Egypt Day Two . . . and it was a day filled to the brim!

Our day began at the Citadel of Cairo or Citadel of Saladin. Actually, I'm sure we went to breakfast first :-).

It is a medieval Islamic era fortication, built by Salah ad-Din. According to Wikipedia, it was the residence of the rulers of Egypt for nearly 700 years from the 13th Century. Osama was our guide and he was very knowledgeable but sometimes what the guides were saying went into one ear and out the next year. Sometimes there is so much information coming at us that I shut down.

Below are the entrance doors to the Mosque of Muhammad Ali. This was a day where shoulders, knees, and head had to be covered.

We walked through the doors above into this beautiful courtyard. We had to remove our shoes before entering.

Mark and I had our socks from the Turkish Airlines flight and we thought they would be perfect! Have you ever flown Turkish Airlines? They were awesome!

Gwen and Jim are long time friends. Our son dated their daughter through part of high school and through his first year of college. They are both doctors and they are awesome.

Terrie and Duane - Duane is Mark's bestie. That sounds silly, doesn't it? Duane and Mark have been in a small group that meets weekly since 1997. You read that correctly - 1997.

Here we are in all of our glory. We have on our red socks and I have on my head cover. Just FYI, the head covering was HOT and it was thin fabric.

Jim and Gwen are Auburn fans like we are. Since Mark and Jim had on Auburn colors, they were acting silly so we took their photo!

The photo below is inside the Alabaster Mosque - the Mosque of Muhammad Ali. Just FYI - not the boxer. Just in case you were wondering.

The lighting in this mosque was amazing.

Look at that chandalier!

Look at that view of Cairo!

Our neighbors, Lu and Dave - we love them!

And here we are . . .

This is our Executive Pastor, David, and his wife, Tina

There are apartments everywhere . . .some have tenants . . .and others are big empty buildings

All of the businesses and most of the restaurans spill over onto the sidewalk.

I loved walking down this street -- see how the businesses spill onto the sidewalk?

In Old Cairo, we visited the Abu Serge Church which is built over the traditional site of the house where Mary, Joseph, and young Jesus lived during their say in Egypt.

The sign below says "Cavern Church, and the martyrs Sergius and Bacchus known as Abu Serga

It was a beautiful place.

We stopped at a new gated community and went to a huge restaurant. I need to find a recipe to make English peas the way they served them -- in some kind of tomato sauce. I loved them!

The lunch was a HUGE buffet.

We headed to the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities. They have built a new one but it still wasn't open . . .we heard they had a soft opening of the new museam a day or two later.

Guess what? The Museum, home to items that were 5,000 years old . . .was not air conditioned. The piece below is the Narmer Palette and it is from 3,000 BC. It celebrates the conquest of the Northern Kingdom by Narmor, king of the southern kingdom.

We saw many sacophogi and it ws amazing to learn new things. 

The "jars" beside the body conatined their organs!

Look at this display of sandals!! They are quite similar to some I've seen this summer.

The person is still in this sarcophagus - can you see the feet?

And here is her head . . .

Meet Anubis below . . .Annubis was the god of mummification . . . he is so regal.

And here we have a golden chair . . .

And here we have a woven very small sarcophagus.

Then we headed to the Nile River to enjoy a felucca ride.

Our group spread out over two Faluccas.

Our view from the water.

A selfie with Lu and Dave.

Theresa taught music for years nd years! She knew the words for "Walk Like and tried to teach it to all of us.

The boats (feluccas) were really cool.

Somewhere along day two (I think), there were camel rides. I chose not to ride because I had on shorts. I sort of regret not riding. My phone was DEAD. I have one picture of a camel and that is it.

This was in the Sahara Desert. On the days we were in Egypt, we could NOT drink enough water. I have never consumed that much water in my life.

I think . . .we headed back to the hotel to eat dinner and pack up! They served a pumpkin soup one night that was really delicious. That may be what is peeping out of the top right corner of the photo.

You can't tell, but the serving on the right side of my plate was Pastitsio - Egyptian version. Yes, I realize I have rice and pasta on my plate. I actually ate a lot of starches on this trip - they seemed to sit well in my tummy and we were so active, I didn't gain any weight - I actually lost!

I will participate in the Sunday Stealing blog on Sunday so check back for day three -- hopefully, I will have it ready to post on Monday!