Egypt and Germanyby Kristine Carlson, summer 1998
Hello Everyone,
As you probably know I returned Sunday from my three week trip to Germany and Egypt. For all who are interested, here is a brief synopsis of the trip. ( If you're not interested stop reading now and hit delete). The most important thing is Chuck and I survived three weeks of travel and are still friends. I think.
We began our trip with 4 days in Berlin. East Berlin is almost entirely one huge construction site. We had a great hotel overlooking the Tiergarten and Kaiser- Whilhelm Cathedral. Spent an evening of Caberet at the Winter Garten Theatre. Did all the usual tourist stuff, got lost along the Spree, drank lots of beer and had a great time. GERMANY TOURING TIP: NEVER ORDER A LARGE BEER!!
We then traveled to Egypt. We had a basically uneventful flight with the exception of the crazed Arabic man yelling " NO FLY" and waiving his arms frantically. Fortunately he was escorted off the plane by two security guards, and Chuck and I had packed tranquilizers in our carry on luggage. We spent our first two nights in Giza in a beautiful hotel. Our room had two balconies overlooking the Pyramids. Here Chuck introduced me to caviar and smoked salmon, which I enjoyed. I introduced Chuck to lentil soup. Our next stop was Cairo. We stayed at another terrific hotel with a great view of the city. Al Gore also liked our hotel, he chose to stay there with us. Although we didn't meet him, we did have dinner with a very nice special agent who invited us to DC to tour the White House. We met up with our tour group. Fortunately we had a great group and plan to keep in touch with many of them. We visited the Antiquities Museum, the pyramids (there really is nothing inside..it's small and smelly, if you ever get to go, see them from the outside...trust me!), the Sphinx (he overlooks a Pizza Hut and a KFC), I rode a camel..Chuck took pictures, we visited the step pyramid and many other really, really big old things!
CAIRO SURVIVAL TIP: NEVER TAKE A CAB!!!!!!!!!!! We flew to Abu Simbel where we saw the temples of Ramses the II and Nefertiti, one of my two favorite sites. I will also note here that we were accompanied everywhere by armed tourist police. We then flew to Aswan where we began our 8 day nile cruise. We saw far too many tombs temples etc.. to name so I will highlight just a few. Valley of the Queens, we were able to enter the tomb of Nefertari only recently discovered and opened to the public two years ago. Only a limited number of people are allowed in the tomb daily, for ten minutes only. This was my other favorite site, and the words just don't exist to describe it. Also on the cruise my worst experience happened in a small town called Edfu. All I'll say about that is...the seventh level of hell is shopping in an Egyptian market with a list of things you have to buy. Every time you buy something Satin adds another item to the bottom and a smelly man yells at you, " I would have sold it to you cheaper!" TRAVEL TIP FOR EDFU: NEVER RIDE A HORSE AND CARRIAGE INTO TOWN. BEWARE TOOTHLESS BATHROOM ATTENDANTS WHO MAY LOCK YOU INTO THE STALLS.
After our cruise we returned to Cairo where we were able to tour several mosques, the Coptic Museum, a church built over the site of a crypt where Mary and Joseph hid from Herod with baby Jesus, and a synagogue built over a place Moses is said to have prayed. We ended our tour and spent a few days recovering before the trip home. 27 hours for Chuck, 33 for me. Too many. Of course I did get to spend my Birthday sipping Dom Perignon over the Atlantic. Not too bad!
Just a few ending notes: Everything there is tremendously bigger than it appears in pictures, and much more impressive. The faces on all the statues are incredibly beautiful and smiling. Egypt really is a safe place to travel at this time. This was probably the best thing I've done in my life so far.
Love, Kris