01
Cairo
2 days
We arrive late at night in Cairo. Together with a Belgian mother and daughter, we find a taxi to Gizeh. We are immediately introduced to the Egyptian driving style. With an alertness that is unfamiliar to me our driver speeds through traffic, missing the other cars by a hair's breadth. Residents cross the motorway on foot and children are playing next to where the cars are passing. Fortunately, the traffic jams slow down their speed.
As is best in a place as touristy as the Gizeh Necropolis, we visit from the first minute it opens. Our hotel manager assigns us a driver who looked more like his acquaintance who only just dropped by for a cup of tea.
Pepsi, our driver takes us to the Ramses Wissa Wassef Art Center and is as amazed as we are by the tranquility of the place. The weavers who learned their craft from architect Ramses Wissa Wasef can be seen at work. The architect's daughter gives us a tour of the site. All the raw materials for dyeing wool or cotton grow in the garden around the mudbrick buildings. We'll save the woven wool masterpieces for when we're old and rich, but we do buy a small cotton piece to frame.
After our visit to the Djoser pyramid at Saqqara we want to visit the Coptic area of Cairo. It closes at 16:00 and we arrive just a few minutes late. We decide to walk to our new hotel downtown to avoid anymore traffic. During our walk through the beautiful streets, we are regularly welcomed or even invited to share a meal.
The next day we get up at sunrise for another busy day. We walk through the upscale neighbourhood of Zamalek, dotted with embassies and art galleries. A walk through the sandcoloured art deco and neostyle buildings with a coffee in hand, wakes us up for a visit to the Egyptian Museum.
We take un uber to the Gayer-Anderson museum. These 17th century buildings used to be the house of an Irish officer who filled it with antiquities and furniture from Egypt and other Islamic countries.
After the Muhammed Ali Mosque, we walk to the Mosque and Madrassa of Sultan Hassan and the Al-Rifa’i Mosque where someone opens up the tomb and bursts into prayersong. in exchange for baksheesh ofcourse. Our last landmark of the day is Bab Zuweila that we reach through the bustling Al Muizz street. With a sugarcane drink in hand we go collect our backpacks and take the sleeper train to Luxor.