Day … One?

Day One – What is Day 1?

At first I thought these posts would be chronological, starting with Day 1 of my Royal Egypt Tour with Archaeological Paths. My Day 1 included the Add-On tour that some of us took while other folks were settling in at the Marriott Mena House Hotel, Cairo. But honestly, “Day 1” was sometime and somewhere before November 2022, when I boarded the plane in D.C.

One of the views from Marriott Mena House, Cairo. It was very cool to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner with these masterpieces.

Was Day 1 the travel day from D.C through Vienna, to get to Egypt? When I landed at the Cairo airport? Maybe it was the “pre-tour museum add-on day” when I saw excellent museums? Or was it in February 2022, when I decided that no matter what, I was going to Egypt in 2022? All genuine beginnings.

Something applied impetus before that. I was hoping to go in 2020 and then 2021, because Dr. Zahi Hawass, the most famous Egyptologist in the world, was sponsoring tours, and on his tours, Jehan Sadat, the widow of Anwar Sadat, was meeting with people in her home!

My interest in Egypt and the Near East goes back to my early childhood when The Sphinx, The Great Pyramid, and the Pyramids of Giza, captured my imagination and were part of my reality before I could read. I shed tears while reading and re-reading Howard Carter’s book about Tutankhamun. Did that happen to you? Then there was the first time I saw Lawrence of Arabia. A lot of people around the world grow up feeling a strong connection to Egypt and the Near East. I met some of them on my tours. You might be one of us, too.

Egypt called to me. Jordan called to me. I answered.

Here is the itinerary for just the Royal Egypt Tour, run by Archaeological Paths. Dr. Zahi Hawass has been the face of these tours for a few years now. We also had the honor of Dr. Mostafa Waziri’s company on several occasions. This was an intense and exhilarating tour. Almost every day was filled with archeological and historical experiences. Just look at the Day 1, “Cairo Museums Add-On”. Looks so quaint, “Oh we’ll just go to a couple of museums.” Those museums were amazing and Thomas, our Tour Coordinator and Shareif, our Tour Guide were the best. I would go back to Cairo just to spend weeks in those two museums, the oh so historically significant pink Egyptian Museum aka “Egyptian Museum of Antiquities” and the new and glorious National Museum of Egyptian Civilization “NMEC“.

If you scroll to the bottom of the itinerary, you will see I was in the Horus group. This was fortuitous, because several of us were already becoming friends.

These two trips, Royal Egypt and the Jordan add-on, were phenomenal. This blog post was not requested by Archaeological Paths and they aren’t paying me to say nice things about them. Thomas, our Tour Coordinator and Shareif, our Egyptologist Tour Guide, Dr. Hawass, and Dr. Waziri were what made this a grand experience. They and all the people who were part of these tours, the planners, guides, Egyptologists, drivers, locals, scholars, and my lovely tour family are why I am sharing this with you.

Please go ahead and click on the links in the blog. You will see that I travelled Egypt in luxury and comfort amongst the world’s leading Egyptologists, visited palaces, met with elder statesman Dr. Moustafa Elfeki, visited museums, cruised the Nile, and also crawled and climbed up, through, and around temples, tombs, and pyramids.

Strangers became friends and I thanked my new friends for going to Egypt and Jordan with me.

If you have had comparable travel experiences, I would love to hear about them.

If you have questions, I will try to answer them.

Thanks,

Mary