A Little Egypt

Fresh flowers daily, so they told me, in the lobby of our Cairo Intercontinental City Stars Hotel.

So I took a few shots. Replicas of the Sphinx (the wisdom of man, the strength of a lion), an obelisk, a pool, a palm--all parts of the Egypt we would soon see.

This is Wael, our little Egyptian guide, our protector--sort of--from the relentless vendors, our teacher and, soon, our friend. We were a small bus, thirteen of us, and we liked it that way. And we would have taken Wael with us into Israel. Too bad, it couldn't be.

Truly, it was a luxury hotel. Clean and beautiful, a respite and oasis from the city we became acquainted with. But--and have I said this?--Cairo was disappointingly filthy and ugly. But I loved being there.

And here is my bus window shot of the pyramids of Giza. I put it here to show a contrast between the hotel and the outside. You can't really see the extended piles of trash and rubble and garbage that line the streets. I did not take many pictures of what I saw in this great and storied and neglected city. Except at Tahrir Square and at the Museum, where you also see the burned out Parliament building, to which nothing has been done in the year since the "revolution."

Yes, yes. More later.