elsiesze.com - Travel

Travel > Egypt

Egypt was one grand experience over the past several years, 2005 - 2010. Cairo is a familiar city. Michael and I had combed its streets and neighborhoods, crossed its bridges back and forth, frequented its restaurants, churches. We cruised the Nile from Aswan to Luxor, walked through its ruins, experienced in part the Sahara including the White Desert, the Baharya Oasis, the Crystal Mountain. We spent weekends at Hurghada, Alexandria, Port Said, Suez, Sharm el Sheikh on the Red Sea, St. Catherine's Monastery and Mount Sinai on the Sinai Peninsula. And we have formed lasting friendships there. For all this, we are very grateful.

Me and my Egyptian friend at Felfela Restaurant, Cairo

One of our favorite restaurants in Cairo, Felfela Restaurant, featuring good Egyptian food: I like best its falafel, lamb chop, lentil soup and om ali (dessert).
The desert with a mirage in the distance

The mirage was captured on camera, on a trip in the Sahara.
Faluka on the Nile
Town at Bahariya Oasis

Until that visit to the Bahariya Oasis, I had imagined an oasis as a pool of water in the desert, surrounded by date palms, a resting place for caravans of camels and travelers.
Bahariya Oasis, in the Sahara

This is the kind of water source in an oasis in the Sahara nowadays.
Crystal Mountain on the way to Bahariya Oasis

We saw crystals embedded in the rocks here, glittering and beautiful.
The White Desert, Sahara

On the way to the Bahariya Oasis, these mushroom-shaped soft chalk structures (and in any shape of the imagination) in the Sahara were unique.
Step Pyramid at Saqqara -- oldest pyramid

A tour of Saqqara with youngest son Tim when he joined us in Egypt in 2006.
Still excavatng in the Valley of the Kings
The Nile by night, Cairo

Always enchanting, the Nile sparkles as night falls.
Khan el-Khalili Bazaar, Cairo

Lots of gold, silver and all kinds of souvenirs among the labyrinth of lanes of the Khan el-Khalili Bazaar, busy by day and night