After a hearty breakfast from the Hotel Europa we drove down the road to visit the site of the first Olympic games. The museum was full of amazing artifacts, statues etc dating back to the 5th Century BC. I am not a big fan of spending much time in a museum, but this one was so interesting we stayed for many hours, so much to take in. After the museum we wandered around the sacred site. Stood right where they light the Olympic torch every 4 years, and then it st...

29/12/2010 Today is a little cold and damp. Apparently the days before we arrived, Istanbul was having nice mild weather, around 16 degrees C. Anyway this did not hamper our plans. The first stop was the spice markets. A lot smaller than the Grand Bazaar, but fragrance of all the spices was amazing. On the dock there are small fishing boats selling freshly caught and cooked. We bought the traditional fish sandwich, really good. Caught the tram to Taksim Square, ...

28/12/2010 The 2 hour flight north from Cairo to Istanbul certainly brought a change in the weather. We went from 26 degrees to 6 degrees, plus some rain. Today we wandered around the old city of Istanbul including the Blue Mosque and the Grand Bazaar. Some far we are both enjoying the old city. Many cobble stoned roads with very limited car access. This are is very old, but very well preserved part of town. The Hotel Sapphire is where we are staying. It is a bea...

This morning we caught a cab to the Khan El-Kahili Bazzar. This time we flagged down a cab with a meter, so there was no haggling about the price. As we jumped into the cab we watched him set the meter and we were off. 20 minutes later we arrived at the market. Well things got a little heated, as when i asked him how much, he had managaed to switch the meter off as we were driving. He now demanded 40EGP(Egyptian pounds or $8AUD). Well did i nearly loose it. I cal...

25/12/2010 The flight from Luxor to Cairo went without any problems. The problem we did have was the hotel we were staying at was meant to send a driver out to collect us. Seems they forgot. After a few attempts to contact the hotel, we grabbed a cab. Cannot believe the check of one of the airport staff. He was an employee of the airport, and he was kind enough to ring the hotel for me. He then ask me to give him money for helping us. It seems all Egyptians are ...