In January, we got the once in a lifetime opportunity to visit Egypt. Jonathan was invited by Sir Magdi Yacoub to present his research at a meeting to kick off a surgical mission by Chain of Hope. Like I said, once in a lifetime. So, we hauled off Mags and Jack to their Memere's and took off to Aswan, Egypt with Thomas. Let's just say, Thomas was the.best.little.traveler ever. Given how long our journey was (20 hours there, 24 hours back), he did awesome. And, I think he thoroughly enjoyed having Jonathan and I both all to himself for 7 days. Our trip began in Boston with a blessing AND a curse. First, when our name was called at the gate, Jonathan BOOKED IT to the counter and scored us an upgrade to "club world" as they call it on British Airways. It was incredible, to say the least. We pretty much HAD to sample the free champagne (btw - in the first picture, we are facing backwards in the plane... yes, that's right - backwards).
So, we spent 4 days in Aswan, a city in southern Egypt, at the first cataract of the Nile. We went to their market, took a ride on a feluca on the Nile, and went to a light show at the Philae Temple*. Then we spent 2 days in Cairo. On the first, we visited the Egyptian Museum - really incredible artifacts from ancient Egypt are held within. On the second, we went to the Pyramids and a section of the city referred to as Coptic Cairo. Though, I will say, not many Egyptians knew what we were referring to when we started trying to get there... it is the ancient Christian part of the city - and contains the Hanging Church, a place where the Holy Family stayed during their escape to Egypt. Being there sort of left me speechless. So, that is a short summary of our trip, and below each picture I'm leaving a little piece of info...
our totally awesome upgrade, thanks to Jono.
the cutest little boy in Africa, if you ask me.
the Market
Seriously, does this even need a caption? (for those who want to know, he's wearing a Nubian hat)
at sunset, the Nile behind us
Like I said, he was the.best.traveler.
That's our hotel from the feluca we were on.
McDonald's.is.everywhere.
Incredible, huh?
Philae Temple
I'm pretty proud of this picture...if only I knew what the image meant.
Moments before they turned ALL the lights on the Temple out.
Someone once told us, that on a scale of 1-10 worst cities to drive in, Rome was a 9 and Cairo was was a 10. And now we know why.
A friend of ours from college recommended Maison Thomas as having the best pizza in Cairo...we had lunch there both days. Lucky for us, it was around the corner from our hotel.
The Egyptian Museum
Our hotel (Hotel Longchamps) - another of Jonathan's incredible finds
Riding out to the Pyramids
Seriously incredible.
I LOVE this picture cause you can see all 3 Pyramids, one after the next.
*sigh*... this was the last picture taken on our brand new camera... right before it got smashed. To be fair, it was Thomas or the camera... so better it was the camera.
