Back in Cairo

The ship's Internet turned out to be too unreliable to upload posts, which means that I will be uploading various posts and notes later this week.  I burned up ALL of my International data usage (not hard to do when you're the Geek Princess) and was left with the occasional small bits of free Internet via the ship's satellite.  It was slow... almost as slow as some of the fast modems of 30 years ago.

A good story needs photos, don't you think?

So here we are, back in Cairo, at the Mena House Hotel.  It's just after sunset, and that's Khafre's pyramid sitting on the plateau behind us, dividing the dark land from the indigo sky.  We can't see the Sphinx from here, but I know it's watching us.  The hotel sound system is playing classical music with an oriental theme.  I can't identify either the piece or the composer, but it's a violin arabesque that flits and echoes around the walls of the 2nd floor lobby balcony where I'm sitting and typing.

The grounds of the hotel are green and lush - there's several pools and the walks are lined with flowering plants.  Big fat bumblebees stumble and buzz contentedly here, and I saw the familiar pale green-white of a cabbage butterfly ghosting across the lawn.  You can even see the occasional scarab beetle, looking just like a piece of jewelry, trundling along on its way to an unknown destination.   There's not much traffic this weekend -- it's a four-day weekend here in Egypt and everyone who can has gone out of town.  The hotel grounds are quiet and fairly cool, although the temperature is hovering at 100.

The hotel, like all hotels and public places, has guards (discretely armed) who control the gates as fiercely as any guardian in the ancient books called The Book of Gates.  We don't feel threatened here -- the sense is that since military service is compulsory for young men, that they have to be given something to do while in the military, and keeping the flocks of trinket-sellers away from tourist hotels is one of the things that they do.  More about that later.

Night has fallen while I was writing this blog and downloading my homework from the University of Manchester.  I need to go back to the room and dress for dinner, leaving Khafre's "mansion of millions of years" to watch the brilliant night skies for me.

I Know Ten Words In Arabic and I'm Not Afraid To Use Them

I spent six months trying to learn Arabic (fairly unsuccessfully), but I've been using the few phrases and words that I learned on everyone.  I'm trying to learn (or re-learn) a new one every day.  Sadly, one of the necessary phrases is "get away from me" - every charm seller and trinket seller along the Nile is desperate to see tourist money, and some of them get rude and aggressive and won't take "no."  There were two women today who managed to irk many of us.  They sold scarves, and the "hook" was "by women, for women, won't you support a sister?"  They wanted to sell as many as they could, so they got impatient with some of the women who were trying to buy (they wanted to make a 3 second sale and then run to "hassle" (that's what the Egyptians call it) another woman.)  I would have bought a scarf on the way back but their aggressive approach turned me off.

The ship itself has a little store with a vendor who will haggle for prices.  He lets you come in (really, you're a captive audience since you're on the ship and he's there, too) and look and ask questions.  Our tour guide mentioned him, and Bruce bought a gabeyaah (man's robe) from him.  I've gone in to look at things, and others have also bought from him.  Those of us on the tour understand that these little vendors are eager to sell and do need the income, but when they flock around you and won't take "no" for an answer, it's off-putting.

The first day (at Giza) it was amusing.  By now, it's not.

Bruce has acquired souvenirs, including the now-famous "one eared cat."  Someone bought a large-ish (1 foot tall) statue of Bast, but when they tucked it in their bag, it knocked against something and lost an ear.  The husband and wife were on the bus with Bruce (I think I was off climbing around a pyramid at the time) and the husband held it up and in best vendor manner called, "I have nice cat for sale!  Only one dollah!"

Bruce yelled "20 cents!"  ... and ended up with the one-eared cat, which he gave to me (I think we may need another suitcase!)  He added "buyer of one-eared cats" to his self-inflicted persona name on his name tag (he calls himself "Abu Abyad' (Grandfather White))

I have also acquired souvenirs... mine are more expensive.  I have a silver amulet of Sekhmet, who wards off plagues, and a book by Hawass that's basically a catalog of items on display in the Cairo Museum (which I can excuse as a book for my classes.)

The Great Pyramid and beyond

Today we woke up early (5am our time) to head out to see the Great Pyramid and hear the dawn lecture by Zahi Hawass.  We arrived just as the sun rose and turned the limestone of the Sphinx (where he was standing... eternal showman that he is) into gold.  The old monument regarded the rising sun as it has done for the past 4,500 years while we small ones walked around its huge paws and learned its history.  Up close, you can see chisel marks on some of the facings where restoration had been done hundreds of years ago.

And then it was off to the Great Pyramid.  As we all know, my ambitions are great but my body is not so great.  "We can see all three chambers," they said.  "Cell phone photos are okay but no cameras."  We climbed up to the thieves' entrance, about a 6th of the way up and entered.  "We'll go up to the middle chamber but if you want to see all three rooms, start with the bottom chamber.

We all know where this is going, right?

Yup.  I went down all 300 meters below the earth, into the subterranean chamber.  The passageway is low (even short little me had to walk bent over down the slope), and the "footing" is actually a series of boards nailed together with slats across each (think of a railroad and railroad ties.  There were only a few lights along the way, so Geek Princess here grabbed out her cell phone and used the flashlight function as we went farther and farther from the light.  The last little dot of light at the top winked out and we kept on going.

At the bottom, we reached a small square passageway and had to crawl to go forwards for about 30 feet to reach the unfinished bottom chamber.  I took a photo, and one of the guards said "no photos."  So much for that.

And then it was back up the slope.  Sadly, there's no quick way out -- only the long slope up in the deep darkness.  Then we hauled ourselves to the second level.  "The main chamber's straight ahead," Bruce said.  Two ramps merged, sloping upward, that led to the Queen's chamber.

Yes, I went.  More slopes in the darkness.   I was only able to stay a short time (I move so slowly that it takes me a longer time to get someplace.)  After making my way down, I took the turn (and the crawl) into the main chamber and stared at the granite sarcophagus.  Although I'm making this sound anticlimactic, the truth here is that the wifi is rather unreliable and even my phone drops signal frequently.  So I'm typing in haste, but I have notes and pictures to follow.

This was not the end of my adventures, but it's the end of my typing for the moment.  It's dinner time and believe me, I have earned this meal!

Adventures in Language Land

Too tired to type up adventures today (I will type them tomorrow while we are on the plane.)  But today's episode included a trip on a boat AND getting around Frankfurt with three women from Costa Rica who spoke only a few words in English.  I speak about 100 words of Spanish and about 500 words of Germany.  It was hilariously ... but very strange.

Also, it seems we have landed in Frankfurt on the weekend of a very big festival.  Our hotel is full of police!

Chapter 2 - to Gelnhausen

We made it to Germany!

The flight on Lufthansa was pleasant -- we seemed to have more room than on ordinary flights, and the service was wonderful.  The flight attendants spoke both German and English (and probably several other languages); I practiced my bad German on them.  Frankfurt airport is immense, and a trip from any place in the airport to any other place is like an adventure to an alien land.  We got off the plane and were escorted to buses, which then took a full 20 minutes to wind through various buildings to the place where we could pick up our luggage.  Getting to the rental car place was another long hike.

I was far too amused to find out that "rental car place" in German is "mietwagen"...which I promptly mangled into "meat wagon."  Our "meat wagon" is a huge Mercedes SUV with all the bells and whistles.  It's a rather intimidating beast, and the gear shift is very different from American cars.

At any rate, having acquired our personal "Meat Wagon", we fired up the GPS (another interesting experience since it's not a brand we use) and headed to Gelnhausen, the place where I spent about 4 years of my childhood.

It has changed considerably.  I remember the drive being through farmland, where everyone farmed the land up to the edge of the road.  Now it looks more like America, with a grassy strip between the farmland and the Iroad.  When I lived there, the only high school was in Frankfurt, an hour's trip one way.  It's still an hour's drive from Frankfurt to Gelnhausen but the drive has changed.  It's no longer a small 4 lane highway bordered by farms, but a very large 6 lane highway with concrete walls separating small towns from the roads, and a lot of graffiti.  It looks less tidy.

Chapter 0 - Prequel: A Thousand Miles Up The Nile (via Germany)

Since I teach Egyptology and am getting a degree in Egyptology, the choice to take a vacation in Egypt makes a lot of sense.

But I'm sure a lot of you are wondering, "Why go to Germany?"

In the early years of our marriage, my husband kept trotting me around to all sorts of different places in West Texas, telling me about family members who lived there or friends of family members who lived there or... even just places they'd passed through.  His family had a rich and deep connection with the land here in Texas.

Me?  I had nothing.

I grew up as an Army Brat, moving about every three years (long enough for me to get to know the people around me but never long enough for a lasting friendship.)  There was no connection to the land.  Teachers didn't know me or my family, and I wasn't an exceptional student (I was annoying, however, because I'd read through the textbooks very early in the semester and spend the rest of the time covertly reading science fiction.)  The only thing I felt a connection with were the lands and the forests, and in particular the forests of Germany.  They are still part of the landscape I see in dreams, cool and green, and welcoming with fragrant arms of pine.

Fast forward 42 years.  My parents have died and I have a small inheritance -- enough to pay for the rest of my degree in Egyptology and to fund one (just one) trip abroad.  Egypt was calling!

But it's a very long flight to Egypt if you fly directly.  I was afraid that we'd arrive, exhausted and in pain, and not able to enjoy our trip.  So I checked the balances and discovered we could afford a few days in Germany.  This was MY chance to get some revenge on my husband -- take HIM to all the places where I grew up!

Plotting a multistage trip without the help of a travel agent is a real challenge, but I threw myself into it and then started trying to learn Arabic (one of the 5 hardest languages for an English speaker to learn) and German.  I'd taken German courses in school back when I lived there (in 1960), but my German was pretty rusty.  I gathered up tapes and books and spent about 10 minutes over a course of 6 months trying to learn a few new phrases in Arabic and the final month before the trip, I switched over to trying to re-learn German.

If you know me, you know that I tend to overplan everything.  Yes, I've been packing and repacking for the last month, researching what to take and what not to take.  Among the thing that you might find odd are an electric teakettle (they recommend boiling the water in Egypt, just in case... and I have no patience for those little coil-dunkers), sewing kit, handi-wipes (face wipes), empty medicine bottles (for the face wipes), sports whistle, and several flashlights.  I also brought a bathtub stopper (with my bad back, I prefer baths.  Showers just won't unkink the back.)

I had to make the hard decision about which technology I could bring, eventually settling on my little light laptop (after I backed it up), my cell phone, and my small Samsung tablet.  I felt awfully darn naked.  For art, I packed colored pens, colored pencils, a sharpener, scissors, and a tablet of index cards to serve as drawing paper.

...and then I repacked again.  It's kind of a new hobby, y'know?

Some questions answered!

From Kathryn Rodman
1: Have you been to Germany or Egypt prior to this trip?I lived in Germany for about 8 years.  My dad was in the Army, and we made two trips here.  I've never been to Egypt.

2: how long was the place ride? (if you were in a plane) 

This time, the trip was about 10 hours nonstop.  I took a sleeping pill so that I would sleep for some of the trip.  My first trip to Germany was when I was 3 years old.  I was on a ship, but I don't remember anything about it.

3: Would you go again? 
You betcha!  I love travel!

4: how different is the food from America and what was your favorite place to eat? 
Here in Germany - not too different.  I think the main thing is that the food isn't quite as sweet, and nobody puts glasses of water on your table (you have to ask for it, and what you get is something like Perrier water.  So far, my favorite place was a Greek/Mediterranean place in Gelnhausen.

5: Did you go to see any pyramids?
Not yet -- I will in two days, though!


6: did you go to any museums if so what was the best thing you saw? 
Not yet!  Next week we will!

7: What was the first thing you noticed was different from America?
The airport!  We didn't roll up to the gate.  Instead, they came for us in buses.

Chapter 1 - Packing... and overpacking?

The big day is here, and I think I must have packed (and repacked) all my suitcases at least a dozen times.  I go through periods of outright confidence and periods of total nervousness.  What if I've forgotten something?  What if the suitcases are too heavy?  Have I taken enough security measures?  An additional worry is going through customs with my electronic gear.  Like most geeks, I can't take just one small phone.  I have to have a tablet, two cameras, my cell phone, a wifi hot spot, AND my phone.  Part of my excuse is that I will have to keep up with my classes while I'm abroad, but part of it is that I simply can't stand to be away from my electronics.

The downside to this is that it takes a long time to go through security.  In order to keep them from stopping me, I have to pack the items in clear plastic bags so that I can grab a group of them easily to put in the multiple trays for the x-ray machine.  It takes me five trays and about five minutes do this little dance, and when everything's gone through, it takes another five minutes to put my shoes on and repack everything into the bag.  The clear plastic bags made it easier this time but it's still not quick.

Using plastic ziplock bags was an idea I saw on a travel site, and one that turns out to be a rather brilliant "lifehack."  We packed our clothing in 2 1/2 gallon bags, which means that if they really want to do a number on our checked baggage at Customs, it will be easy to lift out 10 bags of clothing and put them back, rather than tossing everything out of the suitcase in a mad jumble and then trying to reassemble it freehand at a table in the airport.


The ride to the airport is pleasant.  We've hired a driving service so that we can leave our cars at home.  It turned out to be cheaper than paying to keep our cars in long-term storage at the airport.  One other advantage is that when we return, we will not have to drive home after a 10 hour flight.  I did manage to refrain from texting everyone blow-by-blow updates of the trip to the airport; a silly and twitchy impulse driven mostly by nerves.  However, things like "it's 10 minutes till the car comes and I'm checking my mail for the 200th time" begin to look annoyingly spammy.  So I texted that I was headed to the airport and promised myself that I'd Shut Up until after the plane landed.


So what would you take along on a trip?  For me, the first two items are "books" and "electronics."  Luckily, in this age and day, it's easy to bring along a whole library of books plus music on a single kindle or Android tablet.  I have more than enough to read on the flight, but my plan is to take a sleeping pill and a strong analgesic and sleep for most of it.

A thousand miles up the Nile with Amelia Peabody and Dr. Zahi Hawass

For the adults reading this -- right now, I'm writing for the children that I've invited to follow my adventures.  Deal with it.  :) 

  I'm giving only a few people the link to this blog where I will be posting daily updates about our trip to Germany and to Egypt.  I won't be talking about it or linking these posts until AFTER I come back (October 20th) because my Facebook page reaches a lot of people and it's just good sense to not tell the whole world that there's nobody at your home.  But, if I'm sharing this URL with you, it means that I'm inviting your comments and questions and suggestions.

     I can only take a limited number of pictures (and some places don't allow photos) and I can't write about EVERYthing.  But I'd like to know what you'd like to see more of or hear more about and I will try to include that as I write my daily blogs.  And thanks to the magic of Internet (which I should have all the way), I will be posting on Facebook and other places just as if I was still at home in Dallas.

Trip itinerary

Sept 30 - leave for Frankfurt, Germany! 

October 1 (9 am!)  arrive in Frankfurt, Germany.  We will pick up a car and drive to Gelnhausen, the town where I lived from about 1959 to 1963 (so I spent almost 8 years of my childhood in Germany)  We will have a German lunch and see Frederick Barbarossa's old castle and then drive back to Frankfurt.  
October 2 - an all day bus tour to Neuschwanstein Castle and to the Linderhof Palace.  These are amazing places, and I can't wait to show Bruce!
October 3 - resting in the morning, then at 1 pm we do a dinner cruise of Frankfurt and the Rhine Valley and have a wine tasting as well!

 October 4 - at 3 pm (Frankfurt time, which is about 6 hours ahead of US time) we'll be in the air and lying down to Cairo, Egypt.  We will be on the Archaeological Paths tour.

October 5 - we will go to Saqqara (I'm looking forward to seeing the pyramid of Djoser) and meet Dr. Zahi Hawass, who is probably the most famous living archaeologist.
October 6, we will fly to the town of Luxor and get on board our cruise ship.  The best way to tour Egypt is by boat, just like the ancient Egyptians did.
October 7 - Karnak (I'm probably going to use up half my memory cards here!)
October 8 - Edfu
October 9 - Aswan
October 10 - Abu Simbel
October 11 - Kom Ombo
October 12 - Luxor Temple (with Dr. Zahi Hawass)
October 13 - flying back to Cairo, going to the Pyramid Builders Tombs with Dr. Hawass (this is one that I'm REALLY eager to see!)
October 14 - Giza plateau (sphinx and pyramids) with Dr. Hawass
October 15 - Dashur and Memphis and a lecture with Dr. Hawass
October 16 - tour of Cairo and the famous Egyptian museum (they will not let us take photos inside the museum, however.)
October 17 - Alexandria, the city of Cleopatra!  We'll go by the modern Library of Alexandria and to the site of the famous Lighthouse

October 18 - back to GermanyOctober 19 - exploring Frankfurt and maybe going to Bad Nauheim, where I lived from 1952-1956 or so.October 20 - back to Texas.

...and the day after I get back, I've got to go teach!  

So if you're curious about something or if there's pictures you'd like to see, let me know!  The adventure begins next Wednesday!