6 november 2008, thursday, Bawiti-Gizeh

Got up at 06.30, packed and had breakfast. We left our hotel in Bawiti at 08.00 and went to Gizeh. Our brakes were still in fine shape this morning. The first part of this traject was nice to see: first we had the Ghariba sand dunes formed out of white sand, the railroad and low table top mountains. The railroad is still working for the transport of iron, dug in open mines. We saw a little further a train with some wagons going to Bawiti. After 200 km we stopped for a short while for some rest, toilets and snacks. Later on as we approached Gizeh, the desert became more monotonous. Here are the oil drills and winning too. It seems that there is less garbage here next to the roads in Egypt. We came near Cairo/Gizeh because there was a lot of building activity. The traffic became more intens and had less rules. We needed to struggle for our place. Because our hotel was next tto the pyramides, we didn't have to drive very far in the hecktic traffic of Cairo. We were soon in our very beautiful hotel Mena House Oberoi. This hotel started in 1860 as a hunting club, when the king wanted to hunt in those days. It is at a location next to the pyramids. We unpacked and checked in at 12.30 already. We had no lunch, because we wanted to be in time to be able to get a ticket to visit the inside of the pyramids. Only 100 persons can get a ticket. We then went to the pyramids, where there were a lot of tourists. From a lot of different country's: Japan, France, Russia, Netherlands, etc. Further a lot of camel drivers for pictures, policemen on camels and horsedrawn charriots. We went into 2 out of 3 pyramids. Small low tiny staires up and down, untill we reached the very centre of the pyramid. It was the room where the king was burried. It is now an empty room. The outside of the pyramids is impressive. We went further to a high point with a view on all the pyramids. Fantastic. Later on we visited the Solar boat, which was found recently next to the pyramids. The body of the king was transported up and down the river Nile in this boat. Beautiful boat made out of Libanese ceder wood. Then we went to see the sfinx, after which we went to our hotel. We went to our room, had a shower, did some email and rested for a while. At 20.00 we had dinner in the hotel. Good food. Later on we looked inside the hotel: beautiful. Then we went to bed after taking some nice night pictures outside.