As much as we never, ever, felt threatened in Oman and were very sad to leave it, it was a relief when our plane touched down in Cairo – almost 5 hours flying time from Muscat, and thus far from any possibility of entanglement in the hostilities back in the Gulf states. Tellingly, once we told our Cairo taxi driver that we’d flown in from the Gulf, he looked at us both and said, “Relax, my friends – in Egypt, you are safe !”.

We were safe, and it certainly was nice to be in  Cairo for the extended stopover on our way back to Athens. One still could not fully escape the war – it was all people talked about and of course it was all over the newspapers and TV.  Physically removed, yes, but still very much in your face and many people arriving in Cairo ( like us ) were using it  as a safe conduit out of a very troubled region. We would do our best to just put it behind us and enjoy the three full days we had here – one for Giza ( Pyramids ), one for the Grand Egyptian Museum, and one for exploring this exotic ( but incredibly chaotic ) city of 23,000,000 straddling the estuary of the world’s longest river – Africa’s famous Nile. No time for Egypt’s southern charms which we’d explored on our first visit here way back in 1989. It would be interesting to see what had changed in 37 years.

One thing that had not changed was the tenacity of Egypt’s tourism pedlars- they are just all over you like a rash ! The instant you clear the airport, walk out of your hotel or step out of an Uber/taxi – omnipresent. Arrive at a tourist site and you’ll constantly be offered “best price” on a guide, rubbed with “genuine” sandalwood oil or assailed to buy myriad  local trinkets.  In our experience, Egypt and Morocco rank at, or near, the top when it comes to the intensity of in your face interactions – always with a smile, of course, but it does get exhausting. None of that stuff in peaceful Oman so I guess we perhaps felt it a lot more here. Some of them just cannot understand how you don’t want to be “chaperoned” by a local at all times ! If you value tranquility, Cairo is probably not your place 😉.

So, that all aside ( and just accepted, eventually, as the way it is here ) our few days in the city  were most enjoyable. The pyramids never cease to amaze and justifiably deserve their claim to a “7 world wonder” spot. Often measured against Macchu Picchu, it’s a toss up. The Egyptians at least had the smarts to build their structures on easily accessible  flat land so probably had the easier time of it ( Macchu Picchu is deep in the  mountains ). Bonus for us – the Sphinx was free of scaffolding this visit and much more photogenic as a result.

In 2025 Egypt’s antiquities were all  moved from the old “Egyptian Museum” in downtown Cairo to the stunning and enormous “Grand Egyptian Museum” complex out in Giza, right near the pyramids ( the two sites eventually to be connected ). Makes it easy to combine them but a comprehensive visit to both  is best done over two days – there is so much to see. Star of the show is the gold bust/mask of Tutankhamen – with a separate lineup, managed by usher’s, just to photograph the former boy king. It’s truly impressive – not just the mask but the other golden accoutrements that were part of his world.  

On our final day we  walked all over the city, along the Nile, and into various markets. The days were a bit quieter than expected but the nights made up for it – during Ramadan, cities in the Arab world come alive and Cairo is no exception. They are real night owls, even kids stay up and shops stay open till the wee hours. Traffic here is just insane and simply crossing a road can be a death defying experience – the golden rule is not to stop !

Apart  from some pretty intense airport security (and several roadside checks en route ) exiting Cairo was uneventful. As we looked down on the Med from 36,000ft up, we reflected on our last crossing from Egypt to Greece, almost 36 years ago- then at sea level, crewing on an old Swedish tall ship, the Gulmar ( see appendix: A Walk Down Memory Lane ).  This time faster and smoother, of course, though devoid of any sense of adventure. We were actually ok with it, we’d had enough “adventure” in the past  10 days to last us a while 🙂.

Till next week….

A Walk Down Memory Lane:
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Our trip from Egypt to Greece this time reminded us of the first time we did this many years ago. It was 1990, we’d backpacked across Asia to the Middle East and found ourselves looking for an option to get across the Mediterranean to Greece, most likely flying. In the lobby of our backpacker hotel, on a bulletin board, was a familiar handwritten note by the captain of an old Swedish tall ship looking for crew to sail through the Suez Canal and across the Mediterranean to Rhodes, Greece. I say “familiar” because we had seen the same note in a backpacker hotel in Colombo, Sri Lanka, looking for people to crew the same ship from there across the Indian Ocean to Suez, at the bottom of the canal. We were not brave enough to tackle an ocean crossing so passed on that opportunity. We felt it was fate that we got a second kick at the can in Egypt some months later, so signed up. Had an amazing time with other young crew members from all over the world. Some pics below: