April 28 - International School of Egypt

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.... or at least in a country far, far away was a dynamic High School French teacher that offered students the opportunity to take a two-week summer trip to Egypt. My sister, Sarah, was lucky enough to visit Egypt in 1993 or was it 1994 with Madame Amiry. Sarah's photos and stories from her travels were so vivid and amazing that Egypt popped to the top of my "Goals for the next 10 years" list that I created circa 1996. Greg and I were dating at the time and the good suitor he was he duly noted my priorities and over the years has supported me in checking the items off of the list. {My cousin Monique was thrilled when Greg proposed, as she knew that I was able to check off "Get hitched to Greg!"}

When we were dreaming of where our next big trip after Turkey (2007) would be, Greg said "We've got to do Egypt, it's still on the list!" As we were planning our trip, I remembered that I had heard that Mme Amiry was back in Egypt. So I tracked her down and we were fortunate enough to be able to visit her.

Well, she's been busy, busy, busy working to establish a top notch international school: The International School of Egypt. She's worked tirelessly to bring this school to life, shaping the school's philosophy and hand selecting the teachers for their first school year, underway now.  If you know of an elementary school teacher ready for adventure and international living - send 'em her way!

It was really great to see her, meet her daughter and grandson, and see the school that they are building from the ground up.  She toured us around taking us into the classrooms to meet teachers and students.  We enjoyed hearing about the 5th grade field trip, which was scuba diving in the red sea!!  I think Gavin impressed Mme Amiry when we checked out the room for Arabic lessons and Greg prompted Gavin to identify a few letters and spell a word in Arabic!

The tour included her pointing out her house, conveniently located just across the street from the school.  We smiled to ourselves when we heard her living situation is similar to ours - where she lives in a house with a unit for herself and then one for her daughter's family.

Following the tour, she treated us to a really lovely buffet at a hotel nearby.  We talked about language education, the movie Avatar (Gav thought she was soooo cool because she had watched it), raising kids, and old friends.  Finally, she needed to return to the school.  Her driver headed all of us back to drop her, then he was to drop us off downtown.  After all of the excitement during the ride back Connor fell asleep standing up in her embrace in the back of the car!  It was really sweet.

April 27 - Back in Cairo

We arrive back in Cairo melancholy because we really sense that our trip is wrapping up. This time we stay at a hostel just a block from the City View Hotel where we stayed upon arrival. We're feeling like veterans now.

We head back to the Egyptian Museum - even crossing the street without the protection of locals. Now we get it right. We split up. First I take Cici and spend 1 1/2 hours pouring over the artifacts in the museum, including the treasures of King Tut's tomb. They underscore that he was really not an important Pharaoh, so just imagine the treasures that were buried with some of the powerful Pharaoh's like Ramses II! Greg brings the boys down to the Children's Museum (aka the Lego Exhibit). Then we switch.

I tell Gavin all about the treasures of King Tut they are all upstairs, just like he read in the book! Does he want to go with Dad to see them? No, he's not done making his lego rocket ship. WHAT? Are you six years old or something??

Once Greg gets his fill of the museum we meet up in the courtyard. All of a sudden I hear "Cici! Cici!" A long lost friend - it's the waitress from City View, she's there with what looks like her sister. They smother Cici with kisses take about a dozen photos with their camera phones and then run off.

Kids say the darndest things...

1) So when we were in Luxor the first day Connor started in with this little scene that he'd act out. He'd pretend to be walking along with not a care in the world then he'd thrust his fist in the air and yell in a deep voice "BOOOMM!!" followed by "Ow! My pea-nus!"(in a high voice). This began in the hotel room and continued while we were out and about. Thankfully most of what he says to others still needs to be translated by Greg, Gavin or myself.

2) During one (much needed) bath for the boys while we were on the cruise I was getting their clothes ready in their cabin. I hear some giggling and then Gavin yelled to me "Hey, Mom, come in here, want to see my obelisk?"

3) Forward ahead to our return trip to Rome. We are engrossed in a fascinating tour of the Coliseum when I hear from behind a wall "BOOOMM! Ow! My OBELISK!"

Hmmm. I take solice in knowing that the boys are smart enough to figure that the obelisk was also a fertility symbol. Well, I guess it's kinda hard to miss :)

Overnight Train Part Due

The overnight train from Cairo to Luxor was such hit with the Nut Gallery we decided to take it on the return trip. Taking the overnight train back to Cairo from Aswan we felt like veterans. It was a much more relaxed experience. One reason is because the northbound train starts in Aswan, so we were able to board the train 20 minutes before it departed. When we boarded the train in Cairo, it was coming from Alexandria and we only had about 5 minutes to load our 11 bags (I know, we weren't exactly travelling light) and 3 kids onto the train.

We were prepared because we knew that we'd get dinner, but this time dinner was at 6 pm instead of 10 pm. The food was actually better on this leg too. For some reason they provide 2 or 3 entrees for each meal. Each sleeper car has an attendant that brings the meals and then later on sets up the beds. I had planned on taking a little video of the transformer magic, but he was too quick! Basically there are 3 or 4 seats on a bench. With the use of the magic key the back of bench flips down to a bed. Behind the bench headrest hides a ladder that is take out and attached to what I thought was a luggage rack. The magic key also opens up the panel above the headrest and a top bunk flips down. This little set up also has a little corner sink! I thought that might be the case when we first saw the couchette, but then I never really checked it out. Much nicer to wash your hands in the privacy (and cleanliness) of your own car versus the community bathroom. Yes, the toilet is pretty much an open hole that leaves your souvenirs on the track.

Gavin befriended our neighbor and enjoyed a few hours of making up stories with Tim who is backpacking across Africa and making his way to the world cup in South Africa! This time we all (including Greg) slept well and through the night.

Aswan -Sunday, April 25

Riddle of the Day

Q: What did the fish say when he hit concrete swimming around Aswan?

A: Damn!

We arrive back at our room in Aswan at the Keylani Hotel where we left most of our bags for our side trip to Abu Simbel. As per our "vacation" domestic roles I tend to the kids, trying to get them cleaned up and ready for bed while Greg hunts down kid-friendly meals to bring back to the room. The guy at the front desk is helpful pointing Greg to two good options resulting in falafel sandwiches (for 1 Egyptain Pound = 20 cents!) and some kiddie sandwiches - one with three hot dogs, one chicken panne (breaded chicken cutlet) and one beef shwarma. We dine then sleep our one night in Aswan. While we have tomorrow to check out Aswan in the evening we're on the overnight train again.

In the morning we enjoy the breakfast crepes and fruit served on the rooftop terrace. Then Cici and I head back to the room to nap and pack respectively, while the boys enjoy a quick swim in the jacuzzi-sized roof pool. Once all of our bags are packed we head to lunch and to the market. For some reason I can't move the photos around in this posting so I'll just describe the photos in the order they're pasted below.

1) One of the covered streets of the market

2) Typical wooden holder for their pita-like bread

3) Beautiful display of spices and indigo blue (for whitening laundy whites)

4) More bowls of spices

5) Dried hibiscus leaves for making a drink called Karkaday

6) Greg and a donkey that is used for making deliveries

7) Just a cute shot of Connor perched on Greg's knee at the lunch place while Greg chats up the staff.

Safe Travels - April 25

So, if you know our itinerary, you know that we're actually back home safe and sound. Since I wasn't able to post to the blog in real time, I am just going to continue to add blog posts to continue to recap our trip.

Egypt takes the tourist industry very seriously – as they should – it brings on a good deal of money into the country. They take a number of precautions to ensure the safety of travelers, some may be a bit much.

Every tourist site has a metal detector the pyramids at Giza, the various temples and even the Khan el Kahlili market when you enter from the main square. The Egyptian museum has two sets of metal detectors - although the purpose of the second one may primarily be to catch people sneaking in cameras, which are banned from the museum.

Another precaution they take to safeguard foreigners is the “Convoy”. As mentioned before we took the Public Bus from Aswan to Abu Simbel. When you set up a tour via microbus you need to leave at 4:00 am not only to get to the temple before the heat of the day, but because the convoy leaves then it only goes twice a day. The convoy is a police escorted convoy for the tourists. The logic behind it is that in the long stretch of desert there aren’t any police. So to keep foreigners safe from bandits they need the police to protect them. As Lonely Planet points out, now the bandits know exactly what time they can expect lot of tourists! But the Egyptian police (or is it the tourist police – really, they have this) feel it is safer.

I bet you are wondering what happens if you need to travel from Abu Simbel back to Aswan and you’ve missed the last Public Bus of the day… and inadvertently also missed the last convoy heading that direction. Well, my friends, do to our thorough research we have an answer for you.

Greg headed to the temple to check it out and on his way back was able to arrange a microbus to take us back to Aswan. As part of the negotiation Ramadan the policeman said that he would make the arrangements for us to travel. So they came to pick us up at the hotel. We said our goodbyes and loaded into the 14 passenger van that we had to ourselves. About 10 minutes down the road we arrived at the check point. "You're not part of a convoy!" they exclaimed. The driver explained that Ramadan the policeman had 'arranged everything.' "No, no, you must go to the tourist police and pay for someone to go with you." But when we left our hotel proprietor had warned us not to pay any more fees. Greg had Ramadan's phone number so they called him up. After a number of back and forths we headed back to the hotel in Abu Simbel. Ramadan the police man arrived and was talking and walkie-talkie-ing a great deal. While all of this was going on I found a dead ant and showed it to Gavin and Connor. Gavin decided to make the world's first ant sarcophagus! I passed the time by trying to photograph the Mama and Baby camel that came over from the neighbors.

In the end Ramadan talked one of his lackeys into riding to Aswan with us. We had our very own Watchy Watchy man! Watchy Watchy is what our friend Paige called the 'security" guys in the Dominican Republic that stand outside of every establishment with their semi-automatic weapon. This poor guy just sat there for 3 1/2 hours to Aswan and then turned around and sat for another 3 1/2 hours on the way back. So , do you feel safer with a guy in the front seat with a semi-automatic weapon? I'm not sure I did. I wanted to take some photos to document it, but we opted not to take any flash photos.

Rising at Dawn

We arrived at he town of Abu Simbel at about 9 pm and set out to walk the 4 minutes to the hotel, asking locals which direction to set off in. We ambled down the road eager to get settled for the night. The description of the hotel was a 5 room hotel constructed in the Nubian style. We passed one place that seemed to fit the description, but with no lights on we continued up the road. A few minutes later two gentlemen approached Greg and Connor asking if we were the Americans coming to stay at Eskaleh. If so, we just passed it. They escorted us to the hotel and we were greeted by the owner, Fikry. They were very hospitable. His cousin’s family was there too and they have a baby girl, just two weeks younger than Cici. The two babes looked doe-eyed at each other for a few minutes, but neither thought the other was too interesting.

We ordered some chicken for dinner and eventually asked to have it in our rooms, since it was getting late and we wanted to get the kiddos to bed – since the plan was to go see the temple at dawn. The chicken turned out the be the best meal we had in Egypt – we were hungry from just eating little sandwiches at the bus station (liver and pepper for Greg, cheese for me and Gavin, and just bread for Connor), but generally that opinion is not biased. We booked two double rooms, but it turned out each had 3 beds. They boys didn’t want to be split up, so we just cancelled one of the rooms and made due with the 3 beds.

Mosquito nets (or Mosquito Temples as the kids were calling them) were draped romantically above the beds. Greg asked about them, and they said “you won’t need them, it’s not really mosquito season.” We liked the feel of the hotel and started planning on staying 2 nights. I’d get up at dawn with Gavin on the first day to see the temple; we’d hang around the hotel and town; then take everyone to the sound and light show at the temple after dinner. The following day Greg would head to the temple at dawn and we could all depart on the 9:30 am bus.

However, 26 dead mosquitos later… (kill tallies: Greg 20; Maia 5: Gavin 1) we decided it wasn’t worth it to stay the second night for the sound and light show.

Gavin and I did rise at dawn and left Greg, Cici and Connor to slumber as we took a taxi to the temple at 5:45 am. The sun had risen by the time got to the temple, but the air was cool and the dawn’s light was pretty. There were a few other tourists, but basically we had the place to ourselves.

Ramses II really knew how to celebrate himself. The temples are carved from rock and are really impressive. These two temples also had to be moved when Lake Nasser was created by the Aswan High Dam. A team of archeologists and architects (and probably a slew of others) from 4 countries cut these two temples into 2000 pieces and relocated them above the Lake’s water line. The larger one has four Colossi of Ramses II adorning the front. Gavin and I are in the shot above for scale. These temples have less hieroglyphics carved into them, and are less ornate than most of the others we saw, but they are probably my favorites.

I like how in one room the wall carvings weren’t finished and the last bit in the corner is a mix of carving and then just black outline of what is to be chiseled out. The next two walls were bare – the only two bare walls we’d seen in any temples!

Local Experience Necessary?

Looking for the local experience in Egypt?

Greg and I recommend the public bus from Aswan to Abu Simbel. Many tourists set up one day tours to see the two temples at Abu Simbel on Lake Nasser either by quick set of round trip flights or the micro busses that leave at 4 am from Aswan and return late morning. We opted for the public bus, which technically only takes 4 tourists per bus, but that’s not enforced – which is good since we didn’t want to put Cici in the cargo holdJ We planned on taking the 11:30 am bus and got to the bus station just at 11:30 am to find out that there is no 11:30 am bus, only an 8 am bus and a 5 pm bus. Bummer, that would mean we would miss the sound and light show at the temple that night, but we forged ahead and purchased tix for the 5 pm bus. We headed to a nearby café to eat some lunch and have some down time. After a while we took a taxi to the other side of town to check out the Nubian Museum (Nubi is the word for Gold and Nubia is that southern area where gold was found) for an hour before returning to the bus station an hour before the departure time, as advised by the locals.

The photo is Connor sitting in the Ticket window at the bus station. The gent to the left of the window is our bus driver - he took a shine to Connor. He gave him the nickel tour of the bus station before we left.

At first we only bought 2 tickets for the adults and were considering the half price kids ticket for Gavin (based on his age). But when we realized that meant that he wouldn’t get a seat for the 4 hour bus ride, we coughed up the money for seats for Gavin and for Connor. Each $5 fare was completely worth it, since the bus completely filled up. The bus came complete with a Bollywood movie subtitled into Arabic that featured an Indian version of Al Pacino and the boys’ (including Greg) favorite part, the finale with a man-eating crocodile. [If anyone knows the name of this movie let us know!] The route is basically along Lake Nasser through the desert. It was neat to see the road slicing through the sand dunes and our shadow shooting across the stretching sand. There was one rest stop where we stayed about half an hour. Ever change a dirty diaper in the desert in the dark behind a pile of construction equipment?? Check that one off the list for us.

Here's a weird scene from out of the bus window - looks like a mash up of Epcot Center and Tatooine.

We're cruisin' now!

April 20 – April 24

With the help of some friends we booked a short cruise on the Nile through a local travel agency (SEEgypt). This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. The volcanic ash cloud coming from Iceland is wreaking havoc on international travel in Northern Europe and as a result a good number of travelers weren’t able to meet their tour boats as planned. Our boat, the Mövenpick Radamis II is a smaller cruise ship, but even so only has about 60 passengers on it.

We’re bummed because our five day, four night cruise comes to an end tomorrow. After about 3 days we’ve bonded with a number of our fellow passengers. It’s been great with the kids because the ship is a contained safe environment and pretty much everyone on the ship knows our kids now. Gavin in particular has befriended a few of our fellow passengers – Nick and Ray. Connor has adopted a temporary set of grandparents, Patricia and John or as he was calling them ‘Patricia and the “other guy”’. Last night Gavin was making up riddles for our corner of the dining room and Cici was getting passed around to her delight.

I’ve got to hand it to them; the kids have been really well behaved. We’ve gotten a number of compliments. Gavin has been appointed “Assistant Tour Guide”, tagging along right behind our Guide Hassan and even getting to hand out the tickets to one of the sights yesterday.

Cruise tour included:

Karnak – Twenty nine temples in this complex built over the span 2400 years. Just amazing. Each Pharaoh trying to outdo the previous one.

Luxor Temple – The ancient temple in the center of Luxor with a road lined with Sphinxes connecting it to Karnak for the annual Amun festival when they’d bring statues down from there for a week.

Valley of the Queens: Amunkirkhepshef

Temple of Queen Hatshepsut [Deir al-Bahri] – Hatshepsut is one of only a handful of women that served as Pharoah. There are images of her as a woman, but also dressed as a male Pharoah even with the fake beard (that all Pharaoh’s wore).

Valley of the

Kings: Ramses III, Ramses IX and Tutank

hamen – Last stop on this day’s tour was the sacred Valley of the Kings. The Pharoah’s realized that the pyramids were amazing works of art and a great tributes to them, but did not protect their tombs from being robbed. They started selecting burial sites in the Valley of the Kings near their holy city of Thebes; the valley is marked by a natural pyramid-shaped mountain and an boat like shape of two hills (boats are the vessels that carry them to the spirit world). We visited tombs of Ramses III and Rameses IX to see what their underground burial chambers were like and see the lavish paintings on the walls and ceiling. Greg then paid the extra to bring Gavin in to check out the tomb of Tutankhamen. That tomb isn’t decorated too much, and none of the loot is in there, but Tutankhamen’s mummy is in there.

Edfu: Temple of Horus – Horus is the falcon god. My favorite fact is that large faclon stonestatues that

flank the doorway to the temple, probably each at least 10 feet tall, had st

one crowns that they wore. They were cut from separate stones so that they could switch the crowns on special holidays!

Kom Ombo: Temple of Haroeris and Sobek – After 20 centuries this temple remains perched on the bank of the Nile, so that it is just a 100 meter walk from the cruise ship! Back in ancient times this area was well known to the crocodile population for a lovely place to take in the sun. Coincidence that this temple is dedicated to Sobek, the crocodile god? I think not.

Aswan High Dam – As a civil engineer I was expecting to be impressed by the High Dam. Maybe because of the design it’s not as dramatic as the Hoover dam I wasn’t wowed by it. I haven’t compared their stats, but it’s kinda low on the to-do-list.

Temple at Philae –This temple built for the goddess Isis is on an island. They

actually had to move this temple when they finished the high dam. We had to take a little boat ride over. What a thrill! Connor sat in the seat next to the motor and the driver let him, and then both he and Gavin steer the boat.

Unfinished Obelisk – Here in the granite quarries of Aswan, they found an obelisk that was not finished being hewn from the rock. Egyptologists know that to separate the sides the ancient Egyptians would split the rock and insert wood splints then soak then with water. The expanded wood would force further cracking. But it remains a mystery of how to cut the surface on the bottom to release the obelisk from the quarry. They estimate that 1200 workers tooled on this obelisk that would have been over 100 tons. Unfortunately for them the reason this obelisk wasn’t finished was that, but there’s a crack in it. We learned that the ancient Egyptians coated obelisks with electrum, a mixture of gold and silver. The obelisks were the needles that sewed together the earth and sky.

Felucca Ride – One of the classic Egyptian Tour experiences is taking a felucca ride. I had shied away from this after reading a write up that it might be stressful taking young kids. It was included in our cruise, so we all went. It turned out to be wonderfully relaxing and enjoyable. The boys were great, we all sat in the middle of the boat. Probably since it was post nap, they weren’t super restless and enjoyed the sail as well.

Here's a family photo from felucca:

Luxor

Not sure where I left off. I'm just writing a quick little update since I am being stalked by a band of mosquitos in the hotel lobby here in Luxor. We're staying in the Morris Hotel - a beautiful structure that is just totally not being maintained. Luxor is quite amazing with the number and quality of sites. It's cool to think that the Roman Ceasers came here for sightseeing and that Homer wrote about the city of Thebes that stood here before.

Cairo had hot days, but the nights were cool and comfortable. Here in Luxor it's hot even at night, so you can imagine what the days are like, and most of the tourist sites we've been to have no trees. Luxor boasts a number of temples and one of the world's most famous necropolises - maybe Daly City is a close second :) We visited 4 sites today (I'll have to check my spelling when I get back to the guide book): two temples - Medinat Hadu and Rassmeseum, the Colossi of Memnon and the Tomb of the Noble Nacht. Lonely Planet got it perfect. We picked a few sights from their Highlights List that we're not hitting on our cruise. It was great, these ones are not visited by most tours, but were really impressive. Memnon is that african king that was killed by Achilles in the Odyssey.. Probably need to read that again.

The kids did great in the heat. Cici has even started drinking water from a water bottle/sippy cup - yeah! I couldn't believe how much water we drank and were still dehydrated. We went form 8:45 am to 2:30 pm then everyone took a power nap. Not the 15 minute kind of power nap, but like a 3 hour power nap!

Overnight Train!

Saturday we were graciously hosted by Patrick Gaffney (a friend from Wharton) and his partner Robert for a delicious brunch. They are in a great apartment in Zamelek overlooking the Nile. Makes me want a job at the State Department! I am sorry to report that we arrived on Egyptian time since we were packing and buying train tix. They cooked up a wonderful spread and we all enjoyed their company for a few hours before heading over to the Citadel.

The Citadel is a fortress perched on a cliff with a beautiful (and strategic) view and two mosques that was built when crusaders started sacking neighboring countries. We treated the boys to the military museum - cannons, guns, swords etc. Dinner followed at the market where we got a pastrami pancake (think stuffed pizza) and a banana and honey pancake. Just enough fuel to get us through the chaos of the market where we bought Greg a Galabeh - the traditional local egyptian garb before heading to the train station.

Then we partied it up on the overnight train from Cairo to Luxor. It was quite exciting. The kids slept great and Greg and I survived. Although, not sure how well Greg survived - looks like he's the first victim of the Pharaoh's revenge :(

Baby Love

Before we left I was told "Egyptians love kids" - you'll be fine. Chinese love kids, Italians love kids, but really Egyptians LOVE kids! In Rome the boys were getting pats on the heads from passersby and Cici got a few pinched cheeks. But I think Cici has been kissed by almost two dozen Egyptians in the 4 days we've been here. It started with the flight attendant on the plane over and hasn't let up. All of the staff here at the hotel ask about Cici first if she's not with us. The waitress just snaps her up out of her sit and stroll and offers to feed her. But the peak of attention (aside from her boyfriend in Rome) had to be outside of the Great Pyramid. A young girl about 10 years old(the one in yellow and green) came over to take Cici's photo on her phone other kids noticed and in about 2 minutes I was surrounded by a dozen girls (and one cute boy) asking what Cici's name was, how old she is and if they could kiss her!

Conquering the pyramids

"All dread time, but time dreads the Pyramids."

Thursday, April 15
Wow. We did it... and it was pretty cool. Today was our excursion to the Giza Plateau and the pyramids there. Cairo is so large and sprawling (what do you expect with 20 million people?) that there is development (a relative term) up to the area of the pyramids. It's quite mind boggling as an engineer especially to consider that these are 4500 years old and the Great pyramid, the largest and oldest, is over 2.3 million stone blocks that weigh 2.5 tons a piece. I read an estimate elsewhere that at some points during the process they had to be sliding the stone blocks in at about one every 2 - 3 minutes. Because their tools were primitive they needed to start quarrying the granite or marble blocks that lined the special interior rooms about 7 - 10 years prior to when they were needed.

Greg arranged a driver, George, with the hotel to take us to Giza and then around the pyramids. George as it turned out was a CRAZY driver - even by Cairene standards. For example, in the first minute of our trip he pulled a crazy maneuver that almost resulted in an accident and a policeman demanding his license. Greg and I were thanking Lolo again for bringing the sit and stroll. We zipped along to Giza. As we approached the area a number of folks were trying to wave us down, stop the car, block the road, look official, sell us something - or all of the above. All of the guidebooks say to avoid them at all costs. Apparently George is well-versed in Egyptian travel books. His tactic was to aim to them and accelerate. I do have to hand it to him, it was highly effective.

He dropped us off near the Great Pyramid. After going through security we wandered up in awe of this ancient monument. It was huge. We were warned that it's so big that being right in front of it is actually disappointing because it seems so two dimensional from the base. I wasn't disappointed, but I did think that each stone block was going to be a lot bigger. The kids enjoyed scrambling on the blocks on the outside and taking pictures. We were debating if we should go inside the pyramid, as we were warned it was strenuous. We opted to go for it. It was awesome to go inside and head up the tiny passageway that leads to the burial chamber just like an old school archeologist. Gavin lead the way and we followed.

After the great pyramid we headed to the area where you can take photos of all of the pyramids and then down to the Sphinx. That was Connor's favorite far. He kept referencing the Little Einsteins episode and saying we needed to look for the missing puzzle piece!

Walk like an Egyptian

We landed in Cairo later than expected (a longer story for another day) and met up with our hotel driver without issue. During the 45 minute drive from the airport to the hotel Greg taught Gavin arabic numerals, I kept Connor from sleeping and Greg and I tried to think of ways to verify that the five of us weren't being kidnapped via some elaborate plan.

When we arrived at City View Hotel we were warmly welcomed... profusely warmly welcomed. Lots of friendly Egyptian gents bustling around welcoming us to Cairo and to City View - giving us the nickel tour of the hotel. I had researched so many hotels and also looked up our hotel, but was shown what I think was an incorrect map. I couldn't remember where we'd be in relation to the sites. But when they showed us the famous "City View" of the Hotel I remembered. We were right across the street from the Egyptian Museum!

So our first morning in Cairo we awoke and dined together as a family at the hotel restaurant buffet. Then headed over for our first lesson in Egyptology at the famed museum across the street. It seemed like a baby step to have our first excursion just to be heading across the street. After we risked life and limb to get to the other side we read in our Lonely Planet that crossing the street in Cairo is "probably the most challenging thing you will do in Egypt." They advise to follow the locals and use them as 'human shields' from on coming traffic. I thought it was funny later when we spotted our one and only sighting of a cross walk light that the green person crossing signifying that it is safe to cross is actually a little person that does a running motion.

Setting Expectations

When we set out to plan this vacation, I said, well, if we can do one "thing" a day, that will be good. But to be honest, I was secretly hoping that we'd exceed expectations... We're averaging one a day, good news is that it makes naming the highlight tourist places pretty easy to do. We're partial to letting kids sleep in or nap, which cuts into the traditional sightseeing time.

Day 1 - Saturday, April 10th

Gavin and Connor finally roused and we walked the 10 minutes to the Vatican - we can see St. Peter's Dome from outside the monastery where we're staying! We soaked in the atmosphere with all of the crowds around the piazza, but it was so crowded that we opted to pass on going inside. Instead we walked over to Castel Sant'Angelo which has a neat history of its own. They boys enjoyed running around and checking it out while Cici dined al fresco. There were some beautiful apartments on the top floors and a spectacular view of Rome from the top. That night we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at the restaurant Opera recommended by Matthew from the Schellville Grill in Sonoma. The owner Fortunata welcomed us in when he heard we were sent by 'Matteo'. Turns out that was no small feat - the whole restaurant had been reserved for a party of about forty Americans, but he set us a table and treated us like family. He even toured Cici around the restaurant when our meals came so we could enjoy them! All of the kids enjoyed the live Opera singing along with the accordian player. Connor was getting into singing "Ole" and clapping at the end of each song. Nana, Greg, Connor and I really did enjoy the fresh pasta (yes Matthew, we had the bucatini - which was great!) but we had one casualty at dinner. Shortly after we got seated Gavin was so tired that he basically passed out. He slept sweetly with his head on Nana's lap throughout dinner, and didn't wake up really until we got back to our rooms... and then was up until 3 am! So much for mastering jet lag!

Funny thing too - when we introducing ourselves to Fortunata and waiting to get seated, we were chatting with one of the couples from the large group entering the restaurant. Turns out that they're from Southern California and have a son that graduated from Servite H.S. just two years below Greg!

Day 2 - Sunday, April 11th
I see that you can't cheat with the blog and write a few days later and have no one know you're not keeping up since the posts get shown in the order they were posted! I'll just fill in the details from Rome by editing this posting. So... Sunday morning the boys slept in again. The monastery has these windows with metal inserts that can completely block out any outside light, basically if you close them you have no idea if it is day or night outside.... Greg thinks they're great. I think they're terrible, since I definitely need input from the outside world that it's time to get up. The boys were feeling the same way (even Connor!) Unfortunately even once we coaxed them awake at about 11 am Gavin wasn't feeling too well. Usually when someone passes out cold at a restaurant and then pukes in the morning it's a sign of a party animal. In this case more likely the maleffects of jet-lag. He rallied though and we went out to brave the Rome Public Bus System. We successfully navigated our way down to Termini Train Station and caught the ATAC double decker sight seeing bus. The boys had fun riding on the top level of the bus as we tried to follow along with the sightseeing narrative which seemed a block or two behind our physical location. We were driven by Piazza Venezia, San Pietro, Quirnale Hill, Colosseum, Forum etc. We disembarked and walked down Via del Corso getting our obligatory selection of pizzas and gelatos (Thanks Nana!) on our way to Piazza dei Popolo. It was fun to people watch and Gavin and Connor loved sitting atop the Tiger statues that were part of the fountain in the center. Gavin even had to run back and say good bye to "Stripey" before we left.

That night we journeyed to Campo Fiori to dine al fresco at Baccanale. We went on the early side on the advice of Rick Steve since we had the kiddies, but that resulted in many of the restaurants (that he recommended) not being open for dinner yet. We found a lively place called Baccanale where the food was decent and the wait staff were excellent. The large tip we left at the end of the night was for both attentive service as well as baby sitting. One of the cute male waiters took a liking to Cici and he was playing hide and seek with her from afar. Later she kept flirting with him and he kept cracking her up - she was loving it! It seemed our whole corner of the restaurant was having fun with her, where other patrons were saying "Bye Cici" as they left. The boys weren't left out, they were treated to free gelato from our gracious server.

After dinner Greg loaded me and the kids in a cab heading home and took his mom on Rick Steve's night walk in Rome.

Sit and Stroll

The 'Sit and Stroll' is one of our indispensible travel essentials. (No product placement or paid endorsements :) Like the transformer hero Optimus Prime, the Sit and Stroll transforms from a stroller that looks like a barka lounger into an FAA approved car seat that provides safety on planes, trains and automobiles. It also works as a booster seat for restaurants. Genius! It was a gift from our dear friends Anne and Rajiv Desliva and we would never consider travelling without it. So..... you can feel our anxiety when my dad dropped us off at SFO for our flight and we realized that we had left said Sit and Stroll in the garage at home!!!

Lolo (that's what we call my Dad know, it means Grandfather in Filipino) sped home and picked it up, along with Lola (my mom) so he could ride in the HOV lane during rush hour and saved the day! Greg made the swap (for Cici's carseat) and we were able to board our flight.

We're now enjoying Rome with Greg's mom (aka Nana). More details during our next internet session....
Ciao!

Final Preparations... We're just about bringing the bags down to the car. Do we have everything? It's not like Roman or Egyptian babies don't wear diapers or use wipes. I've got lots - maybe I can sell them on the black market.

I'm always paranoid wrt the kids food b/c of all of their allergies. When we took Gavin @ 9 months to China the Gerber Chicken Dinner looked good and I gave him some. His cheeks grew to look like red balloons - turns out the Chinese put cheese in their Chicken Dinner for babies - yuch.

Hopefully this won't be my last post on this blog :)

T minus 25

Twenty five hours from now Greg and I will take our three kids, nicknamed Peanut (Gavin, 6 yo), Walnut (Connor, 3 yo) and Hazelnut (Cecilia or Cici, Hazelnut) off into the wild blue yonder headed for Rome and then on to Egypt.

We're super excited, and I am becoming more zen about the packing status and process. Now if I can just finish up with my dang work!