Day 3 in Cairo was primarily a "rest" day. I went with Debbie to the Opera House to get tickets for the concert we were seeing that night and tickets for Carmen which we are going to see when we return to Cairo. I don't have pictures from the day because I find it hard to capture the feeling of a big city. Cairo is a large, noisy, bustling city with horrendous traffic. The use of vehicle horns hasn't been outlawed so exercising the car horn is still a favorite pasttime of the local drivers.
On day 4, Granny and I went to the Egyptian Museum of Modern Art. The museum is housed in a large beautiful building which is part of the Opera House complex.
Day 5 was a very busy day. In the morning, Granny and I went to the Egyptian Museum. This is a VERY large museum of Egyptian antiquities. The artifacts date back to the earliest times and are truly amazing. A highlight of the museum is the mummy section. In this area the mummification process is explained and you see the actual 5,000 year old mummies.
The afternoon activity was a cooking class. We were taken to the home of one of Debbie's friends. It was an apartment not too far from the Opera House complex. Once there, we were introduced to Debbie's friend, Vivian, shown the menu and also shown around the apartment. Then it was time to begin cooking.
Washing the rice for dessert
Granny sauteeing the onions
Vivian preparing the vegetables
Granny peeling the eggplant
We leave Cairo tomorrow for Alexandria and then on to Siwa Oasis. But have no fear, we return to Cairo in about 5 days. We'll have more of Cairo at that time.
Before leaving Cairo, I had to take a picture of the view from our hotel room. We had been unhappy at the Mena House so we moved to the Cairo Marriott. There we had a nice room overlooking the Nile, all the usual Marriott amenities and lots of exercise. The Cairo Marriott started as a palace residence for Pasha Muhammad Ali. Two towers were erected on either side of the palace and we stayed in the Gezira Tower. I mention all this becase every time we wanted to go out or every time we returned to the hotel, we started in the opposite tower from our destination. This meant it was a 5 - 10 minute walk to get where we were going. That's if we didn't get lost on the way. The first few times we DID get lost.
