Mount Sinai & Nuweiba

We've made it to St. Catherine's Village in Sinai!

Our bus arrived in the late evening and we joined a couple from Denmark to a Bedouin Camp nearby.
Here they let us store our bags in the office - for free! They also prepared us a nice dinner that we enjoyed outside by a fire.  It was very welcoming and they let us hang out there until 2 am when they drove us to St. Catherine's Monastery so we could begin our hike to the top of Mount Sinai.

They had recommended that we get a guide, but we kept saying no - and we were happy about that because we clearly did not need one.  There was easily over 1,000 people hiking.  Since we didn't have a guide we could pass by all of the people that were stopping along the route so we could get to the summit ahead of them.  We had an amazing seat at the top of the mount where we waited for the sunrise.  It was AMAZING, but SOOO COLD!  People were singing in different languages, and it just felt unbelievable to experience being there.

The morning light showed us the spectacular views we missed at night (even with the full moon).  It also showed us just how close to the cliffside we were during our hike to the top in the dark.  One wrong step and things could have been bad!

When we came back down, we toured the Monastery.  This is also the site of the Burning Bush, which the Lord spoke to Moses through and also the Church of Saint Catherine.

There were lots of people here, but it was still really cool.  After we left the monastery, we went back to the bedouin camp to get our bags and caught a van to take us into Nuweiba.

We got checked into our hostel and immediately changed into our swimsuits and walked the 50 ft. to the beach.  Nuweiba is on the Gulf of Aqaba which leads into the Red Sea.  Across the gulf is Saudi Arabia.

We ate dinner on teh beach and are now repacking our bags because we travel across the border to Israel tomorrow.

The pictures are from the summit of Mount Sinai after the sunrise, and in front of the Burning Bush at the Monastery.

We can't believe we are leaving Egypt tomorrow!

Adios Cairo!

Today was our last day in Cairo!

Sherif picked us up again and we went into Old Cairo.
We went on a tour of the Hanging Church.  It was really pretty cool, although there was no real way to get the full "hanging" view in our pictures.  It was really pretty dark inside, and from the outside you couldn't really tell it was hanging.

From there we went to the Khan El Khalili Market for some shopping.  Sherif helped find us a few good deals and even gave us each a small gift.

After shopping we went to the Egyptian Museum in Tahrir Square.  This was AMAZING!
We were bummed that we couldn't take our cameras because we saw so many unbelievable things that have been removed from the pyramids.  King Tut's mask, giant statues, huge sarcophagus', etc.  The pictures here are from in front of the museum and the other is us with Sherif (in white) and his cousin, Ahmed.  We joined them to watch the Cairo team's soccer game.

Tomorrow we leave for Sinai by bus!

Cairo & the Nile

Another fun day here in Cairo!

Sherif picked us up this morning for a tour of the Citadel/Mosque.

It was designed to be like the Blue Mosque in Istanbul - so now we're really excited to see that later in our trip.  

The place was beautiful.

We then went to Dashur where we went inside the 3rd oldest pyramid.  The steps we used to go down into it were so steep and basically just boards put into a slope.  It was so HOT inside and kind of smelled.

From here we went to Saqqara and saw the Pyramid of Djoser, AKA The Step Pyramid.  This is the oldest pyramid, built in the 27th Century BC. It was quite amazing.  They're doing some maintenance work on the structure right now because it is slowly collapsing.

We had Koshary again for lunch (yum!) before coming back to the hostel to shower before our dinner cruise on the Nile.

The dinner cruise was pretty interesting.  They did some traditional Sufi dancing and belly dancing, but it was pretty fun.

Now off to go have some street-side icecream!

Cairo & the Pyramids!

Hi everyone!
Mesa & I had a very busy day! We arrived in Cairo in the wee hours of the morning and got checked into our hostel.  Atef greeted us with tea and we chatted about our plans for our stay in Cairo.  He organized a driver, Sherif, to take us to the Pyramids, Sphinx, a paper factory, and a camel tour after we rested for a bit.

The pyramids were amazing.  So much larger than what we expected.  We could see them in the distance while we drove on the main road, like mountains off in the distance.  The base blocks were so large they were taller than I was.

Hanni was our camel guide and was very funny.  We couldn't believe that we were just in Minnesota and now were riding camels around the pyramids at sunset.

Sherif picked us up some Koshary for dinner from a street stand on our way back to the hostel.  It was very good and very cheap!

What an amazing day!

Amsterdam!

Mesa & I are on the train back to the airport.  We made it out into Amsterdam and found our way to the Anne Frank House / Museum.  The tour was great.  It was amazing to be there and see it with our own eyes.

We had a fun time walking around the canals and taking lots of pictures.  For just having this be a stop on our layover, we enjoyed the city very much!

Next stop Cairo!