Paul and I both woke up at 1 a.m. so we took a sleeping pill and got a few more hours of sleep. Once we got up and around this morning, Paul and I went down and toured the grounds around the open-air restaurants before meeting Jennifer for a late breakfast. The breakfast is a buffet, and it is huge. Just about every kind of food you can think of is offered. Cheese, cold meats, fruit, lots, and lots of bread, hot or cold cereal, eggs however you care to order them, pastries and so much more. Paul and I are not big breakfast eaters, so I stick to fruit, oatmeal, a croissant and one small pastry. I think Paul and Jennifer might have had an omelet.

   After breakfast we walk with Jennifer around the same area Paul and I toured earlier and inspect the beautiful fountain, manicured trees, and the large pool.  The staff tending to the grounds are very friendly. Since we have the morning to ourselves, we decide to walk to the Nile River. We ask one of the hotel staff directions and he tells us to exit the Marriot grounds via the parking lot and turn left. He tells us the Nile isn’t far away and when we ask if it is safe to go on our own, he assures us we will be fine.

   We do not walk far when we catch a glimpse of the famous river, but we cannot see a way to get down to the Nile nor do we see any kind of a walkway along the river. The biggest problem is there is a very busy street between us and our goal. Hmm, there are two young men dressed in suits standing on the sidewalk not far from us. We decide to approach them to see if they might speak English. No, they don’t speak English, but I gesture towards the Nile and say we want to go to the Nile. They seem to understand this and beckon for us to follow them. The two men lead us down the sidewalk a block or two and point out some stairs leading up to a bridge. The problem is we need to cross the street through heavy traffic and the three of us are not keen on running this gauntlet.

   Approaching us is a young man who is walking along the edge of the busy street.  I inform Paul and Jennifer I am going ask him if it is okay for us to cross the street here as we haven’t seen anyone dodging the traffic to get to one side or the other. I smile at the young fellow and ask if we can cross here, gesturing to the other side of the road. He doesn’t answer me but he puts out his arm and I take it. He then watches the approaching traffic carefully and when a small break comes, he hustles me across with Jennifer and Paul close on our heels. How kind was that?? I thank him and he touches me on the shoulder and smiles, then he dashes back across the street.

   We walk along the congested road to the staircase only to realize these steps are leading up to a bridge where the traffic is even heavier. I guess the first fellows we consulted thought we wanted to cross over the Nile. Paul rules out going up the stair steps as it will not take us next to the Nile, only over it. A man at the top of the stairs begins yelling down at us in Egyptian and pointing in the opposite direction of where we were headed. He comes down to where we are standing, I suppose we look lost, and begins talking to Paul. Of course, Paul can’t understand a word he is saying.  The friendly man indicates that we should follow him and feeling fairly safe in broad daylight and the fact that there are three of us and one of him we let him lead us back in the direction we came from. We arrive at a side street where he points across the road and sure enough there is the Nile. The problem is the riverbank is lined with riverboat casinos and restaurants so we cannot walk down to the Nile. How the heck did this guy know what we wanted? We smile, thank him, and wave goodbye as he continues on his way.

    Paul and Jennifer decide to just walk onto one of the boats, naturally I follow them.  When we get inside the large boat, there is a man in a uniform sitting behind a desk. He looks up and smiles at us and when we walk over to the window to gaze at the Nile the man walks over to us and unlocks a door that leads out to a small balcony. We step out and gaze over the wide Nile. Okay, it isn’t exactly clean, there is garbage, particularly plastic floating on the water. Across the way there are three large pipes spewing what I hope is not raw sewage into the waters of the Nile. Still, it is the Nile, and one cannot help but marvel that three Kansans are gazing over this famous river. After Paul proofread this, he reminded me of the enormous McDonalds sign, the golden arches standing out against a bright red background, that we saw across the river. Good Grief.

   When we step back inside the boat, we thank the man that let us go out on the balcony. He nods his head in acknowledgment, smiles at us, and locks the balcony door behind us. So far, the Egyptian people we have encountered have been so friendly and kind. We check out one room on the boat before we leave where clothes are being offered for sale. I spot a lovely top and seriously consider buying it. You can see in the photo why I was so attracted to this unique blouse. Just kidding.

   We manage to cross the busy street on our own and walk back to the Marriott. We all go back to our rooms. Paul takes a nap and I go sit on our balcony. Our balcony looks out on the lot where buses unload guests. Jennifers room looks out on the manicured lawn near the outside eating area. Our view isn’t pretty, but it is rather interesting to watch the various buses either loading or unloading tourists.  

   We eat a late lunch in the same outside restaurant where we had such a good meal last night. Paul and I order a saffron shrimp dish to share, and Jennifer orders a minced lamb dish. I do not care for the shrimp at all so Jennifer is kind enough to share some of her lunch with me which is quite tasty. We take our time eating and marvel at all the people smoking with hookahs while drinking beer and nibbling on snacks. When one fellow next to us leaves his table the doves and sparrows move in. He has left a bowl of peanuts on his table and the beautiful doves are feasting on them. It is hilarious.

    When we met Hussein yesterday, he had given us a time to meet this afternoon at point X (the lobby of our wing of the hotel). We will be meeting our group for the first time. Once the sixteen, well fifteen as one woman is not feeling well and has stayed in her room, of us have arrived at point X, Hussein leads us to the other wing of the hotel to a meeting room. Hussein goes over some things with us and then has us introduce ourselves, tell what state we are from, and inform everyone how many times we have traveled with OAT. I believe there is one couple where this is their first time with OAT and then Paul and I are the next lowest having taken two trips with OAT. The most astounding is a woman who is traveling by herself, and this is her twenty-seventh trip with OAT! That is amazing.

    Our group has two women from Minnesota that are friends traveling together, a woman from Arizona and a woman from Pennsylvania that are traveling together, a couple from Colorado, a couple from California, a couple from Connecticut, a couple from Minnesota, a woman from Maryland, the one who has made 27 trips with OAT, and we three Kansans. As you can see this is quite a diverse group. On first impressions everyone seems to be very nice. I would guess the age range of the group is early 60’s to mid-80’s.

   After the meeting, Hussein walks us to a women’s craft store that isn’t far from the hotel. We have to cross a few busy streets and you can imagine getting sixteen people across safely is a challenge. The cars are constantly honking, and I literally plug my ears with my fingers at times just to get some relief from the noise. The smog is really bad, and you can literally taste the air. We country people are not used to breathing in such nasty air.

  When we arrive at the building where the women’s craft store is located, our group follows Hussein up a couple flights of stairs to reach the craft store. There are all sorts of homemade crafts such as jewelry, purses, knitted items and so on. My favorite of everything offered are the wooden crafts. There are a couple of items that are tempting to purchase but I have no room in our luggage to get these lovely creations home. Many members of our group do purchase some things, including Jennifer. Jennifer found a cute Christmas ornament and a knitted eyeglass holder, both of which will be easy to tuck away in her suitcase.

   Supper is on our own again, so we choose to eat in the international part of the Marriott’s open-air restaurant. There are other restaurants to eat at inside the hotel, but they don’t have the atmosphere that the outside venue has. The couple from Colorado joins we three Kansans and we have a nice visit with them. Paul and I split a meal again, a club sandwich, which is good. We had a beer and they brought peanuts and chips with our beer, so we had more than enough to eat.

   Tomorrow we are going to the Egyptian museum and to Old Cairo. Nancy