Day 8
Today we leave the Sinai and head off to Cairo. The journey takes about 6 hours. We travel under the suize canal and after about an hour we see the vast expanse of Cairo stretching out in front of us. The whole of Cairo seems to be under construction with buildings half built and rubble every where. It is very hot and the roads are mad. We arrive at the hotel and it is the best so far. We check in and all head out for something to eat. We stop at a restaurant and get falafel.
After we go to the car which Mohammad has hired and head out to Giza to the pyramids and sphinx. In Mohammad's car is a small black box with a wire coming out of it and going under the dash board. On the top are several red buttons and I sit and wonder what this add on does, later we are to all find out. We hit a patch of very congested traffic and we don't seem to be moving then all of a sudden Mohammad starts to try and squeeze between 2 lanes of traffic but there is not quite enough room for 3 lanes. He presses one of the buttons on his little black box and the next thing we know we hear a police siren and the the traffic moves to one side and we glide past the que. Before long we can. See the tops of the pyramids peaking over the top of the buildings. It's very strange but you always imagine the pyramids to be out in the desert, but Cairo has grown and now they are surrounded by buildings.
The sight of these great structures is breathtaking and it's hard to believe that they are no longer classed as one of the 7 wonders of the world (this is according to the new list voted for on the Internet with 100 million people voting). As we walk around the site we are constantly approached by people selling post cards, water and figures. We get back into the car and head down to the Spinx. After the Spinx we head off to towards the Egyptian museum. On the way Mohammad stops and buys us all a drink made from pure sugar cane which is very refreshing in the hot afternoon sun. We arrive at the Egyptian museum and see next door a burnt out building from the riots in January. As we enter the museum we have our cameras taken off of us until we leave as they don't allow any photos inside the museum. The heat inside is worse than out side as there is no air conditioning and the sweat just runs down your face. Our guild takes us around and explains the highlights.
We return to the hotel and have a quick shower before going out for our last meal together. We are taken to a kind of fast food restaurant but it serves kebabs. After dinner we head down to a coffee shop for tea and a smoke of the Hubble bubble pipe and watch the world go by. We return to the hotel and say our goodbyes to our guild Mohammad. Alana goes up to bed and Lucinda and I go down to reception to use the Internet. Whilst we are sat there we hear loads of shouting and chanting then before we know it one of the protest marches goes past the hotel heading to the square. The march passes without incident and we head up to bed.