TOUR NEWS - EGYPT JANUARY 2002
The January 2002 tour consisted of 10 participants and the guides. The group included a family of three, several retirees from a wide range of professions and two High School teachers. The academic content of the program was provided by Dr Michael Birrell, while Amr Mohamed gave much assistance.
In Cairo we stayed at the Pearl Hotel in Maadi. This is a small hotel in the suburbs away from the noise and bustle of the downtown area. The local streets are lined with trees and there is a great range of local restaurants. The weather was unseasonably cold, even for January (mid-winter) and we all needed to have extra blankets on at night. When we arrived at Saqqara it poured with rain - luckily the skies cleared as we had our lunch in the bus and then the sun came out.
In Luxor we stayed once again at the Amun Gezira hotel on the west bank. We enjoyed crossing the river on the local ferry and on our day trip to Karnak temple we went by horse drawn carriage along the 4 km route. We stayed five nights in Aswan - this gave us plenty of time to enjoy the town and to go for a long felucca ride on the Nile with afternoon tea on Kitchener's Island, location for the botanical gardens in Aswan. One afternoon we visited the Old Cataract Hotel to soak up the romantic atmosphere:
The January 2002 group having tea and cake on the terrace of the Old Cataract Hotel at Aswan, non-residents end (from left): Amr, Alex, Lois and Alan, Warren, Brenda, Elsie, Jim, Don, Lidia and Sue © Michael Birrell
Michael Birrell