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!

 

[Wello]

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

Other than around the Sphinx which was a little bit crowded the rest was light on. We were there from 9:30am in the morning and our guide took us in where people usually exit as he said there was less people if we did it in reverse.

 

[Wello]

We flew from Cairo to Aswan on Nile Air and the plane was delayed for about seven hours. We were originally meant to fly with Cairo Air but were changed to Nile Air a few days before. I wish I had more time to research them as I wouldn’t have agreed to the change if I did. After the initial five hour delay they said the plane had mechanical issues and you could get a refund or wait and see if it would be fixed. We decided to wait and they took food from the plane and fed us.

It wasn’t the delay that was my issue as I don’t want to fly if there are any problems with the aircraft, it was the state of the aircraft that was the issue. When we finally boarded the plane it was actually a Cambodia Airways plane. I don’t think I have ever been on a plane that was so dirty, the grim around the seat tray was very thick and this had not been cleaned for months. Photos couldn’t really show how dirty it was.

I would recommend staying clear of this airline.

 

[Wello]

As we missed the sites we were planning to visit, our guide recommended we visit a Nubian village. In the evening. It was a really nice trip after being bored in an airport for so long. The Nile River is beautiful and there was such a lovely breeze blowing.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Yeah… recommend egyptair for internal flights!

 

[Wello]

In Aswan we had an early start to drive the 3 1/2 hours to Abu Simbel Temple. Abu Simbel is just 20kms from the Sudanese border and security is slightly higher on this trip but we felt perfectly safe. The road to Abu Simbel is closed at night and reopens at 5am. We were there when it opened as were many other tourist buses. All the buses also stop at a small shop in the middle of the trip for a toilet and coffee break and stop once more on the way home.

It is certainly worth the travel as it has two amazing temples. The first is for Ramsay II and the second one for his favourite wife, Queen Nefertari. The temples were built around 1264 BC. They were truely amazing with the huge statues outside. The temple was moved to its current location due to flooding at its original location due to the construction of the high dam in Aswan. You really can’t tell and they did a wonderful job moving it and creating a new artificial hill.

 

[VPS]

In Aswan we had an early start to drive the 3 1/2 hours to Abu Simbel Temple. Abu Simbel is just 20kms from the Sudanese border and security is slightly higher on this trip but we felt perfectly safe. The road to Abu Simbel is closed at night and reopens at 5am. We were there when it opened as were many other tourist buses. All the buses also stop at a small shop in the middle of the trip for a toilet and coffee break and stop once more on the way home.

It is certainly worth the travel as it has two amazing temples. The first is for Ramsay II and the second one for his favourite wife, Queen Nefertari. The temples were built around 1264 BC. They were truely amazing with the huge statues outside. The temple was moved to its current location due to flooding at its original location due to the construction of the high dam in Aswan. You really can’t tell and they did a wonderful job moving it and creating a new artificial hill.

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Great photos and brings back great memories. They probably told you that when they moved the temple, they even got it right so that the sun came in at a particular angle on a particular day.