Saturday was our first full day with Viking (land cruise portion!). We started with the giant buffet breakfast here at the hotel followed by a short meeting with our fellow travellers (I think a total of 48). Then, off to the Citadel complex. This is a collection of buildings, a cemetery and a great deal of reconstruction and demolition – very chaotic. The one thing I’m sure of is that the mosque we visited was beautiful! It’s basically a copy of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul – huge, ornate. The exterior is covered with alabaster. The interior is one open room – covered with a large carpet for prayers for many, many years but since COVID the carpet is gone and the faithful bring their own rugs for use on the marble floors. So odd the things that COVID has changed!
Our second stop was the Egyptian Museum, a gigantic structure containing artifacts dating from the earliest settlements, around 2500BC. Hot, stuffy, crammed with people but worth it. This is where some of the items from King Tut’s tomb are displayed, including the coffin, the headdress and many small items such as breastplates, statues, rings. The stone inlay is amazing! We weren’t allowed to take photos of most of it but here is a little taste:
A few hours back at the hotel for lunch, another soul-reviving shower and a brief nap. Then, off to the street bazaar and dinner. The bazaar is very similar to others I’ve walked through – incredibly dense with goods, people and noise! I was offered pants at 3 dolla, 2 dolla, okay free if you buy something else at least 10 times. Pants? Feral cats and dogs all over. Pretending I don’t understand what they say (which was occasionally hilarious). Still, I managed to buy nothing in the 45 minutes we had to explore and didn’t get lost. One older person in our group did manage to lose herself and there was quite a kerfuffle until our security person located her – but all was handled quickly and professionally. Just made me think of Girl Scouts and NYC (if you know, you know).
We followed this with a lovely meal in a local restaurant – okra in sauce, meze platter with hummus etc., tomato soup, beef stew, rice custard, strong coffee. By the time we got back to the hotel everyone was drooping but content. Nice day!
journeys 