Cairo and the Crew Show

Monday rolled in and it was Pyramid day! well actually it was Cairo Museum and the Pyramids, but nevermind. Another early start and about 2.5hours from the dock to Cairo. The museum is strictly no photography so nothing to share. It was, however, an interesting experiance. The museum is tiny really but its chocked to the rafters with artefacts and upstairs has a significant portion dedicated the finds of Howard Carter and Tutankhamun's burial chamber - which is, frankly the only reason we decided on this particular tour. Sadly for Egypt, there are more wonders of their ancient world in every other museum on this earth than in Egypt itself (past the actual monuments - pyramids, valley of the kings, temples etc). Nevertheless, the exhibition on Tutankahmun was an eye opener and our guide was fantastic! she managed to put 7,000 years of history into and hour- giving us a clear understanding of the importance of pharaohs at different times and the development and destruction of one of the greatest civilizations of all time - truly remarkable.

The one thing I would really recommend if you ever do Cairo museum is to pay for the additional 'Mummies rooms'. Whilst there are in total less than 20 Mummies on display, they are beautifully preserved and give you a brief, visual overview to the changing techniques of mummification - it also made us feel like giants - seriously those people were tiny!

Onwards from the museum and onto lunch. Another 5 star hotel, another splendid buffet lunch and we moved on for all of ummmmm 3 mintues?! across and up the road to the pyramids. I'm serious, Claire and I almost fainted in horror when we realised just how close the city is to these incredible structures! Biting my tounge against a rant on appalling conservation of a world heritage site I grimanced repeatedly throughout the next 2.5 hours as we walked the site, watching the blatent damage being caused by - and I was amazed at this - not the tourists, but the local egyptians who were all on holiday because of the 'great feast'.

The view from the carpark of the hotel of the Pyramids

Nevertheless, the pyramids are truly incredible. Similar to Petra I can talk facts, figures and endless random facts for far too long - so rather than bore you - here are some of my favourite shots from the day:-

So after we wandered the pyramids we were coached down the hill to admire the Sphinx - oh and because my brother was desperate to find out - I also took a picture of where all the holiday brochure photos are shot from - the top floor of..... pizza hut! I kid you not - look!!

So having been photographed out (if that was at all possible on this holiday) and more than a little sick of the locals offering camels to one or the other of us for marriage *sigh* we moved on for a tinie tiny little bit of shopping at a local jewellers where we had pre-ordered our cartouches to be made - £35 lighter off and very tired we headed back to the ship, actually discussing just getting some room service and crashing infront of the TV and a movie - of course that was never going to happen!

Back onboard and we wandered past the entertainment team getting ready for that nights show - they waved us over to ask how our day had been and if we were looking forward to the show that night. Not wanting to seem rude - after all they had gone out of their ways to talk to us daily- we forced out a cheery 'of course' and headed back to the cabin for showers and another long night. We ate dinner quickly, neither of us really bothered by much food and headed back into the show lounge to watch 'oh boy!' the story of the legendry Buddy Holly. Once again the team did an incredible job and we were soon far more awake as we watched and sang along to the show. By the time it was over we were ready to see the night out in our usual style. Deciding that if our normal pattern of drinking/dancing and sleeploss was going to take place again it would be an idea to line our stomachs with a bit more than the meager salad we had opted for we dived back into the restaraunt to grab some bread, cheese and an apple to munch on. We were joined in the que with the band and Ciaran once more commented on the serious lack of food we had. This time we managed to explain we'd eaten before the show but this was a top up and he stopped moaning at us. We chatted briefly before leaving them to their dinner in peace and we headed out onto deck to eat and get some fresh air.

Food devoured for the second time we wandered up to Liberties to start on the drinks before the band's show that night. Knowing once we were on the dance floor we wouldn't get off it we decided to get some fluid in us first and so we mixed between the cocktails and tonic water for about half an hour before we were - as predicted - dragged to the floor by Drew (the senior entertainment officer whose cabaret we'd seen the night before) and then kept there by various other members of the crew. Crashing out in our seats at the end of the band's set we ordered a couple of drinks and debated whether the cabin was calling. The answer was to be no as Ciaran came over to us and asked why we hadn't decided to head in to the crew show - with no real answer he told us to get a move on and we did! lol!

The show was fabulous - it was all the staff who aren't entertainment officers onboard - doing what they do best. And just incase you think im lying - some of them have made it onto youtube! including crew cuts (see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irBTSd3dIwA) and bread and butter pudding (see here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYMrpLNtnEU). Another long night over (it was 1:00am by this point) we really did call it a night and with no one around to tell us off or guilt trip us into doing something else we quickly decended the floors to our cabin and bed with the the knowledge we could sleep in a little later the next day as we weren't due to disembark until midday.

Next time: Shopping, show and the deck party