Egypt TODOTC.com To Do in the Twin Cities Trips Egypt Date: May 11-12, 2025

Day 7 Alexandria and the Pyramids Sunday

If there is one day that most important and of concern it is today. We are going to RIDE a CAMEL past the Pyramids!

We booked this cruise in January of 2025 for a May sailing. Our previous cruise experience said you could book your day trips after you got on board. So, in early January when all trips to the Pyramids from NCL (Norwegian Cruise Line) were full we were absolutely amazed. So, we started a search and found a Pyramid trip from Viator for half the price and we booked it!

The Ship docked at about 10AM. We were off ten minutes later. We were armed with an email we had gotten the day before. Having limited E-mail and internet access sux. But being a child of the internet on since the 70s I found a work around. 

The email we had, said we needed to go over the bridge and meet our tour guide in front of the Mosque.  We feared the worse but nothing real bad happened. After we crossed the bridge, a few hundred yards and exited the port security we saw a group of people holding looking for persons signs. None of which had our names.

E had the email and started asking people about Merrit tours (the name on the Viator email). Within a MINUTE we were with a lady with our name on a sheet of paper. A minute later we were in our car on our way to the pyramids. If we were in a bar I would have bought a round of drinks. We were in Alexandria, in the car on our way to the Pyramids! Liv’n Da DREAM!

Our driver Abdul was great, had pictures of his kids, played great Jazz and was driving normal speed with the traffic on the FIVE LANE freeway after leaving Alexandria. We assumed we would be on a bus but when asked found out it would be us & him all day. Which was GREAT! We absolutely HATE being on trips that we need to wait ten minutes for Suzy who needed to buy just ONE MORE t-shirt for the Grandkids! None of that today!

Abdul asked if we minded if he stopped at a quick stop for a bathroom break. He also bought us two waters. We had a clean FREE restroom! We have a new water belt we bought from Cabelas for $25 and is a MUST HAVE if you are doing day trips. We refilled the water bottles twice and never had to carry a water bottle.

In three hours, we were at the Pyramids. It was one of the highlights of our lives. In the parking lot of the Giza Pyramid Historical site, we met Omed. He would be the guide for the day for E & me, He must have asked us every fifteen minutes if we needed anything. He had tickets for us and got us through the gate.

Then once in, he took us to Ziad who would be our Camel guy. Ziad got us loaded up on two camels. After the 15 minute Camel Safety course… Seriously it’s Egypt.. we were on board and walking within five minutes. E was smart enough to watch the “How to ride a camel short course on You Tube.” She was fine. I on the other hand, though fine on a horse, was less than thrilled, but it turned out fine.

We were asked by Ziad if we wanted a long or short walk. We told him a short walk. We told Ziad a few pictures and a few hundred feet on a camel was fine with us. We were taken on about a 3 KM camel walk. My camel looked pissed off and I thought I’d at any moment be wiping off camel spit. Though we had no issues. After a nice LONG walk, we stopped for pictures. Ziad took my I-phone and snapped a dozen pictures of E&I together and apart. They were great pictures. We were told our pictures would cost $30 and we would pay our guide. We gave Ziad $10 a 30% tip for his time, about an hour.

Coming back was in a word interesting. For us no issues. A few people, all women were not happy with camels. One lady once the camel stood up yelled: “Get me OFF of HERE!” Not good. Shortly after a heavy-set Brit Lady fell off the camel with her foot in the stirrup, hanging from her leg under her camel.  The only time in my life I felt a similar feeling was after open heart surgery recovery when the guy in the bay next to me woke up and fell out of bed. It was an OMG Moment. I assume she ended up alright. But OSHA was no where’s to be found.

If you are the least bit concerned about riding a camel, you may want to avoid it. We saw parents with 5-year-old kids on a camel. Our training was 30 seconds involved being told… Hang on OK!

There were a few people that just had pictures taken next to a camel without even boarding them. If you can cut that deal, it’s much safer. But you know what…. I RODE ME A CAMEL! So, did E. We did drink when we got back. LOL!

Soon our guide returned and got us on some busses with him to the Sphinx. There we paid another guy $10 to get a few pictures. I brought $300 cash on the trip with us. So, a $10 or $20 was no big deal. And you flew halfway around the planet to see the number one ancient site. Open your wallet a bit and smile! After the Sphinx pictures we got back on the bus and returned to the entry of the park and our driver.

One of the strange portions of the trip then followed. We would have been happy to simply return to the ship as E had had enough of the 104F heat. But we went to four separate shops, we assume to lighten our wallet with ZERO pressed sales. First, we went to a paper making and printing shop for 30 minutes. Then a shop that sold oils. Finally, a T-shirt shop, where we bought two T-shirts for our grandkids for $15 each. And finally we were driven to a spice shop.

Finally, we went to get something to eat. They had a buffet with about 30 options including meats and deserts. Most were prepared a bit differently than we were used to, but it was all good. We had beef, fish and chicken, rice, a vegetable mix and a dozen deserts. We paid $2.50 extra each for a large glass of Coke directly from the bottle. So, we did not worry about the food or drink. Other than tips what we paid Viator covered everything.

When we were done, our driver drove us until it was dark, back to the ship on the five lane Turnpike. We had one quick Stop just like on the way out. We got back at 9 PM still in time to have a NY Strip steak at the Commodore Restaurant, still no glimpse of Lionel.

It was an incredible day! And E and I both said we loved/feared the day for six months and EVERYONE delivered great! We had no issues worth noting. I do wonder how the Brit lad is doing though.

If you have a way to make it to the pyramid in your life you must!
 

Day 8 Alexandria Day 2 The Great Library of Alexandria May 12, 2025 NCL Viva

I like many am a student and fascinated with history. One of the greatest places in History is The Great Alexandria Library the library Alexander the Great had his teacher Aristotle build. The Great Library of Alexandria was the place great scholars of the time went to read and do research. It was the reservoir of the greatest documents of the world. That was until an earthquake and fire took it from us in 25BC. It was perhaps the greatest loss of human knowledge of all time.

For our second day at Alexandria we had planned on seeing the finest educational institution of all time, the Library. Well that idea changed after the first day in Alexandria, a few Facebook posts and looking over the You Tube videos we saw before coming on the cruise.

We drove past the Great Library of Alexandria on our ride to the Pyramids. We asked the driver and he did not know what it was. If was really STILL that important the driver would have known. With the hundred You Tube videos we watched not once was it mentioned as a place to go. Finally, chatting someone on Facebook mentioned they were there day 1 of Alexandria and said the Library was in a very bad part of town and it was just a public library, not worth seeing. So since we did NOT want to die we decided to skip it an spend a day on the ship.

Which left us nothing else but to spend the day on board.  It was catch-up day. I figured out how to transfer my computer typed files to my I-phone so I could post them on Facebook.

The highlight of the day came at 5:30 when the ship was supposed to leave. Well with those of us that made it back on time. But the ship did provide entertainment as they pulled the gang plank at the preagreed time and late people continued to show up running over the bridge. After about fifteen minutes of some of us yelling Go-Go-Go we were on our way to Cyprus.

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