BigWeather's Blog

Michelle writes:

Our tour has been slightly altered.  Our cruise begins a little later than planned.  So we are to go to the pyramids first.  Brian woke up with a headache.  We went to the cafe and had a continental breakfast.  We met 3 more of our tour group.  2 couples from Washington State.  One of the wives did not come with us.  We got on a little van – no air conditioning.  We met our guide, Sahar.  She is a Coptic [ed – Christian] and native Egyptian.  The roads (if you can call them that) were in very poor condition when you leave Cairo.  The traffic in Cairo is amazing.  People drive everywhere!  By that I mean, they do not follow lines.  We left at 9:00.

It took about 45 minutes to get to Memphis.  This had a statue of Ramses II.  This statue had been found in a lake.  Also here there was a sphinx.  There was a statue there that had been in Memphis, Tennessee during the King Tut tour.  Brian took a picture of a man at the statue.  I was a little hot in my long sleeves.

Then we went to Sakkara.  That is where the step pyramid was.  We found the pyramids to be wondrous.  But there are very annoying sellers / hucksters at these places.  At the step pyramids a man said a picture for free, but then wanted 5 dollars.  This place was being renovated by a Frenchman who has been there for 45 years.

Then we went to a little carpet school.  There were a lot of them.  We were shown how the little children make rugs.  One of the salesmen tried to sell us a rug but the price was too high.

We went to lunch just next door to the pyramids at Giza.  A very nice hotel & lunch.  The hotel was opened when the Suez Canal was finished.  Very famous meetings between world leaders.  We had chicken soup (very good) meat / sauce and fruit.  From the window you could see the pyramids above.

We went to the 2nd pyramid first.  Those “salesmen” harassed us again.  One tried to take me into the pyramid but Brian couldn’t fit so I didn’t go either.  We bought a Arab headdress and postcards.  We went further up the road to take pictures.  We saw camels there.  Brian and I both got on & made our picture.  More irritating salesmen.  We also saw the 3 queens’ tombs.  We went back to the big pyramid .  We went in to see the boat.  It was amazing & very big.  We had to wear booties on our feet.

Then we went to a jewelry store.  I got some earrings & Brian got a plate & t-shirts.  Next was a papyrus store.  The lady there showed us how they make papyrus.  We got several there.  Then back to the hotel.  We ate in the cafe (tomato soup, chicken, & chocolate mousse).  Retrieved our passports.

Brian writes:

Weather: Hot, sunny.  Duh!

Wake-up call at 7:00, my headache is worse!  Wallow in bed while Michelle showers, get up at 7:45.  Shower – good shower, hot, gentle, powerful – and ready by 8:30.  Eat croissants and honey 8:30 – 9:00 in Nefertiti Tower restaurant.  Get bottled mineral water for trip of the day.  9:00 – leave with Sahar, our “Egyptologist”.  She is ~ Michelle’s height, 5’4″ and black straight hair.  Nice lady.  Get in van (Cheech-and-Chong mobile) ride first to Memphis.

Along the way, see lots of stuff.  A long canal (done by Muhammed Ali in 1800’s) parallels the one-lane road.  At times it is clear and flowing, others stagnant, clogged, smelly, green.  See merchants with donkey-drawn carts hauling melons, etc. to market.  One young burro driver just lay in the driver’s seat with a big [ed – ?] grin on his face, dangling his feet off the cart edge.  The burro did not mind his master’s lack of interest!  Saw many crops – corn, etc.  Long-hair cotton is apparently very popular and fine.  See many, many date palms (no coconuts) in great groves, and just beyond was the desert with nothing but rock and stone!  Came to a village, people are clogging street.  Saw a Pepsi, Sprite, Coke, etc. vendor, saw Sprite in Arabic with limon on top.  Saw fire department, etc. some Jeeps and Mercedes Benz.  Women wear black robes not, so Sahar says, due to Islam but out of respect and tradition.  Neat.

She also told us many other neat things…  They have primary, secondary, and prep school, then university.  All public education, including university, is free, but university applicants must pass a test to get in.  There are private universities but they are prohibitively expensive 40,000LBE a year ($12,000US).  School is mandatory until 18, and there is one-year of military service (or 3 if the person does not go to the university) for males and one year public service for females in schools are hospitals.  Though women can get married as early as 12 to 13 in villages, the government is thinking about laws to make it 18 for women, 23 for men minimum.  Marriages are still arranged, but an engagement period is allowed to get to know each other.  Friday is the Muslim holy day, with a six day work week.  They are considering a weekend like the US, but can’t decide on Thursday or Saturday to go with Friday, and the Copts (Christians) like Sundays and Fridays.  The sides of the road are painted with alternating stripes of black and white!  What a pain, should do all in one color!

Gave a rundown of the history of Egypt from Old Kingdom to New, and then a little into the Copt period.  Arrived at Memphis, it is a collection of statues and a small building.   Memphis was the first capital of Egypt, but little remains as the buildings at the time were made of mud brick and have long since disappeared.  Even after the capital moved, however, Memphis was an important place defensively for Lower Egypt and several pharaohs built at Memphis structures and statues of stone, which have survived.  Got off van, paid 5LBE for photography permit, and had a few natives offer me 10 postcards for $1.  Not interested!  First go to the main building, contains an amazing treasure.  Inside is a 30ft tall statue of Ramses II (New Kingdom pharaoh).  It was originally 40ft but the top of the crown and from the knee down were missing.  It was huge, and you could stand from a balcony and look down on it.  He was wearing a false beard, and the ceremonial “kilt”.  His cartouche appeared several times, on his shoulder, arms (bracelets), and legs.  Truly magnificent!  The found the figure in a lake resting on its left side.  Unfortunately, this damaged it somewhat on that side.  Took some pictures (of course!) and went outside, where they had several statues and the foundation of a temple.  For several statues, they only have a huge base left, imagine how big the statues were!  Was a sphinx, and two standing Ramses II.  On one of the standing Ramses, there was a guy in the robes dusting the dust from the statues.  When I made to take a picture, he posed – uh-oh, I smelled baksheesh [ed – Egyptian practice of paying a little something for every action, the idea being that it evens out as you get paid when you do a kind action in return — unless you are a tourist, of course, in which case the money flows only one way!]!  Took the picture finally (light made it hard to focus) and waved to him, he waved back.  I went to him, gave him 30pst [ed – Egyptian pennies, so 0.3LBE], he says he wants more.  I give him $1, or 3LBE [ed – I’m the sucker they talk about being born every minute].  There are also souvenir stalls about, but Sahar recommends we wait until Upper Egypt before buying – they are cheaper there.  Accosted by a small group of salespeople (“10 postcards for $1.”) not used to them yet!

Get back on bus, to Saquara (Note: spellings may be wrong throughout, I don’t wish to look them up!) [ed – in my defense, this was pre-smart phone, and pre-laptop while traveling] Saw lots of wild dogs in the streets and some Coke / Sprite dealers.  Saquara was totally dry – sand, not trees, on a small plateau above Memphis and the rest of the valley.  The valley in the distance is beautiful – lush, green, continuous palms, a little haze.  Beyond, on the other side of the river, you can see the rise of land that marks the beginning of the eastern desert.  Small paved road to Saquara, paid 5LBE for a photo permit and neat paper tickets.  First enter a smallish temple, it has a colonnaded with pillars or columns, connected to the walls by stone wall in the back – forms niches.  They thought the niches may have contained statues, but none were ever found.  [ed – a picture of the pillars connected to the adjacent wall by a small run of stone, forming niches between the pillars].  Saw how smooth the pillar were, and looked like  [ed – picture of a fluted or ridged pillar] fit together perfectly.  So, how did they smooth the rock?  By putting sand between the rock and another rock and wetting it then grinding back and forth.  Took forever!

At other side of temple, enter a large courtyard south of the step pyramid – the floor of the courtyard is all sand.  Fine sand.  Walls of courtyard have cobra decorations across top.  In the courtyard king would chase bull.  If he catches bull, he is still healthy and deserves to run Egypt.  Sahar stands in shade while we go across courtyard to step pyramid.  Oh, pyramid evolved by naturally lengthening the tombs.  Added more on left than right, so pyramid is a little lop-sided.  Other, ruined pyramid that is little more than rubble beside it [ed – accompanied by a picture].  As walk toward step (Zoser’s) pyramid, guy in headdress [ed – another picture of a guy in a headdress, I’m an artiste!] and burro (donkey) comes forward.  Says we can have a picture of Michelle and I (with headdress) free with donkey.  Hesitant, he has camera.  Takes picture (2x) then ask for money.  Finally settles with $5.  Rip-off!  [ed – cheaper than losing the camera, I suppose, man I was dumb.] On backside of pyramid are several “business people”.  A guard who led me to two peep holes and asked me to look in, dark statues of pharaoh – probably fake, asks for money.  Give him $1 [ed – maybe Michelle’s approach to writing about the trip was the better one, this is painful!], he of course wants more.  Michelle getting cranky.  Step pyramid designed by Imhotep, who later is viewed as god of medicine.  Man with horses next to me, grabs arm, says I am his brother, to ride his horse.  I say “No” but he won’t leave me alone.  We are running out of time.  Michelle says “come on”, he says I am his brother, she says “No, he is my husband, and he is coming with me!”  I have rarely been so proud of her!  [ed – it was pretty Xena-esque, she kicked butt there – and I’ve been proud of her a ton in the two decades since!]

Walk toward some excavations, deep pit.  Saw the cobra decorations in better detail.  Deep pit, stairs down into it.  “Guards” try to lead us to other “marvels”, we refuse.  See beautiful view of valley, also a work man who was cleaning the same plaque the whole time we were there!  Leave, about 11:00am, go to a carpet school on the way back form Sakkara.

Inside, young children, 6 yrs. and up, work for at most 4 hours, rest in school.  Work on wool and silk rugs.  Silk neat, take strand, interweave in two strings of rug, then cut with a neat instrument [ed – huh?].  I think the design looks like shit [ed – duyam!], but then a “master” cuts it down with shears and it looks beautiful.  They follow a pattern when making the rugs.  For wool rugs, however, the artist has no pattern, does it all by memory.  Weave in strands, then uses a tool to pack it in rest of of the design.  On a big loom.  Go upstairs to a room where there are all sorts of rugs, both silk and wool.  See one silk of Nefertiti and a wool one of a tree with birds.  Talk him down to $55 for the silk and $45 – 50 for the wool.  Decide against it, leave, he comes to van, says $45.  We still turn down, he walks away.

~12:00: Go to Mena House Oberoi – used to be a beautiful palace.  Built in the 1860’s for the opening of the Suez Canal.  It has housed a number of people, including Carter, Roosevelt, and Churchill.  Inside – lots of beautiful ceilings, wood-work, and red carpet, proceed to main dining room.  Windows with wooden beads as shades, pyramid real close.  Tell Michelle where to sit, she thinks strange, has not yet seen pyramid – then sees it!  Talked with Sahar and [ed – illegible] about Australians and British, who she feels are not very good guests.  She likes Americans best because we are always curious, asking questions.  Turns out that she is a Copt, not a Muslim.  Lunch is chicken soup (very good), noodles, ginger beef, and dessert is like short cake.  OK!

Leave Mena House, go to pyramids ~1:00pm.  They are absolutely marvelous, huge, incredible.  The first, and largest, is ~450 ft. tall (as opposed to the ~150 ft at Sakkara) but the top (and nose of Sphinx) are gone because soldiers used as target practice!  The middle pyramid (which has an entrance in the bottom as opposed to the first’s middle entrance) is the best preserved, with the original limestone cover stones at the top [ed – accompanying picture of a pyramid with an arrow at the top].  The last is smaller.  This is Khafre’s.  The first (biggest) also has three smaller queens pyramids [ed – another picture, a top-view showing the three pyramids, plus three smaller queens’ pyramids, solar boat, and Sphinx near the largest].  This is Cheops’ or Khufu’s.  Go to the second one first, a man tries to give me “free” a headdress and a cup for Michelle.  I refuse, he insists, then he asks for money.  I give him a dollar, he wants more.  Michelle gets ill, I give back “gifts”, he does not give back dollar.  Guards pretty ill with him.  Entrance to Khafre’s (Chephrer’s) pyramid is protected by canvas but, long dark 40′ or so passage down to large (20’+ ceiling, 2,000 sq feet) burial chamber.  We want to go, old guy grabs Michelle’s hand starts pulling her down.  Takes her hat “for her”.  Pulling down faster than she can, about to fall, asks him to stop pulling.  I cannot fit, even bent at the waist.  Too narrow.  Michelle decides then not to go either, man still tries to pull her down.  I shout – “give her the hat and let go, NOW!”  These people really pissing me off!  Walk away from pyramid, guy I gave dollar to gives me a scarab, this time for real.  Leave, go back to van.  Sahar gets us 20 postcards for $1.00 and buy a headdress for $2.00 (or was it LBE?).

Go by van to a high spot on the plateau, get wonderful shot of the pyramids.  Also there are lots of camel riding guides here.  One of them has a Reebok hat and calls himself Reebok!  Paid ~6-8 LBE for the opportunity for each of us to sit on camel and get a picture.  Camel didn’t like me, went “Hissss!”!  Got on saddle, held tight – first it rose to a crouch, then a kneel, then stood up all the way – boy was it high!  Just when you thought it couldn’t go up any higher, it would.  Got cute picture of Michelle on camel, w/ Pyramids in background.  Leave, go by bus to the Cheops Solar Boat museum near the largest (first) pyramid.

Get in, put on little canvas booties over shoes, I need an extra-big one.  They do this to keep dust to a minimum.  First see 4500 yr. old rope, and pit where boat was found (disassembled) [ed – picture of a pit with stone blocks over the top].  Basically over top of pit was huge rectangular stones!  Saw replica of boat, then went upstairs to see the real thing.  Balcony all around, get several magnificent views.  This boat is made of cedar and is called the solar boat because it is meant to carry the king (Cheops) through the heavens with Ra during the day.  There is also a moon boat.  The boat is huge, ~140 ft., well preserved.  Left, forgot to tip shoe person, feel bad!  Boat looks like [ed – picture of the boat].

~2:00pm, go to the Sphinx.  Had beautiful potential shot with trees in back, missed it.  Went into temple adjacent to Sphinx, then walked outside and had great view, with pyramids beyond.  The Sphinx was meant to represent strength, and king Cheops head means he was strong.  Later, the Sphinx became a god.  Had red paint for the cheeks, shows Sphinx originally painted.  Nose missing due to target practice.  Next go to a jewelry store in Giza on the Pyramids road.  They have lots of ivory, gold, etc.  They served us free drinks (Pepsi) with no obligation to buy.  Nice, AC’d room.  Michelle buys small 18k gold Tut earrings, I get two tee-shirts for $20 from “King” Ali. I get a plate engraving from them for ~$15.  The plate is copper (?) w/ paint and beautiful.  Total damage is $89, not bad.  Ali really likes Michelle’s RayBan glasses, wants to trade.  I say maybe, after visiting Upper Egypt, we will consider it.  May go back and get a cartouche w/ my name in it for a necklace.

Next go to Papyrus store.  First, learn how papyrus is made into paper.  See live papyrus plant [ed – picture of a papyrus plant], its stem’s cross section is [ed – a triangle picture], looks like a pyramid.  Not, though, where idea for pyramid came from.  Papyrus really Nubian, but floods wash seeds to delta where they took root.  They were thus seen as a gift of the river Nile and became a symbol for Lower Egypt.  Anyway, stripped skin off of papyrus, green.  It is very tough and flexible.  Then she tried to bend inner stalk (white), it snaps in two – it is 85% sugar.  Cuts stalk into strips.  So, she washes with [ed – illegible].  Sugar comes out, but stalk damaged.  Next tries a roller, sugar gone and not damaged stalk.  Put stalk strip in water for 6 days, longer left in the darker it gets.  Take out after 6 days, put with other strips inserted between cotton sheets and put in a press. Comes out after 6 days as a papyrus sheet [ed – picture of papyrus, labeled “papyrus”, haha].  It is flexible, strong, and ready for writing.  They have many beautiful papyrus, we choose 6 and two bookmarks.  An artist adds names and dates to some for us.  Paid a total of LBE240.00 for it all – and worth it!  May go back and get one more.

~5:30 or 6:00: Back to hotel, to see mosques next day.  Relax, drink, work a little on journals until 8:00pm.  Go to dinner at Sheraton, have fixed menu of tomato soup, grilled chicken, fries, veggies (did not eat) and mousse.  The chicken is weird, thigh, wing, and breast, boneless, broiled w/ skin on.  Greasy.  Not that great.  Visit a souvenir shop and go back to room.  9:30-1:00 work on journal, etc.  Gaze at traffic.  1:00 – bed!

What follows is the first of hopefully a number of “retro blogs”.  This one is of Michelle and I’s trip to Egypt and Greece for our honeymoon in May and June of 1994.  I’ll be presenting the text of both our journals as faithfully as possible (with only omissions for stuff that is better left untyped).  Michelle’s journal spans the entire trip while mine peters out about half-way through.  You’ll notice that our writing styles are very different, hers a “just the facts m’am” and mine a bit more detailed.  You’ll be glad when mine finally ends!  I’ll also be scanning in pictures and such as well for inclusion.

Michelle writes:

I am writing this from the honeymoon suite in the Cairo Sheraton.  Just to catch up, we did a lot of shopping on Thursday.  Bought a new duffel.  But we still hadn’t packed.  About 1 or 1:30a we were looking thru the tickets and realized that the Athens to Cairo leg was missing.  Friday when we called our travel agent was on vacation but another lady there happened to find them.  So we packed with about an hour to spare.  Adrianne took us to the airport (about 1:30p on Friday).  Our plane left about 3:30p.  It was a propeller plane – pretty small.  This flight took us to Washington / Dulles.  At W/D we rode out to this little island terminal.  We waited about 2 hours.  We were in one of the hump planes (has a lounge).  We were in the middle seats.  Sister Act II was the movie.  We got into Paris about 8a.  I felt a little sick.  Left for Athens.  In Athens it was a little worrisome.  We had to transfer to Olympic Airlines and to a different terminal.  The lay over was about 4 hours.  Brian couldn’t keep awake.  The airbus took us to Cairo.  Agent met us at the gate.

We got through customs very quickly.  Our bags made it!  We exchanged some money.  Another couple was being picked up at the same time.  They were from Arizona.  It was 11 by the time we got back to the hotel.  The hotel is very nice.  We got the honeymoon suite.  Mohammed is our Naggar [ed – the travel agency in Egypt] representative.

Brian writes:

I am writing this, my account of my first two days-packed-into-one of our Egyptian honeymoon from the (thankfully) air-conditioned Olympic Airlines terminal in Athens, Greece [ed – Aha!  I wasn’t asleep the whole time!].  We are waiting for something which we are not aware of simply because a person told us to sit in a corner of the terminal and wait… and wait.  The travel books had warned us of this – time is eternal when dealing with Mediterranean bureaucracies, and Greece and Egypt are not to be excepted!

Woke up at about 7:10a Friday to the Big Show (on the Radio!).  Rolled around in bed before finally getting up and showering by 8a.  Call Travel Agents International, they tell me to come in and they will research the missing Olympic Air Tickets.  Get there, they found them!  Yeah.  Get back, leave soon thereafter to get photocopies of passports and drop the Playmaker’s stuff off at Rosalind’s.  Get back about 9:30a.  Pack clothes, etc. until 10:45a.  10:45a – 11:45a: go to McDonald’s for lunch, she gets a McRib, I a two cheeseburger value meal, super-sized for the Flinstones movie!

11:45a – 12:50p: TV, last minute checking, pet Jessica [ed – our cat at the time], etc.  12:50p – 1:30p: Adrianne drives us to the airport (RDU).  Check in with United, there is a snotty woman there who pisses us off because she is flying “first-class”.  You see, there were a few people ahead of her and us, and when the dude said next please she stepped up.  A woman in front protested, but she said, “I’m first-class”.  Man at counter says he’ll make sure luggage gets to Cairo, including the United – Olympic transfer in Athens.  In Raleigh visited some store, bought mineral water for the trip, two bottles.  Left Raleigh on one of those crappy prop planes at 3:15p – Michelle had not been on one and was nervous when the captain did not start the right side prop until taxiing on the runway.  No leg room, I have aisle seat.  Get to Dulles about 4p, saw Chesapeake Bay.  In Dulles (which was a dump and had a stupid fountain placed in the middle of the walkway and was not aesthetically pleasing in the least) just sat around and waited for our flight at about 7p to Paris’ Charles-de-Gaulle airport.  Got off the ground at 7:00, it was a huge humped-back 747 [ed – omitted is a charming picture of the front of the craft with an arrow to the hump labeled “real good seats” and an arrow to the lower area labeled “our crappy seats!”].  We sat in crappy middle seats [ed – another picture, a 2-4-2 seat configuration with Michelle to my left in the middle section of the plane in the 2nd seat, me in the 3rd, of that section] right over the wing.  Saw some news, Cheers, and travel show with crappy audio.  The Cheers had Cliff touched by Sam’s black book and he goes, “I can see, I can walk”!  Very clever! [ed – ugh, I wrote everything down!] Movie was Sister Act II – shitty and predictable!  Enough said.  Dinner was chicken cordon-bleu, breakfast was not memorable.  ~8:00st, in Paris Charles-de-Gaulle, in a satellite international terminal, one of several that surrounded the main terminal [ed – another picture, I’ll spare you from the description].  Needed to use bathroom bad, but stupid French janitor was exercising probably the most power he’s ever had in his life by stopping us until the floor was totally dry [ed – awww, did he say “non non” to my need to “oui oui”?].  The toilet was reasonably tame compared to my experience with French / Swiss toilets in July 1988.  Only interesting thing was the flusher was on the left side of the stall at foot level and away from toilet.

Left France at 10:50st, on to Athens.  Saw (from the plane) the amazing Alps, which had several glaciers and were mostly snow-capped!  They rose steeply from the plateau and had little villages nestled within [ed – a picture of a comma-shaped lake, labeled “saw lake”, I guess I intended to later try and figure out what it was].  Next saw beautiful azure waters of the Mediterranean and the French & Italian riviera.  Passed by Pisa, the quarries where Michelangelo got stone, later went over Florence and across boot of Italy.  Saw lake near sea [ed – with yet another picture].  Fell asleep several times, realized this was my first truly international flight.  Woke up over Greece, saw lake – [ed – a picture] next to sea.  Saw long gulf between Greece and Peloponnesia.  Had chicken wrapped in weird stuff!

Landed in Athens, which reminds me a lot of Phoenix but with a beautiful blue Aegean Sea coast.  In that it is like Phoenix, AZ due to sandy hills and scrub (no cacti, though) upon them.  Lots of white houses, apartments.  Got to Athens at 2pm st and waited… and waited.  First a woman took our tickets and told us to sit nearby.  Though she had nothing else to do, it took 30 minutes for her to decide to move us from the international terminal to the Olympic terminal (by bus driver by dude [ed – what?!].  Greek sounds a lot like Russian, is neat to see printed – one of the words looks like [ed – crude attempt to replicate the word].  Next got to sit for about an hour in an empty lobby (see beginning note) for boarding passes (which we already had!)  Then, go to the international terminal, which has duty-free shops and saw a Conan and Mickey Mouse in Greek!  Everbody seems to smoke.  Saw a little girl in traditional Greek (?) costume.  White robe and red cap.  Kept on falling asleep, slobbering on self [ed – Sheesh, Michelle was right!  And I promised to keep this as close to the original text as possible, quit looking at me like that!].

Leave Athens at 6:50p st or so, 2 and 1/2 hour flight to Egypt – I sleep during much of it.  Wake upon approach to Cairo – huge, endless lights!!!  16 million people of the area’s 57 million live here, and with the suburbs almost 1/3 to 1/2 people.  Land at ~9:00, earlier than expected.  Tense moments as we pray dude will meet us before getting to customs.  They do!  Two guys, one very small, one very large – Ihab is his name.  They tell us to go through Egyptians’ line of customs, nothing to declare, they tell us not to worry about registering camera though I am a little wary of that!  Get baggage, takes a long while to come out!  Talked to Ihab, who is also a lawyer, about America – marriage, crime, etc.  Talked about why there are poor, etc.  He says he is amazed by female – male casual relationships, not like that at all in Egypt.  I am real young to be married, usually in later twenties – to thirties, arranged [ed – that’s Ihab talking].

Leave there, meet Mohammed, our travel guide.  Ride on a small bus with another couple, the Harts.  The driver is an older man.  Driving is crazy!  Horns beeping constantly, Mohammed says rush hour is CONSTANT (it is!).  Pedestrians dart in front of cars like they are not there, donkey-drawn carts do not yield to faster traffic.  Though the roads are two lanes each way, it is not unusual to see three or four lanes of traffic!  Mohammed says the white lines are largely disregarded, and the only law is to drive on the right, though even that is broken.  There is not even a requirement for headlights at night!  The Harts are OK, he and she are ~70, he was in the army air corps over Britain, Africa and visited Egypt in 1943.  Talked some about history, changes in itinerary, and our Egyptologist Sahar.  Narrowly avoided lots of accidents, saw Jeep Cherokees!  Made it to the Cairo Sheraton at ~11:00pm, got a honeymoon suite, Rm. 1373.

Mohammed greets friends with kiss on each cheek, lots of back-slapping!  Oh, changed $300 to 1011.30LBE [ed – pounds Egyptian] at bank at airport.  Got to bed after get to great room (beautiful view of Nile, river, neat traffic square) ~11:30.  My headache had come back.  Oh, toilet flushes in at the top of the toilet, pull up on it!