Back to the Egyptian Museum

Wednesday, January-05-11 9:30 PM

After breakfast this morning we took the subway back to the Egyptian Museum. It is on the other side of the Nile very close to the main downtown shopping area. Because we had had our guided tour there with Maged, we didn’t attempt to look at the museum in any organized fashion. Mark was interested in seeing the Royal Mummy room which required another entry fee so we separated and met an hour later in the main entrance. I walked about avoiding the tour groups that crowded from one major exhibit to another. I spent some time looking at the full-sized wooden boats that were unearthed in the past century as well as the small objects from tombs that give so much information about the ways of life of the people 4-5,000 years ago. There are, for example, small figurines of clay or lime or other stone that show women making food or clothing. They are nicely done with different expressions on the faces of the women. There are also figures of men working in stone or in carpentry. I went in to visit the large scribe figure that I really liked when we were there last. Scribes were important figures as they recorded not only for accounting purposes but also details of the lives of royalty and of the society in general.

After our visit to the museum we walked over to Talaat Harb St, one of the main downtown shopping places. It was fun being there. We found a couple of places that had ice cream cones – the first we’ve seen in Egypt. There are other places to get ice cream but only in a bowl. The cones were popular as a steady stream of customers was lined up for them. We did some shopping – a couple of cotton long dresses for me – good for Mexico, a shirt for Mark, and some touristic pieces – at better prices than we were able to get in the tourist areas.  We lunched at the Cafe Riche, a famous downtown spot over a hundred years old. Apparently the plot of the 1952 revolution was hatched and planned here. We had a really good lunch of Greek salad, lentil soup, French fried potatoes (only fried once so they tasted like potatoes), and a vegetarian mousaka. We shared all of it; most delicious. To underline again how inexpensive things are for us here because of our strong dollar, that meal with a beer for Mark and a bottle of water for me, plus 8 EL cover charge and an 11 EL tip for the tuxedo-wearing waiter, was 90 EL, about $17 or $18.

We returned to our hotel in the late afternoon for our regular lazy period: nap, tea, and messing about on the computers. About 8:30 we walked down the street to a Koshary that opened just this week to have small bowls of that tasty and nourishing dish. From there to our local grocery store for water and more ice cream. We stopped at the tiny shop of a seller of a variety of practical and tourist pieces. We picked out a number of things but found that we hadn’t enough money with us to buy all of them. The owner of the store was most polite and gracious. He put the other things away for us until tomorrow night when we will pass by his shop again.

The longer we stay here in Cairo the more at home we are feeling. I have to retract some of the bad report I gave in an earlier post about the streets not being cleaned. I think that our area might be one of the worst, but even here we do see cleaners out in the morning with large brooms. In the downtown area the streets are very much cleaner as are the sidewalks. Also the last two days have been relatively windy; the wind seems to have cleared away much of the polluted air that had hung over the city previously. We have only a few more days here as we leave early next Monday morning for Rome. Then we return to Canada on Saturday, Jan 15.

Remember to scroll down to the bottom of the long page for a few more photos. Cheers. Brenda.