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Our second stop in Egypt was the capital city of Cairo, which we arrived at by plane from Luxor.
About two weeks before the holiday we’d been called by the tour company and told that our chosen hotel was in the middle of a refurbishment and whilst they assured us that we wouldn’t be bothered by the noise, they asked us if we’d rather change. One of the options they offered was the Mena House, a very historic old hotel right outside the pyramids at Giza. It was full of quite posh looking people, including Claudia Schiffer. It also had a fantastic view of the pyramids from the balcony.
Meanwhile, back at the plot, on our first evening there we went to a son et lumière show at the Sphinx just like Roger Moore in The Spy Who Loved Me. We didn’t see any big blokes with metal teeth or any female KGB agents though.
On our second morning there we decided it was time to heed advice and get up really early to go into the pyramids. We heard they sell a handful of tickets each morning to allow you to get into Khufu’s Pyramid, so we got up to the ticket office for about 7:30am and were lucky enough to get some. Sorted ! We grabbed some bottles of water and set off for a bit of pyramid action.
They really are quite impressive in scale.
The inside was a bit claustrophobic but I’m glad we went. We had to leave cameras at the entrance though, so no photos. While we were in there, we took the opportunity to walk down to the Sphinx again for a quick look around in daylight. By this time we were getting a bit hot and sweaty so we retired to the hotel and were just in time to get breakfast. Yes, we went out early, and got back for breakfast.
The following day we had a trip over to the centre of Cairo to visit the Egyptian Museum. Strangely enough, it is packed with antiquities from ancient Egypt, including some impressive Tutankhamun stuff.