Egypt - 12 October 2010 (2)

Up on the Roof

Livestock on the Roof

Boys and Birds on the Roof

After the monasteries, we continued on into Cairo.  Just before we hit the city traffic, I caught my first sight of the pyramids.  It was quite exciting.  We continued for miles on an elevated freeway, but eventually reached our turn off.  This time Mahmoud, our driver, found the hotel without having to ask for directions.  This was his home town.

Farmyard on the Roof

Me on the Roof

Unusually for a capital city, the hotel we stayed at in Cairo, the Swiss Inn Nile Hotel, was quite nice, although Caroline was not impressed with the dirty floor in our room.  I was very pleased to discover that we had a view of the pyramids from the room.  Caroline and some of the others went into town for some sightseeing and souvenir shopping, but I went up to the hotel roof to relax.  The views from the roof were wonderful, so I got my camera out and started to take photos in every direction.  The Nile lay below us to the east and the pyramids could be seen in the west.  The roofs of the houses in between the hotel and the pyramids were fascinating.  They were used in lieu of back yards and held goats, sheep and chickens plus copious amounts of rubbish.  As well as the pool, there was a roof-top bar, so I ordered a citronade and chatted first to Ruth and then to Vic and Kim.  We watched the sun set over the pyramids.  It was magical.  As the sun dipped below the horizon, the call to prayer rose all around us from countless hidden mosques.  I stayed on the roof for a long time.  Sue arrived and showed us all her purchases.

River Nile

River Nile

When Ruth and some others joined us, we decided to eat dinner on the roof.  I went down to the room to spray myself with mosquito repellent and found Caroline having a shower in the dark.  Before she went out, I told her to look for me on the roof if I was not in the room, but she had met Anne on the way in and she had told her that I was only on the roof for a short while.  The cleaners were able to let her into the room, but she needed the key to turn the electricity on, which was why she was in the dark.

Small Boat on the River Nile

Pyramids at Sunset

We waited on the roof for a long time for someone to take our dinner order.  In the end, Caroline, Heuly, Barry and I gave up and went to the restaurant downstairs. There was quite a large menu and I ordered the pasta. They served me a huge portion, but most of the vegetables were capsicums, so I ate a fair bit of the pasta and tried to avoid the peppers.  The meal took a long time as the service was not the best and it took even longer for them to give us the bill and take payment. I was able to go back to the room eventually and I went straight to bed as my tummy was still not good.