Ok, I will put some pictures on here tomorrow!
Thursday we slept in just a little, then took one of the little black and white cabs to the Egyptian Museum where we lunched at the cafe then explored. As Kay mentioned, it really was hard to remember sometimes that these were the actual artifacts and not replicas. There is just an enormous amount of...things....everything in there.
The best part was that we could actually touch a lot of the artifacts. Of course, that is not the best part for the actual artifacts since you can see, and sometimes feel, the wear on them. Ken said he thought they were rebuilding another site for the museum; I am guessing people will no longer be able to touch the items then. Probably a good thing to preserve them, but I'm pretty glad we got the opportunity to actually feel them under our hands and imagine how they were made, what they were like, and where they were thousands of years ago.
Unfortunately, the museum was not the best at marking information or giving any sort of descriptions. Most of the printed information on the displays had been obviously typed on a typewriter and the paper was very yellowed, so obviously very old. I found it interesting when these would say things like 'we are not currently sure how this was used...' or 'we don't know much about this yet....' because that note was probably from 50 years ago and it makes me wonder if we do know those things now! So hopefully the new museum will update all that information.
Much of Cairo seems to be the same as that museum - beautiful structures. You can tell these were given much thought and care in planning, but very little thought and/or care in maintaining and updating.
After the museum, we went to a huge bazaar filled with local color. The surrounding areas of it were definitely more high pressure - merchants would either already be standing in the corridors or would come popping out of their store spaces when you walked past. They would shove things at you and give prices, but it was best to walk past these until we reached the inner area (where fewer tourists generally make it through) and met with a much lower pressure sales pitch.
We found quite a few souveniers - I did well with necklaces as usual. Kenton also picked up 4 small green marble 'grenades' - canopics - replicas of the canopic vases that held the viscera (organs etc) of the dead.
Upon leaving the bazaar, we spent about an hour riding around in yet another black and white cab, looking for the elusive Windsor Hotel that Ken had stayed at on previous trips when he had brought students from Creighton. We never did find the hotel and have decided that it clearly was part of a CIA mission or something.
The actual cab ride was very very interesting though...this was by far the most adventurous driver we had. Kenton got to ride in the front seat for that ride and I'm sure he regretted taking that seat....
For dinner, we ended up at the Conrad hotel and had their International buffet, then off to pack and get ready for bed!
Thursday we slept in just a little, then took one of the little black and white cabs to the Egyptian Museum where we lunched at the cafe then explored. As Kay mentioned, it really was hard to remember sometimes that these were the actual artifacts and not replicas. There is just an enormous amount of...things....everything in there.
The best part was that we could actually touch a lot of the artifacts. Of course, that is not the best part for the actual artifacts since you can see, and sometimes feel, the wear on them. Ken said he thought they were rebuilding another site for the museum; I am guessing people will no longer be able to touch the items then. Probably a good thing to preserve them, but I'm pretty glad we got the opportunity to actually feel them under our hands and imagine how they were made, what they were like, and where they were thousands of years ago.
Unfortunately, the museum was not the best at marking information or giving any sort of descriptions. Most of the printed information on the displays had been obviously typed on a typewriter and the paper was very yellowed, so obviously very old. I found it interesting when these would say things like 'we are not currently sure how this was used...' or 'we don't know much about this yet....' because that note was probably from 50 years ago and it makes me wonder if we do know those things now! So hopefully the new museum will update all that information.
Much of Cairo seems to be the same as that museum - beautiful structures. You can tell these were given much thought and care in planning, but very little thought and/or care in maintaining and updating.
After the museum, we went to a huge bazaar filled with local color. The surrounding areas of it were definitely more high pressure - merchants would either already be standing in the corridors or would come popping out of their store spaces when you walked past. They would shove things at you and give prices, but it was best to walk past these until we reached the inner area (where fewer tourists generally make it through) and met with a much lower pressure sales pitch.
We found quite a few souveniers - I did well with necklaces as usual. Kenton also picked up 4 small green marble 'grenades' - canopics - replicas of the canopic vases that held the viscera (organs etc) of the dead.
Upon leaving the bazaar, we spent about an hour riding around in yet another black and white cab, looking for the elusive Windsor Hotel that Ken had stayed at on previous trips when he had brought students from Creighton. We never did find the hotel and have decided that it clearly was part of a CIA mission or something.
The actual cab ride was very very interesting though...this was by far the most adventurous driver we had. Kenton got to ride in the front seat for that ride and I'm sure he regretted taking that seat....
For dinner, we ended up at the Conrad hotel and had their International buffet, then off to pack and get ready for bed!
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