18 Days Wandering Through Egypt

(Szilvásvárad - Budapest)

On a cold December evening we leave home by bus headed for Budapest. At 23:10 we have our direct flight to Cairo. This year no transfers and endless waits in connecting airports. Besides, our holiday in Egypt will only last 18 days. This time our children's school administration denied us permission for the usual 31-35 days of holiday. WHAT A SHAME! The plane is right on time!

(Budapest - Cairo)

At around three in the morning, while the plane is flying over Alexandria, Carlotta wakes me up saying: "Mummy, did you hear? The pilot announced that we're not landing in Cairo but somewhere else." I tell her to get lost and fall back asleep. After a few minutes, though, I wake up and look in disbelief at the in-flight computer monitor, which clearly indicates that the plane is heading in the opposite direction. WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? Fog in Cairo. Impossible to land. We're going to Cyprus! Cyprus??? Why on earth don't they land in Alexandria or Sharm? Some passengers, moreover, who don't understand English well, let alone Hungarian, when we land in Cyprus think they've arrived in Cairo! Surpriiiise! At 5:15 in the morning (we should already have been at the hotel in Cairo) we're still at the Larnaca airport bar.

We've made friends with a family from Sweden (she's Egyptian and he's Swedish, with two children) and they've even invited us to their home when we pass through Alexandria. Nobody yet knows why we landed in Cyprus or what time we'll leave again. The only thing we know for certain is that only our plane landed here. Matteo eats a local speciality bought at the airport bar (which we didn't yet know how expensive it was!!!). At 6:00 (7:00 local time) they transfer us by bus to a hotel located 30 km from the airport. We'll leave again at 16:00. So much for the direct flight (three hours and twenty at most!). So we lose an entire day of our itinerary (which we'll then have to make up), plus the night at the hotel in Cairo (already booked and paid for in advance)! Moreover, the fog excuse is starting to make us suspicious. In any case, we're on holiday! Let's enjoy Cyprus.

But the view from the bus isn't much. We don't know if the other side of the island is better but what we see in these 30 km is a rather desolate landscape. Arid terrain, small rocky hills, black sand beaches. We also didn't know that in Cyprus they drive on the left. When we arrive at the hotel they offer us breakfast. The hotel is actually quite nice, with a pool, private beach and restaurant terrace with sea view. The only sore point is that we shouldn't have been here, but in Cairo. Giampaolo and I try to take a nap on the poolside loungers, but a freezing wind picks up. So we go for a walk on the beach. There's no wind, so we decide to take a little nap by the sea but… the flies attack us! So we end up going to rest in the room. At 11:30 they wake us up telling us that at 12:00 lunch is served and at 13:00 the bus leaves for the airport.

Paying the extras at the Hotel (and thus coming into close contact with the local currency) we realise that at the Larnaca airport bar this morning, for two teas, a beer, a local sandwich and a glass of milk, we spent over 33 euros! (be glad we weren't hungry…). Our "friend" Omar (the one from the Cairo agency through which I had booked online the hotel in Cairo, and with whom we had an appointment this morning to collect the train tickets for the day after tomorrow to Aswan) sent us a text message informing us that our flight arrives in Cairo at 15:00. A tourist in our group, hearing the news, asks me if I can also tell him what the arrival terminal and the Gate number are….?! There really are some strange people around….!! At 14:00 the plane starts rolling on the Larnaca runway. Will our heroes make it to Cairo this time? Yesss!! At 15:00 we land in Cairo only 11 and a half hours late.

Cairo

We get our visas, withdraw some money from the ATM and then head for the exit. While the men go to the toilet, Carlotta and I look for a taxi (I refused the transfer proposed by the internet agency… they wanted 25 usd!!). {Ed. note: It's strange how tourist agencies work in Egypt. As far as hotels go, through an agency you spend much less, while for other services it's exactly the opposite….} We immediately find one or, rather, he immediately finds us: 60 Pounds (10 usd). We don't haggle. (even though on the way back we'll pay only 50…). The Cosmopolitan hotel is nice! Right in the centre of Cairo but located on a fairly quiet side street. The atmosphere of the Cosmopolitan is colonial, elegant, art deco. We drop our backpacks and immediately go out to explore the City! The city of Cairo, with about 18 million inhabitants, is chaos in its purest state… Thousands of people in the streets.

Cars honking like crazy, extremely undisciplined traffic. Even crossing the streets poses some problems. Even at traffic lights which, as a local boy explains to us—when I nearly get run over by a car while shouting that the light is GREEN!!—have been installed as Christmas decorations! At 19:00 we stop on Alfy Street (a pedestrian street in the centre) at an Aiwa—a typical Egyptian café—to smoke sheesha (hookah) and drink a mint tea. Cairo is peculiar. Muslim women here too have their heads covered (not all but most), some have only their eyes showing or not even those, most however wear scarves. What strikes you is that young Muslim women, although they have the scarf covering their heads, wear ultra-fashionable tight jeans or stretch skirts. They sit at the café, even just among women, smoking hookah. We won't see this again in other Egyptian places.

Since the restaurant we'd chosen (Abu As Sid, in Zamalek) was fully booked when we tried to call from the hotel, we'll look for a place here in the centre to have dinner tonight, at random. Then we want to go see the belly dancing at the Palmyra (Egyptian Night Club not for tourists… uh oh uh oh!). The restaurant choice falls on one place among many but whose grill and various poultry on display promise a lot! Excellent dinner! We basically taste all the specialities in one go: the hamam (pigeon stuffed with rice) was fabulous, as were the shish kebab (grilled chicken skewer) and the Fuul, the chickpea and cumin dip that will accompany us throughout the trip! At 22:00, all sufficiently tired, we're in a place near the Palmyra drinking a beer (we needed it… since we had water with dinner) and waiting for the show to begin, which unfortunately won't be until 23:30.

We could also go to sleep but the Tour Operator (that is, yours truly) is very mean and absolutely must make up for the day lost in Cyprus! Giampaolo has even given me a little rose and the lady at the place (without veils) has probably already changed our ashtray 10 times. The service is 5-star…. The toilets aren't! To pass the time we take another stroll around the central neighbourhoods, since the shops are open until 23:00, and we make our first purchases in Egypt: two pairs of Puma shoes (PUMA???) for Matteo and Carlotta. At 23:30 (the only foreign customers but also the only customers at all) we sit at a table at the Palmyra waiting for the show. A cat slips into the main drum of the drum kit (who knows what it'll do when they start playing?). After ten minutes the music begins. There's also a singer (a real torment… worse than church litanies sung by out-of-tune choirs).

The cat, at the third beat of the drum, darts out like lightning. After a couple of drawn-out and/or wailed songs, the belly dancer arrives. Well…. from that point on we struggled to hold back our laughter. The dancer was a real sight for sore eyes, she hopped about… shook her little belly left and right, every now and then she stopped, looked around, chatted with the singer (SINGER???), strolled around the floor.. At midnight, by common agreement, we decide to all go to bed! Tomorrow awaits us the Egyptian Museum (which was on today's schedule) and a visit to Coptic Cairo. What was scheduled for tomorrow (Giza Saqqara and Dashur) we'll do on New Year's Day! We return to the Hotel where we find everything excessively dark, including the entrance. We almost get scared. ….. Energy saving? ….Curfew? ….Anti-terrorism measures? None of that, they're simply changing a light bulb at reception.

NO PROBLEM!

(Cairo)

Up early, also because at 8:00 Omar arrives (the one from the agency who has to give us the train tickets for tonight to Aswan). I try asking at reception if I can book two doubles for the 29th and 31st of December and how much they cost (still incredulous at the fact that the agency sells them to me for less). But the answer is 66 usd per room versus 56 usd from the agency! So when Omar arrives we announce that we also need the rooms for the 29th and the 31st. He informs us that the New Year's Eve dinner is mandatory. All the better since we didn't know what else to do. Is there belly dancing too? GREAT!!… as long as it's better than last night's (but that doesn't take much). 8:30 breakfast. Matteo and Carlotta come down too. We've already packed all our bags but they inform us that, since we didn't use the rooms the other night, we can keep them until tonight, when the train departs.

SUKRAN! After breakfast we head straight to the Egyptian Museum, which is a five-minute walk away. I expected a very long queue but instead in ten minutes (including police checks at the various checkpoints) we're already inside. We'd read in the Lonely Planet that they give students a 50% discount on all entry tickets to sites and museums, but you have to present an international student card, which we hadn't managed to get for our kids. Anyway, I give it a try…. and at the ticket office I pull out the 'Hungarian' cards. They accept them. Good. At least some savings... (Ed. note: since over the whole trip we spent more than 500 euros on the various entries to museums and sites!) The Egyptian Museum is beautiful. Not so much the museum, which is a bit dilapidated, but the artefacts it contains.

Since we have little time, we follow the Lonely Planet's advice and limit ourselves to visiting certain rooms. The atrium, the rooms of the Old Kingdom, the Amarna room (Pharaoh Akhenaten with features completely different from the other pharaohs), the Tutankhamun galleries, the room of animal mummies, the room of ancient jewellery and the room of the royal mummies. What strikes you about the history of ancient Egypt is also the fineness of the arts. The jewellery, for example: it seems that the pieces displayed in the best jewellers of our times are nothing but imitations of the designs of the pharaonic era (and not even that well done). And what about Tutankhamun's flip-flops? His collection of silk underpants? And his splendid throne with the depiction of his wife smearing him with perfumed ointments? The room of the treasures found in Tutankhamun's tomb is astonishing.

The room of the Royal Mummies too, inside which (apart from the presence of a Japanese girl who was jumping and shrieking like a madwoman) in absolute silence and semi-darkness, you almost relive the funerary atmosphere of the era. The mummies of Ramesses II and his father Seti I are the best preserved, but the others are no less so. New Kingdom (yes.. only 3200 years ago!). Ponder, people, ponder… because even I wouldn't mind (I'm a collector of many things) the idea of being able to take, after death, everything into the tomb with me—including my cat! What doesn't quite appeal to me are the alabaster containers for the entrails….! Only on leaving the Egyptian Museum do we discover that we missed the room of Tutankhamun's golden chariots, which our kids visited while we were busy with the jewellery and various ornaments.

We take a quick stroll along the Nile, then look for the Arabesque restaurant to refresh ourselves. We eat very well. They bring us an endless series of little dishes with dips, vine leaf rolls, puff pastry triangles filled with goat cheese (superb) and many other things. We also have main courses, washed down with an excellent Egyptian red wine, and so, nicely full, we head off to the metro station! Direction Coptic Cairo. - We don't think about rest! - We grit our teeth and carry on! - Sure… we'll become cultured. (comment by Gianpaolo) Coptic Cairo is a huge building site. We visit the Hanging Church and that of Saint Barbara. Then we take a stroll around this historic district, truly very "Egyptian" or rather, very "third world". Garbage everywhere. Cats, donkeys and chickens pecking in the rubbish in defiance of avian flu.

Barefoot, dirty and poorly dressed children who run after you asking for money.

BODY SHOP IN COPTIC CAIRO

Improvised bodyworkers and mechanics on the streets. We pass inside the Orthodox Cemetery where caretakers and non-caretakers ask you for a tip (baksheesh). Today we've organised ourselves well and have lots of small-denomination notes. Having crossed the cemetery we come out at the synagogue, which unfortunately is already closed. We quickly visit the Church of Saint George and then cross the centre of the district to go take a peek at the Nile! The narrow central streets are chaotic and dirty. Rivers of people, women and children. Men sitting in the various cafés smoking sheesha, and even sheep and goats; also whole flocks, accompanied by the shepherd of the moment! We return (again by the very modern and clean metro) to our Hotel at 18:00. Shower and departure for the station.

Omar comes to pick us up (the one from the agency) so he takes us to the station, in fact he practically accompanies us right onto the train! Well done, these Gat Tours people: punctual, honest and also kind. At 20:30 the sleeper-car train for Aswan departs. The train is modern (we feared trains like in Vietnam or worse like in Sri Lanka). The compartments have two beds, with a washbasin and all the comforts. Dinner is served in the cabin (not bad at all). We accompany it with a good bottle of red wine (Omar Kaggham)! Then we go to the bar car to have a drink. The service is excellent too! In fact, to Achmet, the attendant in charge of our car, we decided to leave a tip (the first that wasn't expressly requested!). Tonight we can finally sleep!

(Aswan)

I wake up at 7:00 and looking out the window I discover we're still in Esna.. Goodness, I think, from Aswan to Esna by boat takes 3 days…. And by train only 3 hours….. The train, in any case, is two and a half hours late. We go to the bar to get a tea. The train brakes sharply and the tea spills all over me! The waiter apologises immediately (as if it were his fault, poor thing..) but it's not over, another customer of the bar also gets up, comes over to us and says to me: I am Egyptian, I am very sorry about what happened and I apologise to you. …HOW NICE.

Just think if at Italian airports, on the occasion of some strike, our fellow citizens felt obliged to apologise personally to foreign tourists for the poor service!! The views you enjoy from the train window, on the Esna-Aswan stretch, are splendid desert landscapes on the right side, and picturesque glimpses of the Nile on the left side. And also cultivated fields teeming with farmers riding mules and horses. It looks like our kids' video game "Pharaon"! We only saw three camels in total. The entrance into Aswan appears relaxing, streets adorned with flowers and lots of greenery. At 10:30 we enter the station. Getting off the train we're set upon by touts who this time hit the spot and we take advantage of it.

For various reasons: first because we've already lost half the morning due to the delay and we don't have much time to waste, second because for tonight one hotel is as good as another since we only need it for a few hours (the convoy for the Abu Simbel excursion leaves around 3:30 in the morning...) They take us to the Memmon Hotel which the Lonely Planet lists among those we had already thought of going to see. The entrance to the hotel is pitiful, especially the access road, but the rooms are fairly acceptable (we're obviously talking about 6/7 euro rooms). The view over Elephantine Island and the Nile, moreover, is excellent! OK. We drop our backpacks and also organise tomorrow's trip to Abu Simbel.

After some "serious" haggling we agree on a minibus that will pick us up tomorrow morning at 3:30 and bring us back here around 15:00, including stops at the High Dam, Philae Island, and the Unfinished Obelisk. Everything is paid strictly "in advance" and then we set off to see Aswan. We've already lost half a day. Given the delay in our schedule, we give up renting bicycles as planned and, partly out of laziness, partly for the scenery, we replace them with a horse-drawn carriage. But fate "punishes" us. After about a quarter of an hour, in fact (but thank heavens nothing serious happened), we have an accident caused by the breaking of the front left wheel, so Giampaolo falls from the carriage into the middle of the road, bruising himself from head to toe. But we were lucky, because he could have broken his neck. After the first moments of panic the local folklore begins..

Everyone willing to help us, everyone in a frenzy, they take us to a pharmacy (which, lo and behold, was right across the street). The pharmacist carefully treats Giampaolo's various wounds and meanwhile the police arrive. A terrible confusion. The carriage driver explains that if we report the incident to the police they'll take away his licence.. the police don't speak a word of English… we're already quite shaken by what just happened... In the end, since it went better than it could have, we have no interest in filing any report. At which point, the coachman offers to pay for the pharmacy and we think that maybe it's his way of thanking us for not filing a report…..

then (after refusing his offer to take us back with the same carriage onto which he'd reattached the front wheel… BRRR) we all take a taxi which, for goodness' sake, asks us almost 30 pounds to cover two or three hundred metres. And it's not over! The carriage driver who followed us to the hotel also demands to be paid: "..you know, to feed the camel". To hell with him, the camel and the taxi driver (to whom I give 10 pounds and that's it). We go up to the room. We drink something to calm our nerves and then start the Aswan visit again… this time absolutely ON FOOT! We decide to go eat at the Casa Nubiana, on Esse Island. Free transport and no arguments. Even though there's always someone there ready to offer you something insistently and always! There's also the offer of 20 euros for a felucca ride which seems a bit excessive. The view is splendid.

We're right in front of the Old Cataract Hotel (where… moment of madness… we'll go to sleep tomorrow night but Giampaolo doesn't know, it's a surprise). At the restaurant you eat incredibly well, even if the portions are, as usual, too generous. When we come out the tireless seller of felucca rides for 20 euros is still there and we ignore him, also because the restaurant takes us free of charge with its boat to Elephantine Island. There we walk through the narrow streets of the (crumbling) Nubian village. Giampaolo limps but, all in all, bears up well. We visit a Nubian house, the old village, photograph the few houses decorated in Nubian style, set in a context of rubble and rubbish. They offer us tea, specifying that it's not made with Nile water. (because.... do they usually make it with Nile water?). Swarms of kids follow us asking for money, pens, etc.

We gladly give money to a lady who has set up a small museum of stuffed animals of the area (the Animalia); she also shows us the house built in pure Nubian style. They didn't use furniture, only masonry structures and lots of carpets and palm mats. The ceilings are domed with slits to light the interior without heating the room too much. Towards sunset we head for the ferry dock but between alleys, little alleys, sewage outlets, goats, donkeys and filth, we don't really know where to go. So we follow two tourists who look like they know (the only two tourists encountered on the island). Through fields and broken-up roads we reach the Oberoi Hotel. Service entrance: them in front, us right behind. They're probably staying here? No! They explain that they're using the hotel's private ferry. It's free and you don't have to argue with anyone.

Once at our hotel, we ask about the sound and light show on Philae Island which, by a most fortunate coincidence, is in Italian tonight! With a taxi, pre-paid at the hotel, we reach the ticket office. They announce that they only do the show for a minimum of five people so they advise us to wait for other tourists to arrive. We wait. At most we buy five tickets instead of 4…, right?! But at the last moment a small group of Italian tourists arrives. With a little motorboat we head to Philae Island which, splendidly lit up, as we approach gives us some marvellous images. Among the Italians someone asks us which "boat" we're on! (Ed. note: …yes indeed!!! That's why you don't see tourists around: they're all on cruise ships!) We answer that we're travelling around Egypt with backpacks on our shoulders….

at which we're labelled "casual tourists"! The sound and light show is really very beautiful. The first part is a walking tour through the temple of Isis. The last part alternates between the temple of Isis, that of Hathor and the kiosk of Trajan. A voice tells the story of these gods and their temples. On the way back, on the boat it's quite cold but we survive. In Aswan we go to dinner at the Aswan Moon, a floating barge roughly opposite our hotel. Nothing special

(Aswan – Abu Simbel - Aswan)

At 3:30 the minibus booked yesterday at the hotel is waiting for us. They also give us the "breakfast basket"! A roll, a little cheese, jam. This is the typical breakfast that, apart from three-star hotels and above, will be provided for us throughout our Egyptian stay! At 3:40 we're already in line waiting for the convoy to form. At first there are only three minibuses, but around 4:00 dozens of buses, coaches, minivans arrive. Of course, if the police organised the convoys for anti-terrorism purposes it's not very logical: this way they concentrate hundreds of tourists all together and if they carried out an attack now… it would be a massacre! At four-something we set off and the departure is like a Grand Prix. Everyone tries to grab pole position and they overtake on the right or left, indifferently. They all race like desperate men and safe distances are non-existent.

The rest of my family sleeps. I, on the other hand, stress out until we arrive in Abu Simbel. Thank goodness that at least on our "Schumacher's" minibus you can smoke (in Egypt in any case people smoke everywhere). At 7:00 we're already in Abu Simbel and the sun rose a few minutes ago. It's cold and a light cardigan isn't enough! We sit for a moment (in the sun) in a café, with a view of Lake Nasser, to drink a hot tea. We ask for mint, they bring us "Milk"… So we do a nice drawing of mint leaves and then they understand. For us this is the first real archaeological site we visit in Egypt, apart from Philae which we saw yesterday evening during the "sound and light" show. For a couple of hours we wander among the splendid and colossal temples of Ramesses II and Hathor. Truly imposing, carved into the rock, overlooking Lake Nasser.

Built 3250 years ago, Ramesses' temple has an entrance guarded by four imposing statues that look towards the Nile and seem to be there to recall his strength and his power. We shoot at least a roll of slide film. Inside the temples I notice several engravings with dates (from 1830 to 1920) and names, mostly foreign. There are Italians among them too. I try asking some of the guards (since tourist guides, unless they're with groups, are nowhere to be seen). "What is this?" … one answers me.. "What es???…. ahhh… WHATER? You want water?" Let's drop it. We'll ask later… {Ed. note: we'll later be told that they're the signatures of either the first explorers of the last century or the first tourists who ventured into Egypt, but they don't know for certain} Once the visit is over and after drinking another mint tea, we head for the convoy.

Now it's much hotter and it's fine even in short sleeves. 10:15 the convoy departs and the stress begins again! Our "Schumi" at first respects the safe distances but it doesn't last long! A few minutes later, in fact, he launches again in pursuit of another minibus which in turn chases him and they overtake each other, they tuck in behind big buses with distances of 40 cm at most! The scenery along the route is very beautiful. Unfortunately this morning it was dark and we saw nothing. There are stretches of sand, little hills, rocky spurs emerging from the desert and gradually a lagoon also appears. It looks like a mirage! In fact after ten minutes we all realise that they really are mirages…. At 11:45, I can't take the stress anymore and I explode with a series of curses (the few I know in English) against our "Schumacher" who has started racing with the other minibus again.

He stops immediately and then (since they call him on his mobile probably to find out why he stopped racing) he confesses to us that he is "THE BEST"….!! And that's not all he confesses… we also discover that he's the same driver as yesterday who, after the carriage accident, took us to the hotel… You have to laugh… we hadn't noticed (also because yesterday we were a bit in shock) but he had noticed us… well, then he surely wasn't surprised by my loss of patience since he already knew me! We continue, relatively peacefully, to the High Dam, which is exactly my age. Nothing exceptional. Then we move on to Philae Island. By day the effect of arriving by boat isn't the same as in the evening but it's still very beautiful. After the umpteenth argument over the amount to pay for the boat (40 pounds instead of 24) we land at the Philae dock.

Here too there's always something to pay… a pound to the right, one to the left… We gladly pay the baksheesh (tip) to a guard who opens the gate of the Nilometer for us. We go down. Along the walls are engraved the various measurement scales depending on the era of use: the Egyptian one and the Roman one! We take some photographs of the two of them and of Trajan's kiosk. This temple complex was moved from the original island of Philae to the current one of Agilkia between the 1950s and 1960s thanks to a colossal rescue operation conducted by UNESCO. Otherwise, the temples of Philae, after the construction of the High Dam, would have sunk into the Nile. Many other temples, in fact, still lie beneath the waters of the Nile. Once the visit is over we rejoin our Schumi who is waiting for us. The last stop is at the Unfinished Obelisk. A disappointment…..

Maybe we got the wrong obelisk because in Aswan I read that there are 2…!

Aswan

Who knows… in any case we're tired and so we ask Schumi to stop by the hotel to pick up the luggage because we're changing accommodation and (official version for Giampaolo) we're looking for another hotel, a slightly better one.… We load the luggage and, secretly, I tell Schumi to take us to the Old Cataract… he says to me "are you sure?", I answer "yes but keep quiet…". Giampaolo asks… "which hotel are we going to??" Matteo laughs, Carlotta too, I stall… We arrive at the entrance of the Cataract and Schumi asks me again "But are you really sure you're coming here?!".. Well, of course, he must have thought these people are crazy…. Yesterday they made a scene over two extra euros for a Taxi, last night they slept in a hotel at seven dollars a room… now they're going to the Cataract? But there's no point explaining… he wouldn't understand.

Meanwhile, at the entrance of the Cataract, before letting our minibus in, the guards want to know what nationality we are! Meanwhile Giampaolo remarks: "But this is the Old Cataract". We all laugh. We enter with our backpacks on our shoulders into one of the most beautiful hotels in Egypt… The lobby is stunning. Maria from public relations welcomes us and, after offering us a welcome cocktail, informs us not only that they have assigned us a room with a Nile view for our children too, but that for the two of us they have reserved a deluxe room, also with a Nile view and…… complimentary of Sofitel! Sukran… (maybe they give special treatment to the first clients with backpacks on their shoulders). Huaoo.. our room is at least 50 square meters…. With very high ceilings, antique furniture, carpets, an enormous bathroom, all the amenities, and a large basket of fruit.

If you consider that for our room we're spending 132 euros when a month and a half ago in Zagreb in a poor three-star we spent 90 euros… there's no comparison! It's 16:00 and Giampaolo and I immediately dash to the garden bar, with a splendid view of Elephantine Island, to drink a good good bottle of wine (rosé)… it was about time, after two days on water! Our children instead take a nice relaxing bath (Matteo in our room and Carlotta in theirs). There's also a beautiful pool but we don't think it's worth trying… at this hour it's already cold. We enjoy the sunset and then go back to the room. We're extremely tired…. But the tour operator (namely yours truly) doesn't budge: we have to go visit the Nubian Museum (it's so close by anyway)! The Nubian Museum is very well run. The explanations are clear and in various languages.

On the way out of the Museum the men go back to the hotel while Carlotta and I go to get supplies for the next days of the cruise. The Royal Cleopatra organization told us that everything is included in the price except alcohol, which in any case isn't sold on board. If we want to drink wine we have to bring it ourselves! We go to an address found in the Lonely Planet for a Duty Free and since it's not very far from the hotel, we walk there. We buy beers, bottles of wine, whisky, biscuits and salty snacks. Then slowly we head back toward the hotel with our heavy load. We arrive exhausted! And… strangest thing, no taxi, horse-drawn carriage or anything else stopped to offer their services. You can tell that, with all the shopping bags, they mistook us for locals… Along the way we also buy two cartons of cigarettes at a little more than half a euro a pack.

In the evening we dine at the Hotel. The dining room is splendid and perfectly restored; it brings the colonial era back to life. The domed ceiling must be at least ten meters high. We dine by candlelight with a musical backdrop of various genres, from the harp to American blues. Needless to say the service is impeccable too. Around 23:00 we go to bed!

(Start of Nile Cruise: Aswan –Komb Ombo)

Last night we went to bed so tired that I don't even remember going to bed, so much so that this morning at 7:00, when I woke up, it took me at least 5 minutes to realize where I was! At 8:00 we have a very abundant breakfast and then we head by taxi to the Suk, which we haven't seen yet, except partially, that famous morning of the carriage ride… In the Suk we buy almost nothing because they have truly outrageous prices. We only haggle for 3 Nubian caps and a t-shirt for Carlotta but the bargaining is so exhausting that in the end we decide to stop shopping… except for a pair of shoes for Giampaolo, for which strangely they ask only 3 euros to start. At 11:00 the people from the agency through which we booked the Royal Cleopatra come to pick us up, our private Dahabiyya that will take us on a three-day cruise on the Nile.

Matteo realizes he has lost his pouch containing his digital camera, his cell phone earphone, his sunglasses and the tripod… he probably left it on the minibus of yesterday's excursion. GREAT! We try to stop by yesterday's hotel where the very kind owner tries to track down "Schumi" who can't be reached. He then leaves us a phone number to try again tonight, saying that if they turn up he'll have them delivered to Luxor. We'll see, in any case the most important thing was the camera which in any case hadn't been working for two days anymore. At 11:30 they board us. The Royal Cleopatra is a 19-meter-long vessel, adapted as a sailing ship with two very tall masts, very very beautiful….…… They show us our two cabins with bathroom, the dining lounge and the upper deck with tables, chairs, sun loungers and large cushions on the floor in perfect Arab style.

Colorful curtains in Nubian style make the Royal Cleopatra an incomparable setting. They introduce us to Captain Mustafá and our guide, in Italian, Tarik who shows a strange hematoma on his forehead…. {ED. NOTE: only toward the end of our vacation in Egypt will we discover that these marks identify those who have great faith since they get them by banging their foreheads on the ground in the act of praying!} We also have a tugboat that, when there's no wind, tows us. There are 4 of us and there are 10 of them! We feel very millionaire-like even though, in fact, this "madness" cost us only twice as much as a normal three- or four-star cruise. We unpack, organize our things and then go up on deck to have an aperitif! It's so romantic. At 12:20 we depart towed by the tugboat! The day will be all about sailing.

13:30: First lunch on the boat! Excellent! At 14:30 we're still sailing towed, at which point I start to protest…. Surely we haven't spent a fortune just to be dragged along the Nile by a tugboat, and a noisy one at that..?! They tell me there's no wind… but that's not true, there is wind and how, maybe it's unfavorable but… I make all my comments, I grumble.. in the end, perhaps tired of my protests, 3 sailors arrive, unfurl the immense sails, detach from the tugboat and start sailing. Sailing???? A disaster… the boat goes from one side of the Nile to the other in zig zags, with a maximum angle of 25 degrees, so that in an hour we cover not even 200 meters. We even run aground on the banks twice and a third time we almost crash into the rocks.

Maybe they get towed because they don't know how to steer? Then, while we're enjoying playing dominoes, suddenly the sails fill and the Royal Cleopatra starts gliding over the waters of the Nile light and fast, like a racing sailboat. Always in zig zags, because of the wind blowing in the opposite direction, but GREATLY!!! We look around curiously… the sailors are happy and smiling too. Maybe they're learning?! But NO!!! The captain has arrived to give the orders. Bravo MUSTAFÁ… The boat doesn't go if Mustafá isn't there! We sail until sunset. It's truly beautiful, incredibly poetic and very relaxing. And then the silence, absolute silence, interrupted only by the sound of the wind beating against the sails. Mustafá is Nubian, he lives on Elephantine Island and has been doing this job for 24 years (he's been captain of the Royal Cleopatra for 6 years).

He speaks English very well, he's nice and has an excellent rapport with his men. At 17:00 they serve us tea with the pastries freshly baked by our exceptional cook Abulele. Our guide cannot be described as the picture of friendliness, but he's bearable. Dinner is as delicious as lunch, except that we have to eat it in the lounge, on deck, because outside in the evening it's cold. Abulele prepares us a crème caramel worthy of haute cuisine. After dinner the crew of the Royal Cleopatra, together with that of the tugboat, light the bonfire on the beach and then invite us to smoke the hookah. How nice! We play dominoes with our guide (I win). Then off to bed.

(Komb Ombo Temple - Selsila)

At seven I'm already on deck. Everyone is still sleeping, even the sailors, the captain, the cook, the guide…. On the bank of the Nile, however, there are many locals strolling, fishing and… washing themselves! In fact I witness the morning wash of a young islander who undresses (staying in his underwear), throws himself into the Nile, then pulls out a bar of soap and begins to lather himself from head to toe, throws himself back into the Nile, rinses himself properly, then comes out, dries off, puts on clean clothes, and goes back where he came from. It was worth filming. 8:00 breakfast. After breakfast Tarik, who can finally start his job, informs us that first of all we'll take a walk on the little island where we're anchored and he'll show us some animals. Carlotta immediately asks "Tigers? Lions? Crocodiles?". None of that.

He'll show us dogs, donkeys, cows, ibises and a carp of about 15 kg. just caught by an islander. On the plus side we take a little walk given that yesterday afternoon we practically stayed seated all day (not that we're complaining after the first three days of tour de force, but…). After the brief walk we move by boat to the Temple of Kom Ombo. This temple, relatively young having only 2200 years, stands in a bend of the Nile where in ancient times crocodiles basked in the sun. For this reason the temple was also dedicated to the God Salek (Crocodile God). It's a double temple, with perfectly twin architecture. The other half was dedicated to the god Horoeris (Elder Falcon God). There's also a wall with hieroglyphs illustrating medical practices and surgical instruments, very similar to those still used today.

But the most interesting part are the reliefs and inscriptions dedicated to childbirth. Women gave birth seated on special birthing chairs just like Matteo and Carlotta were born! We also visit the hall of the mummified crocodiles. Our guide is very knowledgeable but he makes us laugh because if we get distracted he immediately calls us back and then he always starts his sentences with "You see….!!" Or, when there's something you can't see well, with "Imagine…". At the end of the tour he even quizzes us (?!?). It's the first time he takes a private cruise with a family (on the Royal Cleopatra we're even the first Italians); usually he works on the big cruise ships, especially for the Viaggi del Ventaglio groups. At 12:40 we go back aboard our splendid sailing ship for lunch which, we must admit, is always excellent. LONG LIVE ABULELE. At 14:00 we start sailing.

Today there's a nice strong wind (always in the opposite direction unfortunately but Mustafá is exceptional). We lie on the cushions to sunbathe and enjoy the poetic silence of the Nile interrupted by the creaking of the very tall masts of the sails. Carlotta takes Arabic lessons from one of the sailors. Our guide has gone to sleep. We'll see him at tea time. Along the way today we cross many cruise ships. Many tourists even take pictures of us (Carlotta even poses a couple of times)! Will we become famous? At 16:00 we risk colliding with a large cruise ship which, despite the signals and ignoring international navigation laws according to which sailboats should always have the right of way, doesn't move an inch, forcing our sailors (thank goodness Mustafá was there) into a sharp turn with the consequent grounding on the sandy bank of the Nile.

After the danger is over, our crew erupts in a series of shouts and insults (at least that's what we assume) at the ship's captain, who responds in the same tone.. at which point Carlotta, unexpectedly and at the top of her voice, starts shouting something at him too that I myself don't understand…. Could this afternoon's Arabic lessons have already borne their first fruits? But NO! It was a burst of Slovak swear words learned on a short vacation last year. (AT LEAST THEY DIDN'T IDENTIFY US AS ITALIANS HA HA..). Around 17:30 (after tea) we arrive at the quarries of Selsila, where we dock, already in the dark. Aperitif with Arabic music. Carlotta tries to teach me some belly dance moves but it's a failure! She, on the other hand, is very good.

We dock on an atoll with a little beach perfect for smoking the sheesha after dinner!! The view is stunning because these quarries are all splendidly illuminated. It's all very spectacular. Tonight Abulele has cooked us a wonderful oven-baked pasta! Then, after the ritual sheesha smoking on the beach, a game of dominoes and off to bed!

(Selsila - Edfu)

7:00 a.m. I'm on deck enjoying the first light of dawn. This time I've armed myself with the video camera in case there was some local taking a bath…. But it's a tiny atoll so there's no one, apart from us and our crew. But they're all still sleeping (our guide, let's not even mention him…). Today is the last day of navigation. Tonight we'll dock near Edfu which we'll visit tomorrow morning. 8:00 a.m. Already eight? I'm drinking an excellent tea. Here in Egypt the tea is really good and to think it's Lipton, the one with the yellow package, but it's nothing like the one we buy in Europe. My family still isn't in sight, meanwhile they've moved the boat to the dock in front of the Selsila quarries. Next to us is anchored a sailing ship similar to ours, the Simbad. Just a little bigger. In fact on board there are, by eye, seven or eight people.

I spontaneously wave my little hand to say hello, but no one answers me. They probably didn't see me. After our luxurious breakfast on deck, we disembark to go visit the Selsila quarries. Passing alongside the Simbad I say hi to a little girl who looks at me. She turns the other way… Oh well, she must be shy… Then, while we're walking up toward the entrance of the quarries, the "nice" little group of tourists from the Simbad passes by us and Giampaolo (who had missed the previous episodes) greets them… "Good morning!" Not only do they not deign to respond but they even turn the other way. Hooray for friendliness! …..Why do certain people even travel?! We visit the Selsila quarries, with the adjoining temple. The Selsila quarries were for over two thousand years the main source of sandstone blocks for the construction of temples, during the New Kingdom and up to the Greco-Roman period.

The adjoining temple of Horemheb dates back to 1300 BC. At 11:00 we're sailing full sail (literally)… The sun is warm and the wind is more merciful than yesterday. At 12:30, after a wonderful sail, we stop on a small splendid atoll in the middle of the Nile, populated by a couple of little donkeys and a few cows grazing. How nice.. they've prepared a surprise for us. Our super-cook Abulela is preparing us a Lucullan barbecue!! We help the crew carry the table, chairs, and plates onto the islet and take the opportunity to uncork a good bottle of rosé wine, nicely chilled! We wave to the tourists on the big cruise ships passing by us and we don't envy them at all! (ED. NOTE: Maybe they don't envy us either…quien sabe?). Today even Captain Mustafá eats with us. So we chat a bit.

Halfway through lunch bursts of applause directed at Abulele break out, interspersed with shouts: "for Abulele hip hip…. Hurrah!!" – "Long live Abulele!!" – it seems like a wedding…. After the very abundant lunch accompanied by an excellent Egyptian wine that obviously was drunk only by Giampaolo and me (since they are Muslims and don't drink), we go back aboard the Royal Cleopatra! Our guide goes to take his nap and this time we won't see him again until dinner time! So much the better… absolute rest and no Egyptology lessons which in fact after a while, unless you're a scholar of the subject, become a bit heavy. Before departing (this time unfortunately towed by motor because the Nile here is quite narrow and makes our zig-zag course difficult, inevitable due to the opposite wind direction), we meet a small group of Spaniards.

They too, with a boat similar to ours, have stopped because their captain (you won't believe it… Mexican!) is a friend of ours, Mustafá. "Olá!"… we chat a bit and then - "Hasta luego" - we're off again.. At 16:30 Carlotta holds her belly dance lesson and, after tea, we land on a wonderful little island near Edfu, equipped with enormous sand dunes! It's almost sunset and Carlotta and I run and slide down the dunes. Beautiful. Today's day is hard to describe it was so beautiful but unfortunately it's the last and we're thinking about how we'll manage to leave the Royal Cleopatra tomorrow morning. On our return to the boat Mustafá welcomes us with gifts.

Four Egyptian tunics (galabiyya), which in my case and Carlotta's also feature beautiful embroidery (the women's ones are called abeyya)! We take the opportunity to leave a substantial tip for the captain and his crew: they really earned it! A game of dominoes with aperitif (we have to finish off our wine supplies) and then dinner, succulent again this evening too, for which we applaud ABULELE for the last time! "For Abulele Hip Hip Hurraaaah!!!" After dinner we go down to the beach to smoke the sheesha and Carlotta and I, since a sailing ship similar to ours is docked right next to us and since they too are gathered around the fire singing, we approach to get acquainted. But those around the fire are only the crew. They tell us the tourists are on the boat but that if we want we can stay there with them… We politely decline the invitation (it really doesn't seem appropriate… ha ha)..

Before going to sleep we finish writing our long message in the guest book (as the first Italian clients it's absolutely a must!).

(Edfu – Esna - Luxor)

Around 8:00 they move the Royal Cleopatra from the islet where we spent the night to the main dock of Edfu, where all the other vessels are docked. An eyesore: practically a dump. After kisses and hugs with Mustafá, Abulele, Mr. Kerozin (the one in charge of stoking the fire on the beach) and the others, we reluctantly leave the Royal Cleopatra. Our guide Tarik, on the other hand, will accompany us as far as Luxor, in a minibus, with stops at the temples of Edfu and Esna. Skirting the garbage, with our backpacks on our shoulders, we walk up the quay and reach the road. One last goodbye to the Royal Cleopatra and then by minibus we head to the temple of Horus, in Edfu. This temple, dating back to 237 BC (only a little more than 2200 years….) has a structure very similar to that of Philae.

The halls, however, are very well preserved and in some parts the colors too! Here too the usual hammering that destroyed many reliefs is visible, partly inflicted by later pharaohs, partly by the Christians. At 9:30 we're already out of the temple but the first police convoy has already passed. Our driver Schumi II, having nevertheless obtained permission to pass, launches in pursuit of the convoy at full speed, in fact in less than 40 minutes we're already at Esna. The temple of Khnum at Esna is splendid. Moreover, we're the only visitors since the first convoy doesn't stop at Esna and the second hasn't arrived yet. Also from the Greco-Roman period, it is dedicated to the god Khnum (ram-headed creator god). The hypostyle hall has 24 columns supporting the practically intact roof.

And it's precisely thanks to the presence of the roof that the colors of the reliefs have been perfectly preserved, both on the ceilings and on the columns. It's fantastic. We arrange to meet our guide in half an hour and, since the temple is in the center of the town, to reach the car we cross the suk. We buy a scarf... haggle people haggle!! From the 290 pounds initially asked, they let us have it for 20 and they're even happy! Us too, so we buy two. We stop at a local kiosk to drink something and there, by coincidence, our guide is there too. We order our teas in perfect Arabic.

The people at the kiosk are very kind and bring us chairs, the little table; they even offer us cigarettes… Who knows why Tarik didn't ask us if we wanted to go with him to have a tea? Maybe he thought we'd never sit in a small Egyptian kiosk, a bit dirty and full of flies? Maybe he's too used to the cruise ship groups? Bah?! Then we discover that the owner of the kiosk is also a relative of his wife. In fact, when we leave, he even gives us little sweets and biscuits. At noon we're still at Esna waiting for the convoy to Luxor. It only arrives at 13:00 and we're the first, because our Schumi II managed to slip in right behind the police car.

At 13:30 we're already in Luxor, where yours truly, map in hand, leads the Luxor taxi driver as well as our tour guide (also from Luxor) to the apartment booked via the Internet! They have no idea where it is…?!? They'd like me to call and let them speak to the owner… are you crazy?! Roaming? NEVER! I'll take you there myself: turn right, go straight 300 meters…. we could also ask but, meanwhile I spot the green building and recognize it from the photo that was on the Internet. "That's it!" I state. They, very incredulous, stop, but they go ask anyway. The house is indeed that one. OK thanks.

We take our leave, not without having a small argument with our guide, who insists that we have to tip the driver… but why should I tip him, sorry, what did he do?? The transport was part of the Royal Cleopatra program… we can understand if someone is particularly kind or does extra things… otherwise why?! Anyway in the end we give him something. At that point Tarik, however, pulls my husband aside telling him that he heard that we left a good tip for the boat crew, so he asks him why not for him? And why don't we want a guide for tomorrow? … but because we're going by bicycle!! Simple, no?! {ED.

NOTE: maybe we should explain to him that, for Mustafá and his team, we gladly left the tip because they pampered us, they always worked, from morning to night, they slept in the open or on deck, and then surely they don't earn much! When we met Tarik, he explained that he lives quite well, he even sends his daughters to private schools. Moreover, during the three days of the cruise he worked two or three hours a day, slept in a private cabin with bathroom, ate, drank and was served and fawned over even more than us}. In any case we cut it short, also because we have to see him again tomorrow evening, since we commissioned two sweatshirts for the kids from him (the ones with names written in hieroglyphs), plus the booking of a taxi to take us in three days to the El Kharga oasis (a full 100 dollars…).

We're not particularly convinced about this choice but, having read in the Lonely Planet that the new direct Luxor–El Kharga road can only be traveled by authorized taxis, we thought we had no other option, except a 7/8-hour bus trip via Asyut.

(Luxor)

Waiting for us at the apartment is an elderly Egyptian gentleman who shows us everything, then offers to go buy us water. Sukran. The building is owned by a couple (he Egyptian and she English) and, apart from the apartment where they live, there are three others, which they rent out. We chose the one on the ground floor, overlooking directly the garden with a pool and a jacuzzi (ED. NOTE: which we'll never use given the cold…). The house is located on the West Bank of Luxor in the direction of the Valley of the Kings, four hundred meters from the ferry dock. The apartment is enormous. An immense well-furnished living room, three bedrooms, a large kitchen and the bathroom. Very bright, it also has a large terrace with garden furniture. Only 40 dollars a night: It's perfect! We get acquainted with Joe (the owners' cat) who immediately makes friends.

We set down the luggage and head toward the bank of the Nile to look for a restaurant, also because it's already 14:30! We trust the Lonely Planet and go to the Tutankhamon! We have trouble finding it because the Lonely Planet map shows it in a different position, so we rely on some kids who have been pestering us for ten minutes already: "Do you want to buy this?" - "Do you want a felucca?" - "Do you want to buy that?" - "Do you have pens?" An indescribable stress! The restaurant is run by a character who speaks perfect French, since in the '70s he was the cook for a group of French archaeologists. He shows us his album with photographs and newspaper clippings, then leaves us the guest book, so that we too leave our mark! There have been quite a few Italians and from what we read, almost all of them were part of "Avventure nel Mondo".

The restaurant has a splendid terrace, from which you can also see the temple of Luxor, on the other bank. In the evening it must be beautiful. We only order grilled chicken and meatballs in tomato sauce but, along with them, dozens of other dishes and little plates arrive, among which cauliflower au gratin truly worthy of note. So we have a COLOSSAL feast! On the way back, after renting four nice bicycles for the next two days (at 2 euros a day), we stop at the various little shops to buy something for tomorrow morning's breakfast: tea, coffee, eggs, milk, cheese, fruit and some canned sardines for Joe (the cat) … but we can't find bread!.

The elderly caretaker of our apartment will get it for us in exchange for a tip! But this gentleman is very nice… he even cleaned and prepared some sugar cane stalks for us ready to chew! Toward evening we also meet the owner of the apartment and her 14-year-old daughter. The husband is an Egyptologist. The lady is jealous that her cat comes to us… it's crazy!!!! So we avoid telling her that we bought him sardines in oil (ha ha). After unpacking and organizing our things we go out for dinner… (and who's hungry??). We try the restaurant Africa. We all agree anyway that you order for two and eat as four! The restaurant is nice, characteristic and full of cats! Dozens of beautiful cats but unfortunately very hungry… We call one Adolfo, because he has two little black patches on the sides of his nose that make him look like the perfect portrait of Hitler.

Tonight you can even order a bottle of wine! Hooray!

(Luxor – Karnak - Luxor)

At six in the morning our children wake up and, very quietly, prepare a nice breakfast in the living room. Matteo wears the galabiyya and excellently stands in for our Abulele! At 7:20 we're already on the road with our bicycles and head straight to the ferry to go to the East Bank. Of course everyone helps us load the bicycles onto the ferry so we hand out some tips! We're the only tourists on the ferry, which by the way is packed… (rush hour!). Once off the ferry we head toward Karnak (about 4 kilometers). Luxor appears to be a beautiful city, clean and tidy, with wide avenues and orderly streets. Karnak is a spectacular complex of temples dedicated to the three deities of Thebes (ancient name of Luxor): Amun, Mut and Khonsu, respectively god of the sun (the king of the gods), his consort and their son god of the moon. It's a place of worship that stretches over immense spaces.

We spend over two hours there, among temples, chapels, boat sheds, walls, obelisks and above all columns! Suffice it to think that the great hypostyle hall, built under the reign of Seti I (3300 years ago!) consists of a full 134 columns! We also take a look around: at the sacred lake and along the avenue flanked by ram-headed sphinxes which, in ancient times, connected all the way to the temple of Luxor, along a route of over three kilometers. Today yours truly has to act as guide since Tarik is no longer here… but nobody minds much. At noon we return toward the center of Luxor. We go to see the Mummification Museum. Fairly small but well organized. Once the visit is over we go to eat at AMON (to stay on the theme of the gods…). We have trouble finding the way and in the end a gentleman on a bicycle accompanies us, NO PROBLEM, just a small tip.

We eat something even though yours truly is starting to feel a slight illness. I'm dizzy…. After lunch we go to the temple of Luxor, also very fascinating although less beautiful and worse preserved than the Karnak complex. Notable is the presence of a mosque inside it, built in the 14th century over the ruins of the temple, at the time not yet brought to light. At the temple of Luxor we also chat with a young manager from Cairo who speaks Italian very well. He's there on his honeymoon and probably feels like exchanging a few words in Italian. Once the visit to the temple of Luxor is over we make our way into the city streets and cross the Suk.

The beauty of getting around by bicycle is that you avoid the incessant offers of taxis, feluccas, ferries, carriages and any other type of transport! The central streets, including the suk, here in Luxor are not in the pitiful conditions they are in Aswan. They're more orderly and also cleaner. We find a liquor store where we buy a bottle of whisky "Jony Waler" with a perfectly imitated Black label (let's hope the contents are perfectly imitated too). We then return to the corniche to look for an ATM (there aren't any on the west bank) to withdraw cash to take with us to the oases! (ED. NOTE: credit cards in Egypt, practically, aren't used anywhere! So far we've been able to use them at the Arabesque restaurant in Cairo and at the Old Cataract!) We always return by ferry to the West Bank. I feel quite bad and at 19:00 I'm completely KO, so I decide to lie down.

I also have a fever and the chills. Anyway the rest of my family decides that no one goes out without me, so they organize something to eat at home. At 21:00 Tarik arrives to bring the sweatshirts (he should be thankful I was sick because otherwise he wouldn't have found anyone at that hour… usually we go out for dinner) and to collect the money for the taxi the day after tomorrow. Then I go back to bed because I can't stand on my feet. Giampaolo, Matteo and Carlotta instead finish the evening watching television. (horror…!)

(Luxor – Valley of the Kings)

At 7:30, after having breakfast and giving the sardines to the cat, we set off for the Valley of the Kings! The first stop is at the colossi of Memnon, where hundreds of buses packed with tourists are already in starting position. We take a few photographs then set off again with our bicycles toward the sites on the East Bank. We stop at the ticket office to buy the entrance tickets for the sites we had previously planned to see (except the tickets for the Valley of the Kings and of the Queens, which are bought on site), then we continue. First site, that of Merneptah, one of the sons of Ramesses II. The site is interesting for the Museum located inside it, but the Museum is closed…. Then we visit the Ramesseum. Imposing, especially visited early in the morning when there's still no one around… (or maybe there's never anyone??).

The same goes for the temple of Seti I, where the custodians seem happy to tear our tickets!! (huaooo four tourists…). After the temple of Seti I (the father of Ramesses II), we take the wrong road and end up in the village of Gurna. We turn back (more kilometers) and begin the climb to the Valley of the Kings. We didn't think it was such an uphill climb…. I'm so exhausted that for over half the way I walk. Even a taxi stops, willing to load our bicycles in the trunk and take us to the top… but we intrepid and steadfast do-it-yourself tourists refuse! At the Valley of the Kings, after buying the tickets and leaving the bicycles at the parking lot, we take a useless little shuttle train that transports tourists for about 500 meters.

We feel very ridiculous sitting on this little train after all the kilometers we've done so far with bicycles uphill (no mountain bike ha ha ha ha),! At the Valley of the Kings we don't have many doubts about the choice of tombs to visit because most of them are closed! The tombs we had chosen to visit: that of Ramesses II, that of Seti I and also that of Tutankhamun unfortunately are all closed today. So we visit the tombs of Ramesses IX, Ramesses III and Thutmose III. Each tomb has its own peculiarities but they're very similar in architectural style and arrangement of the halls. That of Thutmose III is certainly the most spectacular. You reach it by a steep staircase clinging to the rocky wall of a mountain and then go back down inside the rock, through a corridor entirely decorated with reliefs.

In the tombs, the reliefs have perfectly preserved the colors too and it's precisely these vivid colors that give an unforgettable atmosphere to these burial places. We take a little walk among the rocks of the Valley of the Kings and then head toward the parking lot. It's late and we'll surely have to give up some site.

(Valley of the Kings - Luxor)

The descent from the Valley of the Kings is beautiful!!! Now we even laugh and joke… there's no need to save our breath going downhill! Almost at 14:00 we stop at a small restaurant, located in front of the Tombs of the Nobles, first stop of the afternoon). We don't eat very well but we have fun and, above all, we rest! They also have wine, it's an event because in Egypt if you don't go to restaurants of a certain level you find neither beer nor wine! So we order a bottle of red wine (red) and they bring us rosé… we tell them no rosé.. red… and he brings white, in the end we choose the rosé. He also brings us the glasses and sets the bottle on the table, perfectly sealed. And how do we open it? We call him back and mime opening the bottle. He says "ahh! Moment". After ten minutes he comes back with a brand-new bottle opener (did he go buy it?) and starts fiddling with the cork.

In the end he drives the whole bottle opener into the bottle so he can't lever it anymore. Giampaolo offers to help him and in ten seconds he opens it! Our waiter cheers: "Very good, you are very professional!!". For lack of time we eliminate several things from our program: the Valley of the Queens, the workers' village and Deir el-Bahri, also due to lack of energy on the part of yours truly who is still feeling bad! At 15:00 we set off again and go to the Tombs of the Nobles. They're located in the middle of a village inhabited by locals and we choose to see that of Ramose, a governor of the reign of Amenhotep III. The reliefs on the walls of the tomb preserve beautiful paintings and original colors. It's truly fascinating. Our children also go down

(Luxor – El Kharga)

At 8:00 they come to pick us up outside the house (the famous 100-dollar taxi) to take us to El Kharga. In fact it's a spacious minibus with every comfort. With us, besides the driver, there's also an employee from the agency because, he tells us, he's never been to El Kharga. But, NO PROBLEM... we'll show him the city! Our driver has his seatbelt fastened and proceeds very cautiously. I joke: "Do you want to bet that once we've passed the checkpoints leaving Luxor, he takes off his seatbelt and starts driving like a maniac?!" AND INDEED!!! That's exactly how it goes: once past the last checkpoint, he unfastens his seatbelt and takes off like a rocket! On this road there are no police convoys, only checkpoints. And it's for this reason (they had explained to us) that only certain authorised vehicles can travel on it.

At the checkpoints they always ask the same three questions: WHERE ARE YOU GOING, HOW MANY TOURISTS ARE YOU TRANSPORTING AND OF WHAT NATIONALITY, so soon we too learn to answer "Harbá Italia" (4 Italians)! The highway is super paved and deserted. The scenery is desert too. 380 kilometres. On the right, nothing! On the left, nothing! Ahead and behind the same thing. A few kilometres from El Kharga I ask to stop for a moment to see Qasr Gehiba, an ancient Roman mud-brick fortress, which encloses within it a temple from the Greco-Roman dynasty. It's very particular. Inside we also meet an American Egyptologist who is reconstructing some inscriptions. She's from the research centre of the University of Archaeology of Georgia. Once the visit is over, we continue to the Sol Y Mar hotel in El Kharga.

The choice fell on this nice four-star hotel (the only one in the Oases) because, since it's Christmas Eve and we're in a Muslim country where this holiday isn't felt, we liked the idea of spending it in a hotel for tourists, where surely we would have found some extra programme and a special dinner. The booking via the Internet was also made very far in advance, fearing we wouldn't find a place. We're not certain of anything anyway because, when in November I tried, by e-mail, to ask for further confirmation of the booking, no one ever replied. Who knows?! At 12:30 we enter the city of El Kharga and, from the last checkpoint, the police follow us all the way to the hotel! Hmm?! The hotel is deserted, like its surroundings. Optimistically I think that the tourist groups are out on excursions and will return in the afternoon.

We register our documents, they give us the keys, but when we're about to head to the room the receptionist calls me back saying the police want to know what we're doing today, a question to which, obviously, we don't yet know how to reply. But they insist, they want to know what time we're going out and where we're going because they have to escort us. (ESCORT????). I get angry, I say we're on holiday, we're not in prison... "We are in prison?" Just imagine, do I have to plan my day in Egypt?: "I AM NOT FREE HERE??" They tell us they have orders to escort groups. At which I reply that we're not a group, we're just a family. But I'm wrong to think that: from four people upwards, for them it's already considered a group. To hell with them all... I try asking: ".....and if we go out two by two??...

it's OK??" After an exhausting discussion with the police, at reception they have me sign a paper, in which I declare that, under my own responsibility, I renounce the escort. A sigh of relief and I go to the room. They've made us waste at least half an hour, so we decide to eat something here. But with various waits, we only manage to eat at 14:00. The hotel is very nice, the pool too, the dining room and the garden, it's just a shame it's empty! We seem to have gathered that tonight there are two groups... we ask! DISAPPOINTMENT: the two groups together consist of nine people: there's our group of 4 and another group of 5! Better than nothing, we'll sing 'merry christmas' as two families... But unfortunately not even this will be possible, because the other family is Egyptian of Muslim religion.

We also discover that there won't even be a special dinner and so we almost feel like crying. (what did we come here for??). At 15:00 we decide to go for a wander around the town, also because we have to organise our transfer to the Dakkla oasis (Mut) for tomorrow. As soon as we go out, one of the policemen from before, wearing a sweater with white, blue and red stripes, starts following us, albeit at a respectful distance. At first we think maybe he's also on his way to the centre but, if we speed up he speeds up too and if we stop: same thing. We try to shake him off but without success.. He's definitely following us! We even start wondering if there's some real danger here in El Kharga (Maybe something happened that we don't know about? Maybe they've found a terrorist hideout?).

In any case we don't like going around escorted; it also seems to us a lack of respect towards the local people, almost an insult. We're just foreigners, we're not such important personalities that we need protecting! So we tell him to go away, I signed a paper, didn't I?! So he disappears. Finally! We withdraw some money from an ATM (since there is one) and then head towards the centre.. the road is a bit long, so we stop a taxi. It's the first time we've had to hail a taxi in Egypt... usually it's them who stop the tourists. Of course, if here they keep the tourists shut up in the hotel, they're not even used to it.. As soon as we get into the taxi I try to explain that we'd like to go to the centre. "Downtown? Center?... medina...? suk?" And how do I explain it to him??! He doesn't speak English..

So we have him pull over for a moment to show him the map and....., like in an action film, from behind our backs a police van appears and plants itself in front of us. They get out... oh look, there's also the one with the white, blue and red striped sweater (he hadn't disappeared.. he'd just called for reinforcements). They approach the taxi driver to ask him where he's taking us. They speak in Arabic then get back into the van. There are five of them!!! Our taxi driver (Alí) asked us for 2 pounds to take us to the centre (not even 25 cents of a euro); of course, here they still haven't learned to fleece tourists... So we take advantage and ask how much he wants to take us to Mut (230 km) tomorrow.

He thinks about it, then takes out paper and pen and writes the figure (in Arabic numerals but fortunately Carlotta and I know how to read them): 150 pounds (about twenty euros...)!! This morning for more or less the same kilometres we spent 600! We hire him on the spot!! We're happy and he's happy too! In fact he seems overjoyed! This morning I have the feeling I only fattened up the fat cats! We set off again for the city centre and the police van follows us... We almost feel like criminals being tailed on sight...! We stop to have a tea, which we also offer to Alí. The van stops there in front of the bar and a policeman comes and sits at the table next to us... IT'S A STRESS!!! But in the end we adapt... there's no choice! We also make friends with the policeman with the striped sweater. We hope anyway that the Oases aren't all like this....

but Ali confirms that, after El Kharga, there's no more police..... We go for a wander in the Suk (always escorted). The Suk is different from the one in Luxor, and especially from the one in Aswan. Here no one insists on selling you things; they're kind and smiling. We buy some dates and some peanuts, as well as two slices of Bas Busa (a local sweet that Carlotta really likes).

(Evening in El Kharga)

We then decide to go back to the hotel so that these poor policemen can also go home! We arrive at the hotel heavily escorted since another van also turns up, complete with a commander who wants confirmation from Giampaolo about our departure tomorrow. For them it must be a liberation. A family of undisciplined tourists who are finally leaving!!! Ali will come to pick us up at 9:00 even though, in my opinion, 8:00 would have been fine too; in fact tonight I have a feeling we'll be in bed by 22:00! After a few minutes in the room we hear a knock (will it be the police???). No! It's a waiter who brings us two trays of sweets and an envelope. Hmm? With the best wishes of the management they inform us that tonight they've decided to put on a Gala dinner for us... SUKRAN! (has a group arrived?).

In the late afternoon we discover that behind the hotel pool there's a beautiful reconstruction of an ancient Bedouin village, complete with two-storey little houses, terraces, a courtyard with barbecue, a Bedouin tent equipped as a tea room, an area with carpets and big cushions for smoking the narghile. You can see that, when the hotel is full, they also put on shows. The question is: when is the hotel full? When, at 20:00, we go down to dinner, the Egyptian family has already left so we find ourselves, us four pilgrims, lost in this immense empty restaurant. In compensation they've prepared a Lucullan banquet for us, of which unfortunately we manage to eat a third... At 22:00 we're already in bed... how sad! MERRY CHRISTMAS!

(El Kharga - Mut)

Here they can't wait for us to leave....! In fact this morning they woke us up twice! Moreover, at 8:00 they were already in the room to collect the luggage.... I said: "Look, we're leaving at 9:00!" At a quarter to nine they're all already waiting for us: our taxi driver Ali, the police van and our policeman friend with the striped sweater. They escort us out of the city! Then we say goodbye to them and continue. Finally alone! Ali is likeable and kind, it's just a shame he doesn't speak English and so communication is very difficult! The landscape changes and alternates between rocky hills, immense flat expanses and sand dunes. The contrast of colours is beautiful. The air is clear and nice and cool. The sky is blue! The road is all paved and I'd say in excellent condition. In fact by 10:30 we're already halfway....

Before arriving at Dakkla there are some rock paintings, but despite having tried in every way to make Ali understand, I didn't even manage with little drawings... So no rock paintings (to the joy of the other members of the family), but I don't want to miss the ancient Bedouin village of Balat! After various adventures to find the access road, a guardian (or an ordinary inhabitant, I don't know?!) accompanies us in exploring the little town of Balat. Ali has never been here and so he accompanies us on the visit. Balat is truly particular. Two- or three-storey buildings in mud brick, intersected by narrow alleys, covered by roofs made with shrubs and mud. On the ground floor are the rooms where guests were received; the bedrooms and the bathroom are on the first and/or second floor and on the roof is the kitchen! There's also an ancient Medieval Mosque in the village, still in use.

We say a prayer inside too; after all, God is God anyway, at whatever latitude. The mosque has large plastered columns and many beautiful carpets. In Balat the walls have a particularity compared to the other Bedouin villages: they're plastered (always with mud) and have rounded walls. Above the doors there are wooden or stone beams with various inscriptions, among which the year of construction of the house, the names of the owners, etc. We also find a stele with hieroglyphic inscriptions. It's probably an ancient stone found in the surroundings and used as a lintel. Near here, in fact, several artefacts have been found, dating back to the pharaonic era of the Old Kingdom (over 4500 years ago). In the area there are also ancient tombs which, however, we decide not to see, since since we've been in Egypt we've seen enough monuments and tombs! At midday we resume the journey to Mut.

At the checkpoint at the entrance to the Dakkla oasis we're asked which hotel we're going to. We don't know how to answer because we haven't booked. Will it be a problem?! Fortunately not, no problem and they don't even follow us. We go to see a couple of hotels and then we stop at the Beduin Camp! A perfect choice, so we also get a camel ride in the afternoon. The Beduin Camp is located seven kilometres outside the city towards Farafra; it has typical Bedouin-style buildings made with mud bricks. The rooms are very spacious and particular, with private bathroom. Great price: 14 euros per room with breakfast! Since it's already 13:30, while the males unload the luggage, Carlotta and I book the camel ride in the desert for the afternoon: departure at 15:00.

Meanwhile Alí, before leaving, offers to take us to Farafra tomorrow (it's about 300 km) and asks for only 250 Pounds (about 40 usd)! Deal done... but where to sleep? NO PROBLEM! Alí sleeps in the car.. he even shows us the blanket he's brought. Since he's staying here with us, we have him take us to the village of Mut, to have lunch. We invite him too, obviously, but Alí sits at another table...?!? After much insistence we convince him to sit with us... So we talk (TALK??) or rather we try to make ourselves understood. He shows us the photo of his wife; from what we understand at first he's been married for 19 years but has no children.... But that can't be, because he's too young. More realistic instead seems the version that he's just got married...... on 19 December last. Then Alí and Matteo start playing with the mobile phones...

We took a photo of Alí with our mobile and he wants us to transfer it to his.. Bluetooth? Infrared? But he still doesn't know how to use it properly... so he passes it to Matteo... But....... the menu is in Arabic!! Matteo laughs and gives it back to him! At 15:00, punctually at the hotel, we wait for our camels! Two hours of splendid riding. My camel is male and is called NOOR; he's ten years old. Three of them accompany us. The older man speaks English and gives us some information about camels, for example he tells us that camels can live from 35 to 50 years... The excursion is exceptional. The Egyptian desert, unlike the Tunisian one, is more varied and undulating, jagged with rocks, little hills, stony areas and beautiful sand dunes. Carlotta's camel (or dromedary in Italian) is female and is six years old. After an hour of camel riding, we make a stop.

It's almost sunset and the play of light and reflections that you admire on the dunes is splendid! The two boys who accompanied us have a long jump competition and also teach our children how to launch themselves down the slopes of the dunes! On the way back, Matteo and I swap camels. His is more stable, so I can even film with the video camera. It's been a splendid day. During the trip, we also spotted a desert fox! Now it's the thought of our rooms that worries us. Quite a chilly air has come down and, since the windows aren't fitted with glass but only with mosquito nets, something tells us that maybe we'll freeze! Oh well.. at worst we're training for the night in the tent the day after tomorrow! Tonight we have dinner at the hotel! At 19:00 we all meet in the dining room. There aren't many people, but at least the atmosphere is more cheerful than last night.

There's a German girl who works at the resort, so we take the opportunity to chat with her. She also speaks a bit of Arabic. A few years ago she came here on holiday and they offered her to stay as a reception assistant. So she's been living here for four years. Even tonight we have quite a hard time convincing Alí to sit at our table.... The German girl explains to us that it's probably the first time he's accompanied tourists around and he's intimidated. Since we met him in El Kharga the thing doesn't surprise us that much (especially the fact that he's not used to tourists). After dinner....: surprise!!!! The hotel staff light the bonfire outside and invite us to smoke the narghile. And tonight there's music too!!!! Some of them, in fact, accompanied by various percussion instruments and a sort of mandolin, begin to sing Bedouin songs... and Carlotta launches into a belly dance.

Much applauded! Alí sits with us too! We go to bed in the cold! Very collllld... (brrr brrr)!

(Mut - Farafra)

At 6:30 I'm filming the sunrise over the desert. Awake, besides me, there are only the resort's two cats, Fifi and Mimi. The night was freezing, but we survived. Thank goodness they gave Alí a room to sleep in, because on the car windows this morning there's even ice! At 7:00 there will be breakfast. Then we set off. The first stop is at Al Qsar, another ancient Bedouin village from the 1500s, turned into a museum. Al Qsar is much more touristy than Balat, and also much bigger. It's still partially inhabited (around 700 people) and inside we also get the chance to observe a blacksmith at work. We also admire an old olive press. Of course, because in the Western Oases there are also olive trees. At 10:00 we're on the road to Farafra, still in the middle of this desert, so unpredictable.

The landscapes change every ten minutes: from jagged hills to flat sandstone ranges and, from stratified rocks to sand dunes. At 11:20 we're in the middle of sandy desert. On the road we start to see the first jeeps of tourist tours. This morning I asked Alí for his address to send him the photographs… but he wrote it for me in Arabic! I'll have to photocopy it and glue it onto the envelope…. Copying it out is practically impossible! Around noon we make a brief stop for a mint tea and a quick visit to the toilet… then we set off again. There are 85 kilometres left to Farafra. On this stretch we once again encounter the mirage phenomenon, as happened to us on the road from Abu Simbel to Aswan.

Here though, besides the vision of the "little lake", we also get the vision of the long strip of black asphalt, which from a distance sometimes seems completely covered in sand, but then, as you get closer… the sand vanishes into thin air! At this hour it's terribly hot! We enter Farafra and look for a hotel. Here Alí will leave us, because tomorrow they'll come to pick us up for a 2-day, one-night excursion in the white and black desert, previously organised via the internet. I organised the excursion with pick-up from Barhayya… because, for some strange reason, the route in the opposite direction organised from Farafra ended up costing almost double. In Farafra we find accommodation at the Hotel Badayivia. Another curious thing: via the internet, they had asked me for the outrageous sum of 69 usd per room… on site they asked us for only 29.

They also offer us a suite for 40 dollars, which we accept, tempted by the presence of heating as well as a fireplace which, incidentally, we'll have an incredible struggle to light. In the afternoon, we wander around the Farafra oasis. Small but quite pleasant. Here in the oases, you feel much less the state of poverty that is present, for example, in Aswan, or in Luxor. We buy a kilo of delicious dates for a quarter of a dollar…. We then head into the gardens (more than gardens they can be compared to a jungle). There we realise we're being followed by the police, in plain clothes and… at a distance. We also surprise some locals, who are bathing in the hot thermal water pools (this area is packed with springs of this type). Others are washing our dates for us… The children dive in.

We take a turn through the centre, in the shop area and……… what do we spot?! Incredible!!! An Asian-style Tuk Tuk. We absolutely have to try it! So we immediately ask if he'll take us for a ride! {ED: in this case too we're the ones asking for the service!} He takes us to see the old town of Farafra and the ruins of the ancient fortress. He then heads into a palm grove, from which he immediately backs out though, because there are local men bathing in the hot water pools {ED: and they're probably naked!}. He then leads us through the streets of the Medina, where on the outer walls of the houses ships or aeroplanes are painted, symbolising that the families living there have already been on pilgrimage to Mecca. Finally, not knowing what else to show us, he takes us to the new quarters of the oasis (where he probably lives too) and where a swarm of children, girls, etc..

greet us very warmly, they seem happy to see us and some even signal for us to stop for a tea... Here in Farafra too, as in the other oases, you feel a calm atmosphere. The little towns are dirty, messy but calm. No one bothers you, mass tourism doesn't exist and if some tourist agent contacts you to offer you a desert tour or something, he does it fairly professionally. We return to the hotel around 18:00 and try to light the fireplace! It's beastly cold! The hot air doesn't heat because, poor thing, it has to fight with the cold air coming in from the windows on the room's dome, which have no glass… just mosquito nets… A very substantial dinner at the Hotel (also because otherwise where would you go???). There are lots of tourists in the hotel, but apart from a German couple, they're small organised groups. Before sleeping we play a game of Back Gammon in front of the fireplace.

Then we begin the battle against the cold and against the mosquitoes… thirsty for blood. To think we didn't see a single mosquito even on the Nile! Freezing night… I sleep Bedouin-style, with my head tucked under the covers.

(Farafra – White Desert)

We arrive at breakfast chilled and it's cold in the dining room too. Next to us there's a German family, with two children, having breakfast in their windbreakers. We discover that they're on an even more "do-it-yourself" holiday than ours… in fact they're touring Egypt in a rental car without a driver! They claim that so far they haven't encountered any kind of problem! At 10:00 Achmet comes to pick us up, from Peter Wirth's agency, through which we organised the white desert safari, via the internet. Our Land Cruiser has been loaded with everything, food supplies, tents, cushions, mattresses and even the wood for the fire (and I reckon we'll need it!!!).

At departure the local police have us sign a slip in which we declare that we renounce the escort and go on an excursion into the desert under our own responsibility (can you imagine how lovely it would be to camp in the desert with the police van alongside spying on us???).

Then we set off. At 10:30… Achmet suddenly stops and asks us: "Do you have water?" "Water?! No…. Why? Were we supposed to bring the water??" "Everything organised, everything included… you even bring the wood with you and not the water??!!" Well… the truth is they forgot the water. We go back to Farafra (thank goodness it occurred to him only after 20 kilometres and not in the middle of the desert…). During one of the first fascinating stops in the White Desert, we collect the first little fossil stones. They have the shapes of animals, fish, shells. Some have small bird footprints. At 12:45 we stop in the middle of the old white desert for lunch. Achmet is cook, driver, guide, everything….. The white desert starts to amaze us. At every curve or every turn the scenery changes. Here, where we've stopped, there's also a tree, with little yellow flowers.

Achmet claims it's a miracle because there's no water here, but according to us there must be a bit of water deep down otherwise… fine for the tree…. but the little flowers?! We camp with carpets and mats on the ground while Achmet prepares loads of things to eat… salads, tuna sauce, various nibbles… Only sore point: The flies! Terrible and very thirsty flies. After all, they're celebrating the arrival of 5 living organisms in the arid desert! Give them a bit of water? In the end we opt for a slice of cucumber which, placed 30 cm from our mat, works by attracting hundreds of flies! The sun beats down and it's hot. At 15:30 we're still wandering around the desert. A bit off-road and a bit on foot. Enormous white rocks rise from the arid, sandy ground, like imposing sculptures. They have the shapes of dogs, hens, camels, foxes, etc.

They're gypsum formations sculpted over the centuries by the wind. Achmet also points out the many footprints of desert foxes, which this time though we won't be lucky enough to spot, as at Mut during the camel ride. At 18:30 we're sitting on the comfortable cushions of an improvised Bedouin tent that Achmet has anchored on one side to the Land Cruiser and on the other to the sand. Our tents are already pitched too and, now, our Achmet is cooking!! The sunset was indescribable, it's now at its last drops but you can still glimpse a lovely shade of red, which forms the backdrop to all those strange sculptures surrounding us. The fire crackles and night falls. There's no wind so the cold is more bearable. At 19:00 dinner is ready. Peter, through Achmet, also sent us two beers… kind of him! The dinner is delicious.

Chicken in foil, accompanied by rice and a mix of vegetables like peperonata that's really excellent, plus salad and sauces. Once dinner is over we all sit around the fire and prepare the tea. Meanwhile sweet potatoes are also thrown into the embers, which Carlotta and I will taste, around 22:00! Carlotta and I will sleep together tonight. Males with males and females with females! It's so cold….. We take turns going behind the rocks to water the sand and then off to bed….

(White Desert - Baharryya)

At 7:00 I wake up and, with Carlotta, we watch the sunrise. This night was freezing, especially at the bottom of the sleeping bag (if you stretched your legs they froze), but we all survived so: No PROBLEM! With an act of courage we come out into the open to do the morning tour behind the rocks… But, while we're peeing, we spot a tourist (complete with camera with a mega-telephoto lens) heading in our direction.. We shout stop, halt, moment… but he keeps coming. So we hurry and compose ourselves, go around the rocks and greet him warmly: Good Morning, Boun Giorno… Salam Alajkum. He replies too and adds 'Jo Reggelt Kivanok'!! Would you believe we've found a Hungarian in the middle of the desert? But no… He's an American who lives in Budapest! HI! So I look in my backpack for a flyer of our farm stay and hand it to him… public relations in the white desert.

Meanwhile the males wake up too, who all slept fully dressed and so didn't suffer the cold we suffered (we who put on our little pyjamas!) … ha ha… Before taking down the tents, we notice that all around there are lots of little paw prints of some not very well identified little animal. Achmet will explain that they're desert mice. Just think, poor things, maybe they wanted to come in and found everything hermetically sealed! Achmet, who slept in the car (I reckon they really like sleeping in the car…), wakes up an hour after us… and already finds all the sleeping bags, duvets, blankets and tents taken down and folded! WE'RE GOOD AREN'T WE?? At 9:30, after breakfast and after reloading everything onto the Land Cruiser (including the rubbish bag tied to the front bumper), we set off.

It's already very hot! Before rejoining the main road and after a beautiful route among dunes and rock formations, we stop on a plateau. Here Achmet shows us some little cylinders of pyrite that emerge spontaneously from the stone, they appear like black twigs jutting out of the white rocky surface; you pull them out of the rock with your fingers and inside they have shiny flakes. We continue towards the black desert and make a stop at the Crystal Mountain. We also pick up some fragments of rock and crystal from the ground… and only afterwards do we realise it's a protected area and there's even a sign saying you can't take fragments. How embarrassing!!! Then, still to the sound of music (Achmet certainly loves music), we arrive at a clearing, where a small hill rises and from where a rather steep and rugged path departs. There are lots of tourists.

We also meet the first Italians in the desert… they tell us they're on a responsible trip. We set off up the steep little path, in the middle of a wind so strong that at times it even seems to push you back. The view of the Black Desert is beautiful but…. coming from the white desert it leaves you a little disappointed… (maybe that's why most tours go the opposite way?!). Before arriving at Baharryya, Achmet stops along the main road and throws the rubbish bag into a field, which already contains others, will it be the landfill?! Hmm!? At 13:30 we arrive at the Healt Center Hotel in Baharryya, owned by the German Peter and his wife who is Japanese, what do you know?! What a fusion! Japan & Germany in Egypt! We say goodbye to Achmet, take possession of the room and have lunch at the hotel. No rental bikes, so after lunch we set off on foot and cover a lot of ground (under the sun).

We need to find a means of transport to take us to Cairo tomorrow. At the hotel they asked us for 600 Pounds! Will our heroes find something cheaper?! We reach the town and sit in a bar to drink tea, or rather, besides the tea we also smoke the shisha and play a game of dominoes, like perfect Egyptians. We take the opportunity to ask for information about transport to Cairo and……… ZAC! We find a minibus for 250 pounds! Perfect. They want a 50-pound deposit and in exchange they give us a business card… let's hope for the best…. Then we head to the centre to buy cigarettes, some dates and some nutmeg. Here in Baharryya the women are particularly covered, the chador leaves only the eyes uncovered and, in some cases, not even those. Even the colours of the clothes are all very dark.

Another thing we notice is that there's no police, neither at the entrance, nor at the exit, nor around the town. In the centre we meet our safari driver, Achmet, who introduces us to his two children and then gives us a lift to near the hotel. Before going back we take a stroll in the palm groves so then, since we're already on the road, we also climb the panoramic little hill behind our hotel (the tireless ones!!) and then come back down directly into the Hotel garden. The view over the oasis indeed wasn't to be missed. Back at the hotel, since there's the thermal spring water pool, we decide to try it. It's boiling, but really very boiling. In fact, we're not quite sure if it's because of the reaction to the hot bath, but in the evening none of us feels cold! For the first time since we've been in the desert! In the room there are also electric heaters anyway. Dinner at the Hotel.

Shisha in the bar in Bedouin tent style and then off to bed.

(Baharryya – Cairo)

At seven I wake up and, as usual, I enjoy the sunrise from the hotel terrace. The Hotel is deserted. I can't understand how everyone can sleep so much. At 21:30 (22:00 at the latest) they all always go to bed but until 8:00 in the morning you don't see anyone around. At 9:00, after a truly excellent breakfast (there was even rocket on the buffet), we're waiting for the minibus booked yesterday in the town. It arrives a few minutes late but it arrives! To Cairo there are 330 kilometres of road running between sand dunes and arid plains: the last glimpses of the many-faced Egyptian desert. Along the road there are also bus stops. Stops that we can't understand who they serve, since you can't see buildings, factories or houses for kilometres around! (maybe construction is planned soon). At 11:30 we stop at a service station (AUTOGRILL??!).

The toilets are clean though, especially the women's. I should think so….. no one will use them, since in two and a half hours of road we'll have encountered a couple of cars and a few trucks. At 13:00, a few kilometres from Cairo, our driver stops at the roadside and gets out. Maybe he wants to leave us here?? He walks around the car cautiously, then opens the boot and starts rolling up the curtains very tightly so they can't be seen. He tries to explain to us: "Police.. no good". We understand: the curtains are no good! Ok. So we help him too and in a short time we hide all the curtains… NO PROBLEM! In Cairo, he drops us near the Giza metro stop, so we decide to avoid taking a taxi, with the traffic there is we'll surely take less time by metro. On the carriage we meet some schoolgirls, two Coptic Christians and three Muslims, schoolmates and friends, and we chat a bit.

Then we get the doubt that they were more interested in getting to know Matteo than our family in general. Arriving at Sadat station, we continue on foot and around 14:00 we arrive at the Hotel Cosmopolitan. The lady at reception as soon as she sees me asks where we come from. I tell her we come from a tour of the oases! At which she looks at me taken aback telling me "imagine how cold you must have suffered because in the last four days it's been exceptionally cold for Egypt!". Having taken possession of the rooms, we try to phone the famous Abu AS Sid restaurant to book a table for tonight but no luck… first slot free 23:30 (seems a bit late to me)….. Otherwise there's the possibility of going right away and since we have no specific plans and haven't had lunch yet, we decide to accept! We take a taxi to the Zamalek district.

We offer 10 pounds (Lonely Planet indicates 6) but he says 30. We get out. We take another one. Same scene. The third taxi instead is happy. But he doesn't know the way and has to ask various passers-by. In the end we reach the "cathedral" of Egyptian cuisine in Cairo. The restaurant is exceptional, full of foreigners but also Egyptians. The oriental decorations are splendid. The little tables are a bit small, but after all with all the requests they have they must create as many places as possible! We eat and drink divinely. We spend in any case almost 100 euros for 4! After lunch we go to visit the Zamalek district. The Zamalek district is the northern part of an island in the middle of the Nile. Of course, compared to the down-town, the difference is enormous. Zamalek looks more like a district of Western cities: beautiful buildings, modern cars, clean and tidy shops, elegant cafes.

It's the district of embassies and the homes of foreign residents but, certainly, lots of upper-class Egyptians live there too. On the way back we walk along the Nile, as far as Gezira (the southern part of the island). When we're tired we take a taxi. We also ask the cost for a possible transfer tomorrow from Cairo to Alexandria - via Birkas (the camel market) and Wadi Natrum (the Coptic Christian monasteries)! The taxi driver makes us an offer of 300 pounds (which isn't bad at all….) but then, as we approach the hotel, he declines.. he tells us he can't… because to go outside Cairo he has to ask for a special permit and tomorrow is Friday (Muslim holiday) and the offices are closed… It seems strange to us but, in any case, if he doesn't want to take us…. So, around 19:00, we find ourselves without transport for tomorrow. We ask the hotel's agency but they shoot us 130 dollars….

(We even call them a 'thief'). I try to send an SMS to Omar (the one from GatTours) but he doesn't even make us an offer. He replies that with a taxi it's very expensive… better to go by train! {we knew that too….. but I want to see the camel market and the monasteries…. and with public transport it would take us at least two days}. At the bar opposite our hotel while we sip a mint tea, suddenly the idea comes to us… "Let's do like yesterday in Baharryya?! Let's ask at the bar?! Maybe the owner has a friend who's a driver?!…." In fact he does! For 400 pounds he'll take us to Alexandria with all our stops included!!! (less than half of the hotel). 7:30 departure!! The driver who'll come to pick us up is called Mohamed Alí.. (what imagination). They advise us not to say anything at the hotel and to meet directly outside… {ED: why hadn't we understood that there's a kind of mafia here?!}.

Around 20:00 we head towards the centre (the down Town) and do some shopping: a duffel bag to carry the gifts home, a skirt for Carlotta, and a silly but fun little game.. At 21:00 we decide to stop for a snack at the restaurant from the first evening but only two of us eat…. Obviously, after the feast at today's restaurant!! Grilled chicken with rice. It's 21:30 and the streets are full of people. Women men young people and children. Here in Cairo, we find again the modern-dressed Muslim women, stretch skirts, tight trousers, the latest fashion jeans and brightly coloured veils covering the head. Women at the bar, alone, smoking shisha. Another world. {ed: our guide from Royal Cleopatra..

when I had asked him why in Cairo the women aren't like in the rest of Egypt… he had replied "Cairo is not Egypt… it's like Rome!" On Alfy Street, amid countless restaurants and bars, sheep also stroll, in whole flocks and accompanied by the shepherd. At the outpost a cow!!! At midnight, just as we finish preparing the duffel bag we'll take with us tomorrow to Alexandria (leaving everything else at the hotel), Carlotta calls me from the adjoining room telling me there's someone who wants me on the phone… At midnight?! It's Mohamed Alí, tomorrow's driver?? No……. it's his brother Taohid.. he'll be the one coming to pick us up, he wanted confirmation.

(Cairo – Birkas – Wadi Natrum - Alexandria)

After breakfast and, after leaving the luggage in the hotel's free storage, we go out and cross the square. There we meet our driver Taohid. Taohid speaks English. Normally he works as a driver for the Korean embassy but, in his free time, he tops up his salary with tourists. He doesn't have a taxi licence though, so he begs us, in case anyone stops us, not to say it's a paid service! BUT……… NO PROBLEM!! …….. MY FRIEND! We drive along the Nile for a good stretch. It has a light blue colour, it seems clear and clean! The weather is nice, let's hope it lasts until Alexandria. At 8:20 a very thick fog begins, which if we hadn't seen it with our own eyes, we'd still have doubts about the diversion of our plane to Cyprus, due to fog over Cairo.

The camel market of Birkas is an event which one rarely gets the chance to witness, at least for us Westerners! The problem is that some camel traders {ed: luckily not all} beat the animals excessively, to make them sit, to make them get up, or simply to keep them in line. They all have one leg tied so they can't run away quickly. The market is an outrageous swarm of camels. There must be thousands of them. Of tourists instead only a few dozen… Vans or pick-ups leave the market with their purchased camels. Matteo and Carlotta don't take very well the violence that some traders direct at these harmless and likeable animals, and I understand them! Leaving the market, our driver takes the wrong road… and if I hadn't pointed it out to him, we'd go back to Cairo. Around 11:00 we arrive at the Monasteries of Wadi Natrum.

They're a series of Christian monasteries, founded in the 4th century AD in the middle of the desert, where Christians came to take refuge to escape the persecutions of the Romans. Here the monastic tradition was born and developed which, later, was adopted by European Christians. We decide to visit the monastery of Deir Al Baramus. In this monastery, from the 4th century AD, 80 Orthodox monks still live. A monk with long hair and glasses (like an '80s intellectual) acts as our guide. He speaks English very well and so we take the opportunity to ask him many questions, not so much about the monastery, but about the difference between the various Christian religions. We learn therefore that, according to their dogmas (in truth very very strict), those who don't believe in Jesus have no salvation for them, unlike the Catholics – he stresses - who grant salvation even to non-believers.

What happens then if an Orthodox woman marries a Muslim?! Obvious answer. She's expelled from the Coptic church. Ok. Having taken note of this dogmatic harshness, we don't go further. At 12:40 we set off again from the Monastery, towards Alexandria. We arrive almost at 14:00 and go to see the Union hotel first! It's perfect, I'd say a surprise! Standard rooms cost 12 euros and aren't bad. We take a 4-bed room, large, clean and with a nice bathroom. Television and minibar. Balcony over the Mediterranean with a magnificent view. Total cost 30 euros including breakfast (for all four). We say goodbye to Taohid, with whom we've arranged to meet at the Cosmopolitan hotel on the first of the year - at 8:00 - to do the excursion to Giza, Sakkara and Dashur.

Before starting to explore Alexandria, we phone the Swedes, met at the airport during the outbound journey, and arrange to see each other, around 18:00, at their home. We stroll a bit along the seafront towards the central square, where the monument to the unknown soldiers is. The buildings are very imposing and the view opposite, over the fort, is very fascinating. The weather is beautiful and it's hot. After taking a few photographs, we go into the old quarter, where there are improvised little markets with "really fierce" sellers! The atmosphere is very folkloric and could be described as chaos in its purest state. The traders bend over backwards to sell their goods. One has even climbed onto the roof of a car (let's hope it's his) and is shouting to the four winds about the exceptional price!.

We look for a little place recommended by Lonely Planet (the Cup d'Or) to eat "something", but the place turns out to be a proper restaurant, where they cook us some fabulous calamari and prawns. We eat, as always, a bit too much! It's already 16:30, so we decide to do a panoramic tour of the city by tram and then head to the Swedes'. On leaving the restaurant though, we look for an ATM and….. "it" does what?! It "eats" our card….. Horror!!!!! I phone the emergency number (obviously written in Arabic characters) and they tell me that, at the very least, the technician can't arrive before an hour and a half…. GREAT!!! What do we do?? We've no choice but to wait. The kids go to the hotel…. And we wait. After exactly 90 minutes (SWISS PRECISION!) the technician arrives and gives us back the card.

We reach the hotel, collect our children and take a taxi to the Swedes' (whom we had meanwhile informed of the delay). The taxi takes us "almost" to the destination… meaning it drops us on a parallel street… ask right, ask left… finally we manage to find the house! An Egyptian lady (who turned out to be their maid) to our request "Diana and Jerry??" replies "harbá!.. harbá"…. Harbá means "four" so we head to the 4th floor. A very friendly gentleman receives us, who even invites us in… but he's not Jerry… so we thank him and go down one floor! Diana and Jerry's house, for being their second home, is very beautiful. Diana has lived in Sweden for 18 years. But surely she's kept the love for big houses, typical of Egyptians. The apartment we had rented in Luxor, in fact, was also enormous. They've prepared lots of things for us to eat and there's also beer, wine and whisky.

Diana's brother drinks whisky too… maybe they've all converted to Christianity? But no! We discover instead that it's the Swedish husband who has converted to Islam. Given our surprise… they explain to us that in their religion not everyone practises 100 percent but it's not that they don't believe in God anyway. Diana is very likeable: she has an Egyptian temperament mixed with Europeanised attitudes. At 22:30 (early....) we go to dinner. They take us to eat at the Quadora. There we meet a small group of Sardinians… After a colossal fish feast, at 1:00 we go to sleep. Tomorrow morning early wake-up (what's new?!) because the train to Cairo leaves at 8:00. At the hotel they told me there's no need to book… let's hope for the best.

(Alexandria - Cairo)

At 7:35, we're already at the station!!! After finding the right counter (each counter sells certain routes…) the clerk tells us there's no more room on the train! I, of course, get angry… also because I'd had the doubt and had even asked at reception whether we should book. They had replied no… No Problem! And now? We put on a bit of a scene and say we have a flight in a few hours!.. Another clerk arrives and asks us what we need … simple: "to get to Cairo" He checks the booking list again and says NO PROBLEM: there are four seats. Sigh of relief. The train is very nice. The seats very comfortable (business class standard). Excellent refreshment service. We arrive in Cairo around 10:00 and…….. there's fog! {But is there always fog in Cairo?} We take a taxi outside the station (always after the usual exhausting bargaining) and go to the Cosmopolitan for 10 pounds.

We check in and then, quick quick, we take another taxi to Islamic Cairo. We ask him to take us to the El Azhar mosque but… he leaves us on El Azhar street. No big deal, but since there's a small mosque there, we ask "El Azhar??" "Yes, yes.." and so they have us visit a poor wretched mosque falling to pieces. The caretaker even shows us the bathrooms and the refectory. We laugh. At the end of El Azhar street, after about a kilometre, we find the imposing El Azhar Mosque, with its five minarets. A young Muslim who speaks Italian very well acts as our guide. The mosque is the seat of their "bishop" and is very well decorated. The inner courtyard is the oldest part and dates back to the 10th century. It's while visiting this mosque that we discover that their custom is also to read, study or simply relax, inside it. In fact it's full of young people reading, writing or resting.

Interesting too is the legend of one of the 5 minarets which, in its highest part, splits into two distinct tips, representing the schism between Shias and Sunnis. After the thorough visit of the El Azhar mosque, we head into the Khan al Khalili Bazaar. That we're in Islamic Cairo there's no doubt! We head to the Khan al Khalili restaurant but there's no room, at least until 16:00, so we fall back on an ordinary little restaurant, in the main square, where they even try to rip us off on the bill. Too bad: no tip. We also buy a pair of glasses whose price, from 85 pounds, within 15 minutes, miraculously drops to 20!! After lunch we treat ourselves to a stop in the oldest Aiwa in the quarter: the Fishawi, to drink a tea and smoke a shisha. In this ancient place, decorated with mirrors and wood inlays, the Egyptian writer Mahfuz, Nobel prize for literature, used to spend many afternoons.

We then move on to visit the ancient Ottoman house of Beit as-Suhaymi, now a Museum. The house is enormous. Three floors with dozens of rooms, arranged like a maze, all wonderfully decorated and rich in inlays. On all the windows there are enormous finely worked wooden grilles, which allowed the women to spy on what was happening in the courtyard below without being seen! On the way out we fall back into the confusion. But we haven't time to complain… we have to do the last purchases, so we throw ourselves into the fray. We buy the shisha in a local shop, outside the tourist area. We do the same for some brass objects. For the other purchases though it's war…!! Unbridled bargaining, prices dropping from 485 pounds to 80 as if by magic, fleeing from the shops only to be kindly called back inside. On the whole we enjoy ourselves.

To return to the hotel we head to the main road to call a taxi and there something strange happens to us… a guy approaches us and asks if we need a taxi we tell him "Yes, to the Cosmopolitan hotel,… but we'll pay a maximum of 10 pounds!". Bargaining as usual and then he says "ok"!! NO PROBLEM! We were convinced he was a taxi driver… instead he was a business procurer for the taxi drivers… In fact this guy stops a taxi in the middle of the road (excuse me… we could have stopped it ourselves, couldn't we:???)… he gets two pounds for the service and has us sit down… {Mafia!!!} The poor man doesn't know the location of the Hotel though and drives around in circles for almost an hour… He even asks us why we don't stay at the Hilton or the Sheraton which are easier to find… In any case we feel a bit sorry for him so in the end we give him 15 pounds. Today is New Year's Eve.

Carlotta and I go out shopping for a couple of hours then return to the hotel (not before a brief stop at the little bar opposite our hotel for a tea and a shisha) and get ready for the big dinner. At 10:00 we go down to the dining room! In the middle of the buffet table an enormous pyrex bowl full of boiled chickpeas sits there all alone (maybe they replace our lentils?). At 10:45 they bring us the chicken soup and the belly dance begins. This is a sorry sight too… the tourists dance better. The second course consists of breaded chicken fillets (Findus style). At midnight they hand out the little hats. Of sparkling wine not a trace… NO PROBLEM! After midnight the room empties out … only 4 or 5 tables remain. There's a not-bad Sufi dance show!! At 2 in the morning we pop over to the little bar opposite the hotel to smoke a shisha and drink a tea… then off to bed!

(Cairo – Dashur – Sakkara – Giza - Cairo)

At 8:00, punctual as Swiss watches, we're outside the hotel to meet our driver Taohid. Cairo is deserted. At 8:30 we arrive at Giza, there's only one coach… but there's so much fog that you can't even see the pyramids. We decide then to go first to visit the other two sites. We arrive at Dashur around 9:00, amid splendid scenery and palm groves. The red pyramid, the first true pyramid dating back to 2600 BC, is open. We decide to visit it but, after climbing the staircase leading to the entrance, we meet a group of Asian tourists coming out of the access tunnel. They're bent over at the knees, panting and complaining. They have distraught faces…. So we get scared. Giampaolo (who suffers a little from claustrophobia) gives up. I'm about to give up too but then I change my mind and go down with Matteo and Carlotta.

The descent is steep and the tunnel is fairly narrow but nothing scary, Giampaolo could easily have come too. There's a very acrid smell inside and the humidity level is very high. But the beauty and the charm of the immensity of this construction, which dates back almost 5000 years, compensates for the small discomfort. The walls are very smooth and the stone slabs forming the very steep ceilings are spectacular. Inside the pyramid there isn't much to see but the structure itself is extraordinary. From Dashur we move on to Saqqara. This very vast site, rich in ancient finds, didn't in truth enthral us as much as Dashur. Maybe because it's packed with noisy tourist groups, which remove a bit of that particular atmosphere that reigns in Pharaonic Egypt, or maybe because the infrastructures and services are truly badly kept and most of the tombs were also closed to the public.

We visited the northern part, with the incredible step pyramid, part of the funerary temple of Zoser. Then we headed to the Tomb of Mereruka, near the pyramid of Teti, which we really appreciated for its decorations, its meticulous inlays and the preservation of the colours. Once the visit was over, since it was already early afternoon we asked Taohid to take us somewhere to eat. We have lunch then in the beautiful garden of the Felfela Restaurant (branch of the same-named restaurant in Cairo). Then the Pyramids of Giza await us. We