so we made it safe and sound to Egypt, we stepped out of the plane at night into 30 degree heat, but surprisingly its really not that bad. today it was around 37 degrees and you dont really notice because it's got a nice humidity level.
Anyway, we got to our hotel, and its pretty nice, good location, etc etc, and our tour guide from intrepid gave me a call and asked if we wanted to do any other trips before our tour starts in a couple of days. He suggested Sakkara (also spelled Saqqara) and we decided to do that one. We were picked up early this morning and there were no other people on our tour. It was a really great tour. We went to Saqqara to see the stepped pyramid which is currently under restoration as the sand damage is pretty bad. The amount of hawkers there is crazy, and the only way to get rid of them is to avoid eye contact and just shake your head, dont even say no, or they will follow you!!
After Saqqara we went to a carpet "school"??? Where they are teaching young people how to weave carpets (after regular school of course) and we got to walk around the factory, and then got taken upstairs to the showroom (where we bought a carpet... suckers!). But we feel better about buying their carpets because it's all legit and government sanctioned and checked upon... no slave labour or anything (I checked about the kids working in the factory with the tour guide, but they actually ARE learning skills etc for the future.)
We then went to.. er.... Dahthur? Dah something? I cant remember all these names! It is a place, which i will look up later, with two pyramids, a bendy one, and a true pryamid. We got to go inside the true pyramid. OMG crazy! Its got this narrow narrow shaft and you have to duck as you walk down the 200 - 300 odd meter shaft to get into the burial chambers. It stank like wees down there! I am a little concerned about where the dodgy "friendly tour man"-hawker-sitting-at-the-top-of-the-shaft goes for wees huh. Anyway, it was really amazing, and exhausting climbing back out!
After that we went to Memphis which was the first capital of the united Egypt. Theres a giant statue of Rameses II there, but most of the rest of the stuff there is too badly damaged by the other people who have come by in the ages. We then headed back to this restaurant for lunch, and had this amazing lunch, which included felafels, homemade puffy pita thingys, salads, roasted veges, roasted meats, and rice. It was great!
We had a really great tour guide who told us a lot about the country (we went with Intrepid Travel). As we were driving along she pointed out a lot of stuff to us, like, on the West Bank of the nile, there are a lot of tall apartment buildings who look unfinished, but have a lot of people already living in them. They leave it unfinished as a tax dodge!!! those sneaky egyptians! I'll try and take a picture if we go past it again, but imagine a sea of red bricked 7 story high buildings like a sea in front of you... all with metal rods and half built bricks on top!
It's been fantastic so far, just going to the supermarket and a day to chill and roam around the neighbourhood tomorrow before our tour starts!
till next time
xx
Laura
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
a biking odyssey and a phone book
argh! I cant even begin, I don't know how to cram so may days into one blog, so here goes the abridged version:
we biked, hitting haarlem, den haag, delft, rotterdam, gouda, utrecht, veenendaal, apeldoorn, meppel, denekamp, oldenzaal, hengelo, with only a couple of train rides in there! here are some pics:
It was so great, we borrowed a couple of bikes from Anja's dad, and kind of just winged it, hoping that we'd end up in the right place and it worked out pretty well!
We finally made it to Denekamp, to Tante Paulien's place, and we had a BBQ with them and with Tante Marietje and Oom Jos, and we all went over to Rob's new place (my cousin) to check it out.
the next morning Rob came around with Sieb, who is nearly 2... check out that hair! he's such a cutie!
the next day we went to Oldenzaal to see Toon, my uncle, who showed us around Oldenzaal, and then cooked us dinner, and then we went on to Hengelo, to my aunt Annie.
Poor Stacy has to try and remember all the names! Here are some pics of the last week. We've done a tour of Enschede, where there was a massive explosion at the fireworks factory around 10 years ago, which demolished the city centre, gone to the Grolsch factory for a tour, checked out Hengelo and Enschede, and biked around Giethoorn.
(before you ask Tersh, the kid is my cousin Michiel's baby)
And something I thought was pretty special - this is my family - the Weerninks in Rossum (as per the KPN phonebook lol)
whew,
once i hit egypt ill do a better job of keeping up to date. til next time!
xx Laura
we biked, hitting haarlem, den haag, delft, rotterdam, gouda, utrecht, veenendaal, apeldoorn, meppel, denekamp, oldenzaal, hengelo, with only a couple of train rides in there! here are some pics:
It was so great, we borrowed a couple of bikes from Anja's dad, and kind of just winged it, hoping that we'd end up in the right place and it worked out pretty well!
We finally made it to Denekamp, to Tante Paulien's place, and we had a BBQ with them and with Tante Marietje and Oom Jos, and we all went over to Rob's new place (my cousin) to check it out.
the next morning Rob came around with Sieb, who is nearly 2... check out that hair! he's such a cutie!
the next day we went to Oldenzaal to see Toon, my uncle, who showed us around Oldenzaal, and then cooked us dinner, and then we went on to Hengelo, to my aunt Annie.
Poor Stacy has to try and remember all the names! Here are some pics of the last week. We've done a tour of Enschede, where there was a massive explosion at the fireworks factory around 10 years ago, which demolished the city centre, gone to the Grolsch factory for a tour, checked out Hengelo and Enschede, and biked around Giethoorn.
(before you ask Tersh, the kid is my cousin Michiel's baby)
And something I thought was pretty special - this is my family - the Weerninks in Rossum (as per the KPN phonebook lol)
whew,
once i hit egypt ill do a better job of keeping up to date. til next time!
xx Laura
Sunday, July 11, 2010
The Orange Army
It's been an awesome couple of days - we had the barbeque and everyone came around. I got to meet Jennah, my little cousin, for the first time, and see how Renee was (she's 6 months pregnant!)
The day after we went to my uncle and aunt's house (Nico and Wendy) and they took us boating - they have this amazing canal/island area behind their house, and everyone has boats. You'd never guess something like that was behind their house from the street! We even got to steer the boat for a while! It was so beautiful (ML - you've got to do this when youre in holland!)
We then visited my cousin Astrid, who has a 6 month old Thijs. Oh my gosh, what a cute baby! He's so round and cuddly and he's the nicest baby ever! He is really smiley and doesn't cry when I play with him LOL! He has these crazy blue eyes with white in the middle! I even got to feed him :D
The next day we were supposed to go into A'dam, but we woke up at 10.30am, and Stacy just went "meh, we'll go next time" so we ended up hanging out in Alkmaar, biking to my Oma and Opa's grave, and then to Bergen for an icecream and a haring for Stacy.
We went home and decided it was time to get ready for the game, we got on our fancy orange clothes, and got our orange vuvuzelas, and most of the family even sprayed their hair orange... - check out these pics of us and the scene in town:
we're off to the efteling today!
til later!
xx
Laura
The day after we went to my uncle and aunt's house (Nico and Wendy) and they took us boating - they have this amazing canal/island area behind their house, and everyone has boats. You'd never guess something like that was behind their house from the street! We even got to steer the boat for a while! It was so beautiful (ML - you've got to do this when youre in holland!)
We then visited my cousin Astrid, who has a 6 month old Thijs. Oh my gosh, what a cute baby! He's so round and cuddly and he's the nicest baby ever! He is really smiley and doesn't cry when I play with him LOL! He has these crazy blue eyes with white in the middle! I even got to feed him :D
The next day we were supposed to go into A'dam, but we woke up at 10.30am, and Stacy just went "meh, we'll go next time" so we ended up hanging out in Alkmaar, biking to my Oma and Opa's grave, and then to Bergen for an icecream and a haring for Stacy.
We went home and decided it was time to get ready for the game, we got on our fancy orange clothes, and got our orange vuvuzelas, and most of the family even sprayed their hair orange... - check out these pics of us and the scene in town:
we're off to the efteling today!
til later!
xx
Laura
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)