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Trafalgar Tour - Best of Egypt

Day 8 - The Pyramids

Egypt

Partial breakfast selection at the Ramses Hilton

A view of the pyramids on our way to the sound and light show

The pyramids were illuminated in different colors during the show. This is the Great Pyramid in white.

The wake up call this morning came at 7:30am. We enjoyed the fantastic breakfast at the Ramses Hilton, then met our group in the lobby at 8:30am. We took the bus to the Muhammad Ali Mosque (Alabaster Mosque). Our tour guide gave us a short history lesson there, and also gave us a bit of time to walk around. The neatest part was being able to see the pyramids from the outdoor square - it was the first time we had been able to see them!

After we had finished looking around, the bus took us to The Hanging Church. I suppose it was neat to see a church that was built on top of a fort, but there really wasn't much there to look at. Our guide gave us a very brief lesson on the church, and then we had 15 minutes to look around inside.

The bus then took us to the Egyptian Museum. It was easily the best museum collection I have ever seen. I am still amazed at all the incredible treasures they have! After visiting this museum, any Egyptian exhibit at any other museum around the world will seem incredibly boring by comparison.

Our tour guide gave us a 75-minute tour of some of the museum highlights, and told us some other things to see on our own. When he finished his tour, we had an hour on our own to look around. Some people chose to go inside The Mummy Room, but we were planning on coming back to the museum later in the day, so we held off.

When our hour of free time was up, we again met our group outside, and then our tour guide took us to a nearby book store. We had 15 minutes to look around and purchase books or tourist items, then we went back on the bus, and went back to the hotel.

Since we were anxious to get back to the museum, we had a very quick lunch at McDonalds in the annex across the street from the hotel. We then walked back to the Egyptian Museum. (See our review of the Ramses Hilton for detailed instructions on how we walked over).

We went into the two mummy rooms at the museum, and were disappointed that they weren't better labeled and presented. We left around 4:15pm, and met the rest of our group to participate in the optional Pyramid Sound and Light Show. The show started at 6:30pm, and lasted about 50 minutes. Although the pyramids weren't very far from Cairo, I was amazed at how slow the traffic was to get there. We got back to the hotel before 9:00pm.