Egypt and Libya, March 19 - April 2, 2006 / 20060321a_CairoNileFromHotel
Ruth Milner, rmilner plus web at bookofmarvels dot net
We arrived in Cairo
around 6pm on Monday March 20, and were met by a Misr rep who
shepherded us through immigration and baggage pickup (everything arrived!),
then took us to our driver. Traffic was very heavy, so it took a while to
get to the hotel. Along the way we went through Midan Al-Tahrir, a major
traffic circle with a large grassy area in the center, where we saw
a group protesting the Iraq war; that day happened to be the
third anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. By the time we checked in
at the Cairo
Sheraton (not the fancy island one but perfectly fine), we
were all very tired, so we ate a quick snack from food we had brought
and went to bed. Everywhere we stayed, we needed two rooms
because nobody offered two double beds; only twins or one double.
The next morning we were greeted by this view
from the room Sarah and I used. We
ate breakfast at the hotel's buffet, which was very good (although the
Ramses Hilton's was better). Dale and I tried the "fuul",
a traditional middle-Eastern dish made of spiced fava beans, and offered
with various garnishes such as tomatoes, onions, cilantro (a.k.a.
coriander leaves), and cumin. Although
not quite what we're used to as breakfast, it was very tasty. The
kids got to drink foamy hot chocolate with their meal.
