Greetings, loyal readers! Don’t want to be too anti-social with the travel crew, but I got a quick chance to check some email, so thought I’d fire off a quick post as well. We got in 2am Cairo time after about 16 hours of fly time and a 9 hour layover in Amsterdam yesterday. Having arrived at the Detroit airport at 7pm Eastern time on Wednesday, and only 7 hours difference in time, that meant 24 actual hours of plane, airport and layover time. Whew!

Amsterdam was a bit chilly and rainy, but we managed to see the Anne Frank House as well as the Van Gogh Museum. The house was a very moving experience and the museum had a lot of special artwork that. After hearing a lot about both places before arriving, it was pretty amazing to get to see them. We also wandered through the streets around Central Station and had some pretty tasty meals.

Morning in Cairo started at 11:30 for us. We’ve arranged to have a driver in a van at our disposal for the week, so we got picked up by Jill and grabbed some breakfast-lunch on our way out for the day. We then went to see an ancient, but still very active, Coptic (original Egyptian Christian) church that was built in the 3rd century. It’s known as the “Hanging Church” because it’s actually built on one of two old towers, so the majority of it is suspended about 20m above ground. I love heights!

We then went to a park where we could see the Citadel, watched the sunset behind the mosques and listened to the 6:00 call to prayer being sung throughout the city. Pretty cool to hear it in surround sound like that. We then went to a very authentic Egyptian restaurant for a delicious meal. Dinner ended with us all taking turns puffing on a couple of shishas… that is… hookahs. We were up in smoke.

Tomorrow is going to be a trip to the Egypt Museum and/or the Pyramids of Giza. If we miss one, we’ll catch it on Sunday. Then, Monday starts the flight to Luxor and cruise to Aswan. Should be very exciting. Hard enough to believe we’re just in Cairo.

All right, I should join the crowd again. There are already lots of photos to share, and we’re only a day into it. Many more to come!