Col and I spent a quiet day at our resort along the Red Sea enjoying the sun and catching up on the blog.  It was unfortunate that we were not able to take full advantage of all inclusiveness of the resort as we ended up having our first case of gastrointestinal issues since we started our trip.   On the bright side the worst of it only lasted one evening and part of the night.  By the evening I was pretty much back to  normal and Col was well on her way.  We made it down to the lobby with our back packs at 5:15 AM December 22 ready for our return bus trip to Cairo.

After a five and a half hour bus ride we arrived at the Cairo’s Egyptian National Museum for a fairly quick tour of this national treasure.  The highlight had to be the King Tut exhibition which as far as we know has all the gold artifacts that were found in his tomb.  Along with that there was also an original Egyptian chariot which we  both thought was really cool.  From there we were back on the bus and headed to the local market or bizarre for some shopping and bargaining. As we are traveling with only back packs and do not have room for souvenirs we made a quick walk through part of the market and then joined Peter our tour guide for tea and coffee.

We arrived at the Oasis hotel around 6:00 PM, checked in and headed for our last group meeting around the pool at 7:00 PM where Peter gave us our airport transfer times for the following day.  We filled out our tour surveys, exchanged email addresses, twitter accounts, snap chat etc, etc…  and were surprised with a going away cake from our tour company which we all able to share. After some pictures and hugs a few of us had one final meal together and talked about what was next on our life’s journey.  Our tour group was quite large (31) so it was difficult to get to know everyone at the same level, but as per normal you always tend to gravitate towards certain individuals or couples and we have made some good friends which I am sure we will stay in contact with for years to come.

Final thoughts on Egypt.  We are very happy we decided to come to Egypt.  As Col had mentioned earlier in the blog it was not on our original list due to fact that the Canadian government website suggested no unnecessary travel to Egypt, but after some of our own research and being so close we could not resist.  Overall we felt very safe especially as we were in a group environment for the most part.  Even the times we did some exploring on our own we never felt threatened or afraid.  I would give the food a 6 out of ten.  It was good, but nothing to write home about, but the major sites, now that was something to write home about.  Col and I both agreed that the highlights for us were the Valley of the Kings and the Pyramids and Sphinx of Giza.  Definitely pinch me moments.  Our tour of Egypt was nine days, but I think we could have seen all the major sites in four of five days easily.  All in all it was a great experience and we would highly recommend Egypt and definitely do not stay away because you think you would not be safe.

See you in Israel…….

Yup, that is us with our feet in the Red Sea and the view from our balcony.

 

 

The Museum.

Doesn’t the basket below look like that one that Moses was placed in from the Ten Commandments movie.

 

Kings Tut’s chair and the alabaster jars where his organs were kept after he was mummified.  Unfortunately we were  not allowed to take pictures of the gold exhibit that was taken from his tomb, but to stand a couple of feet away and stare at the iconic gold mask that is so famous was awe inspiring.

Here is a copy of King Tut’s mask for those of you who cannot recall what it looks like.  Eleven kilograms of solid gold.

Some pictures of our travel buddies.  We not able to get a group picture, but we did mange to click a few.

 

And of course our Awesome tour guide Peter.  Doesn’t he look like Dave Chappelle?