Day One...

Went without sleep last night. Picked up at 3am by Dad and the driver. Transported to an amazing hotel. Its like another world – honestly you could forget you were in Cairo... If only you didn’t see the pyramids from your bed in the morning.

My room and its view...

After very little sleep (2 hours maybe), headed off to breakfast, and with time to spare before the driver arrived for the day took a quick dip in the pool – which is sub-zero! After that, quick shower and the driver called to announce his arrival.

Up in the mini-bus we head across the city to the Citadel of Salahudin Ayoubi and the 19th century mosque of Muhammed Ali. From the Citadel we could see out over Cairo – the pollution clouding the skyline, the Mosque of Al-Azhar, the wide expanse of the City of the Dead.

Brief stop at Khan el-Khalili. Originally a stop for passing caravans collecting water as the passed over the desert sands now its a super tourist oriented shopping joint. Pretty much anything can be found in the narrow winding lanes, complete with the customary shopkeeper harassment.

From the Khan we went of to lunch on the Nile which was nice and from there to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. What a crazy place. There is stuff everywhere – most of it unlabelled. Amazing. Our guide was great, but by the end of it, it was all we could do to keep our eyes open on the way back to the hotel.