Cairo – Page 2 – The Nile Cruises 4u Blog

December 18, 2012

Our Visit To The Egyptian Museum

One of the main reasons that people are interested in visiting Cairo’s Egyptian Museum is due to the fact that all of the artifacts and treasure that was found in Tutankhamun’s burial chamber at the Valley of The Kings is located here at the museum.

So, as you can probably imagine, the curators of the museum leave the “best till last”. In other words you work your way around the museum until eventually you reach the section that is dedicated to the “Boy King”, Tutankhamun.

And…I have to be honest, it really is quite amazing. You will see the jewellery, precious stones and gold that was found in the tomb along with the outer casings of the mummy. By that I mean that the mummified body was placed into wooden “suits” decorated with gold and precious stones. The “suits” were essentially images of Tutankhamun’s body.

But there wasn’t’ just one, there seemed to be a number of them and they fitted into each other just like Russian dolls do.

There were also huge wooden boxes, (I just cant’ remember what they were called) that the mummy was placed into. Huge boxes, again covered in gold leaf and semi-precious stones, and again, the boxes fitted into the previous one, like Russian dolls.

They were pretty big and looked very heavy so goodness knows how they did it. Mind you that’s the same question you ask yourself throughout Egypt. In the enormous temples and sites, at the Pyramids and here at the Egyptian Museum. How on earth did they do it? Continue reading “Our Visit To The Egyptian Museum”

December 10, 2012December 10, 2012

Visiting Cairo

Day five of our November 2012 trip to Egypt and we are flying from Aswan to Cairo to spend two nights in the Egyptian capital.

We’ve stayed in Cairo when we took our first Nile cruise and Cairo holiday but this time we are going to visit the Egyptian Museum just off Tahir Square as well as visiting hotels in the city centre and near the Pyramids in Giza.

We had an early flight so we took the water-taxi from the Movenpick Aswan Hotel and then a short transfer out to Aswan Airport.

We have flown from Aswan Airport before and this time, just like the first time, we commented on how calm and relaxed the atmosphere at Aswan Airport is. Apart from the normal security hassles the rest of our time at Aswan Airport was calm and slow-paced. Very different from Manchester or Gatwick airports where everything seems much more hectic and stressful.

Our flight with Egyptair was pretty full with travelers like ourselves and Egyptian businessmen travelling up to the capital. The flight only lasts 65 minutes so the friendly cabin staff have just enough time to serve you a cold drink or coffee and then your starting your descent into Cairo.

I knew from earlier flights that the plane comes into Cairo by flying over the Pyramids. Unfortunately on this occasion we were sitting on the wrong side of the plane but the passengers on the left hand side of the cabin could all see the Pyramids and the Sphinx as we descended towards Cairo.

A little tip: make sure you sit on the left-hand side of the plane if you want to see the Pyramids.

In fact on our first flight into Cairo from Luxor I shot a short video of our approach and landing. Here’s the video just to wet your appetite.

On landing we were quickly through to the luggage pick-up were we collected our bags and then we were met by our driver for the next few days. Continue reading “Visiting Cairo”

November 26, 2012November 26, 2012

Visiting Egypt

As regular readers to the Nile Cruise blog will know Barbara and I spent the week before last (12th to the 20th November) in Egypt visiting Cairo, Luxor and Aswan and introducing ourselves to hotel owners and ships managers.

We are currently selling a lot of Nile cruises and we felt it was a good time to pop over and experience for ourselves how things are at the moment.

We try and visit Egypt as often as possible each year, not just for pleasure but to stay in touch with people that we know and people that we do business with.

We visited Egypt just after the revolution about 18 months ago and found that everyone we spoke to was really excited about the future. Some eighteen months later people are just as excited but perhaps a little tired of waiting for some of the things they were expecting to materialise.

So things are getting back to normal but the tourist industry is still a little slower than people hoped it would be this long after the revolution.

However, as a tourist its’ probably a great time to go as queues are a lot smaller than they would normally be and when you visit the ancient sites such as The Valley of The Kings or the Egyptian Museum in Cairo you will find them a lot less crowded than normal.

During our visit we visited some of the main sites that you would visit on a Nile cruise such as Kom Ombo Temple, Karnak Temple and The Valley of The Kings as well as The Pyramids, The Sphinx and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. However we didn’t’ sail this time but took the road journey from Luxor down to Aswan with the road hugging the banks of the Nile as we travelled. Continue reading “Visiting Egypt”

October 12, 2012

Travelling to Egypt

Barbara and I are travelling to Egypt in about a month to visit some properties and Nile cruise ships and meet some people.

We’re staying in Cairo for 2 nights at the Movenpick Cairo and we’re going to take the opportunity to visit the Egyptian Museum as well as The Pyramids and The Sphinx. We’ve been to The Pyramids before but I believe it’s a great time to go as the crowds havent’ come back yet so you can stroll around easily and take your time. It’ll also be good to visit the Egyptian Museum whilst it’s reasonably quiet. Continue reading “Travelling to Egypt”