2 November

Today it was up at 0630 and the first thing I noticed was that the clothes were not yet dry – a consequence of running the air conditioner. Either the clothes get warm and dry or I get too warm and dry and don’t sleep well.
After the usual preparations I was down for breakfast by 0700, when I sat with a couple from Sydney and then, after they left, with Lynn, Sue, Devika and Bob
In the restaurant we started a briefing after 0800 which did not finish until 0905. We met our tour guide Hesham, but we were all ready to go. Because of all the delays, the bus was not off until 0935.
We set off through Cairo traffic and finally reached the Cairo museum by 1030. Here we waited, got our tickets and our briefing (we already knew no photos, so there aren’t any) we were in by 1100.
We had a guided tour until 1230 but the remaining hour was only long enough to wander past all the exhibits on the ground floor before we had to be out by 1300. We were soon on the bus and had falafels for lunch on the bus on our way to the pyramids.
Once we arrived at the pyramids we had to undergo checks then walked to the base of the first pyramid and a chance to climb a little way to get our photos. In a way I am glad that we couldn’t go any higher, as I think millions of tourists would do what time and the desert sands couldn’t. We headed off to the panorama view where we had a group photo and a few had camel rides. Then it was off to the second pyramid by 1610 and we had a look around while some went inside. This I didn’t do because eof my reservations about irreparably damaging something so precious.
We finally headed off to the sphinx; but it was closed by the time we got there. I managed to get around to the side to get some photos, which proved very expensive as it cost me forty Egyptian pounds to get there to take them. We then went to a (pricey) souvenir shop and finally ended up at a small market-type shop, “Got to Run” to shop for drinks and small requisites. Finally we were back to the hotel in time to get ready for dinner and download pictures, charge batteries and clean my shoes.
By 1840 I was down and sat with David and Tina and Sue and English couple while waiting for the bus. We were off at 1915 for Nile cruise with dinner. As soon as we arrived at 2000, the boat was off. It was a good dinner and there was a great view of Cairo as we went along the Nile. There was music followed by a belly dancer (who got a number up to dance with her, much to the amusement of thee rest of the audience). She was followed by a Dervish dancer who performed some miraculous routines and, far too soon, we docked at 2150. We were back at the hotel by 2215 after which I prepared for bed, summarised blog, processed photos and was finally in bed by 2330.