Pyramids or food or photos
By Eileen Ogintz
Maybe riding a camel in sight of ancient pyramids…Maybe floating down the Nile River… Maybe by viewing the paintings on the walls in the tombs of royals, the colors still vibrant after thousands of years. Maybe it’s seeing the Giant Sphinx up close. Maybe it’s traveling with two high school aged grandchildren.
“They always see things with new eyes and that gives me the opportunity to see things I might have missed,” said the grandmother from Pennsylvania, traveling with her son and his family. “It has been the best trip.”
Ask any of the 17 people in our Abercrombie & Kent tour group at the end of our nine days in Egypt the highlight of the trip and each likely will have a different answer.
For Sean Connelley, a retired Foreign Service Officer and former ambassador to Siri Lanka, it was returning to Egypt where he had served early in his career. He joked that the Egyptian food we are being served is “tourist style,” with a lot less spice than locals like.
His wife, Kathryn Hauser, opined that she didn’t usually do touristy things on vacation but she and her sister, Carol Rush, also on the trip with her husband, were determined to ride a camel—in part because they have a photo of their grandparents doing just that from the early 1960s in front of the pyramids. “I just wanted to do it.”
“All I wanted was the photo,” said Carol Rush who got plenty. “It checked the box.” She added that the ride was like a pony ride, noting she and her sister had grown up in Wyoming riding horses. (Though popular with tourists, A&K doesn’t promote, arrange, or sponsor the camel rides).
We are staying in the 271-room and 100 suite Four Seasons Hotel Cairo Nile Plaza with balconies overlooking the Nile, 9 restaurants and lounges (we enjoyed Riviera, the Italian spot and the huge breakfast buffet) , a spa that offers treatments inspired by ancient Egyptian rituals, a rooftop sanctuary with three outdoor pools and an indoor pool with a Jacuzzi.
I loved the Nefertari Herbal Massage that included hot poultices of chamomile, mint, cinnamon, and cloves that were very soothing followed by a massage with lavender oil. Did Cleopatra have massages like this? Also, it was interesting to me that massages here are less than half price what they would cost at upscale US resorts—around $100.
Four Seasons around the world are very child friendly and there are many here, including plenty of toddlers who are welcomed as are all 4rvand are gifted a locally sourced toy.
I love that we had a welcome amenity of fruit and pastries, and that Abercrombie & Kent will arrange a breakfast bag for us to take to the airport as we must leave at 3:45 am to start our long trek home. I also like that the hotel, like the Four Seasons in Amman, can arrange tours, including to a local farm with the chef. There is also art by well-known local artists throughout the hotel.
Today was action packed as was the rest of the trip, starting at Saqqara, about a half hour from Cairo, where archaeological sites constructed over a span of more than 3000 years, with new discoveries still being made, said our guide, Egyptologist Essam Zeid. We can see people working on a dig. “A few months ago, more than 200 mummies were discovered,” he said, explaining the site is thought to be what was a public hospital for mummification as all Ancient Egyptians were mummified.
We see The Step Pyramid of Zoser, the first pyramid built for King Zoser who lived about 2780 BC. The symbolic staircase was designed by the first architect whose name was recorded in history, Imhotep, who would allow the king to meet the gods in the afterlife.
We visit the tomb of Sesheshet, a princess who died around 2345 BC. As she was a noble, the scenes in her tomb depict everyday life rather than the religious scenes in a king’s tomb. Zeid explains that the tombs of mere royals and workers are how we know what life was like in ancient Egypt as the King’s tombs are full of religious scenes.
People fishing, crocodiles and hippos in the water, people carrying bread and other food to the tomb. The colors are amazing. The Dunns, who are from Salt Lake City, opine that their favorite part of the trip was the Valley of the Kings with the astonishing wall paintings and colors in some of the tombs.
“So many discoveries are still to come, and most have been made by accident,” notes our guide, Egyptologist Zeid. “Seventy per cent are still under ground.”
“It’s awe inspiring –how advanced this civilization was,” said John Rush who acknowledged Egypt wasn’t on his bucket list for travel. “I was told I was going,” he said, adding that he was glad his wife and sister-in-law wanted to go. “I took it all in… To see the pyramids of Giza …You can see a picture, but it just isn’t the same.”
“I’ve a much better sense of the timeline of history,” added his wife, Carol. “To see it, touch it and see it is a whole lot better than a picture or reading about it.” She observed it is sad to see how much of the knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians has been lost.
We visited a carpet school where youngsters as young as ten learn to weave cotton, silk and wool while going to school and later, to see how papyrus, made the ancient way from the inside of the Papyrus plants, is so strong it will last forever.
The Pennsylvania grandmother noted that her son and his family decided to join her once she had opted to go on this trip. They clearly were glad they had—and she was glad to have them with her.
“Anytime you can go with the grandchildren, say yes,” she said.