lest their owners demand payment. Any response is considered the beginning of negotiation and they will follow you until some agreement is reached. |
About 5 passengers from our bus decided to take the tour inside the largest of the structures. It involved a long, airless passage so short they had to walk stooped over for about 15 minutes, upright for a bit and then stooped again until they reached the totally empty burial chamber. We opted just to use our imaginations!
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| A few white granite stones still cling to the top of the Great Pyramid. It was originally entirely faced with these stones, but most either slid off over the milennia or were removed to use as building material elsewhere. But just imagine with me how bright, how blinding the sight of all that white granite must have been when it was first finished. |
I hate to say "no" to an adventure, even one that promises to be physically taxing, but I've reached the point where I have to draw a line for myself. It's tempting to overestimate our physical abilities. Or to be so caught up in the wonder of the moment, we fail to be aware of our surroundings. Sadly, one lady from the Star took a fall at this site and broke her hip. She was admitted to a hospital in Cairo for a hip transplant. It's the sort of thing that sends shivers over the rest of us, because we all know with just a moment's inattention, or simple bad luck, that could be any one of us. I wish her so very well, and pray for a speedy recovery.
On the trip back to Port Said, the traffic in Cairo started to remind me of Mumbai. We saw handcarts, donkey carts, camels, little motorcycles turned into pick-up trucks making deliveries, motorcycles used as the family car with two middle school age kids sandwiched between Dad who was driving and Mom, riding sidesaddle and reaching an arm around the kids to grasp her husband's shoulder. How she stayed on is one of the wonders of the modern world!
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| When the family car has only two wheels... |
Once again, there were no designated lanes and sometimes the oversized vans that doubled as buses would stop on the highway (not by the curb, but in the middle!) so passengers could hop on and off and sprint through traffic.
We were all exhausted by the time we returned to the Star. We were even too tired to make it up to the World Cafe which had been kept open for us to have a late supper. But it was a good tired. We'd had some wonderful experiences and encountered things that will give us food for thought for years to come.
Looking forward to two sea days before we reach Israel!
More soon...
Such a different world!
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