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!