From Fjords to Pharaohs

[Wello]

Were there many ants around the base of the Ferris wheel in the Prater Park. Sorry couldn't resist a silly The Third Man reference.

Isn’t it great that are photo today can still remind you of a movie made in 1949.

 

[Wello]

It has been our dream to go to Egypt for a long time and we have finally arrived here. This is our first time in Africa so we can tick off another continent we have visited. I have also promised my daughter I will take her to the Woman’s Football World Cup in Brazil next year so all except Antarctica will have been visited by that trip.

We brought our trip in Egypt with a local tour company (Egypt Tours Portal), who met us as we entered the terminal and escorted us through immigration to our waiting driver outside. I would highly recommend this service as it was a breeze through the airport. We did visa on arrival which is now $30USD per person from 1 March 2026. Our airport greeter had also pre-brought the visa stickers needed for our passport. This was helpful as we arrived just at sunset during Ramadan and the staff selling them were on a break to finally have some food that day.

Cairo is unlike any place we have ever been. It is busy and loud as it has around 23 million people living here, but the people have been so welcoming and of course the reason for attending is to see the Egyptian history. We had our own personal guide and driver to take us around the Giza pyramids and the recently opened Grand Egypt Museum (GEM). We were just in awe of what we saw and although we have seen many photos and videos of the pyramids, it truely was amazing seeing them in person.

The personal touch of our own tour guide just added so much to our experience. His knowledge of Egyptian history and his ability to explain it in so much detail allowed us to better understand what we were looking at and where it fitted in Egyptian history.

The GEM has the full Tutankhamen collection of 5000 items on display including the amazing gold face mask plus eleven other collections on display. There is also a boat in perfect condition that is 4500 years old the was buried behind one of the pyramids to be used in the afterlife. A truely fantastic time so far with many other parts of Egypt to visit.

 

[Wello]

On our next day in Egypt we did a day trip to Alexandria. Alexandria is a city on the Mediterranean Sea and is about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Cairo. We were keen to see some other areas of Egypt and were glad we made the trip there.

Most of the tours visit the same attractions which are the Catacombs of Kom El-Shoqafa, Pompey’s Pillar, Citabel of Qaitbay and the Alexandria library. Alexandria was founded by Alexandria the Great and a lot of the history is in relation to the Romans who controlled the city for long periods.

The catacombs were very interesting as it is really an underground cemetery although all the bodies have been removed.



It was interesting seeing the old trams running in Alexandria, they were second hand trams that arrive in the early seventies after being used in Copenhagen from the early sixties.



Each day the tour company takes us to a local restaurant for lunch and today was probably the best as we ate a whole baked fish while overlooking the Mediterranean.

 

[RooFlyer]

Amazed at the lack of people in your pics. Pyramids are usually heaving!