We try our luck again in finding the United Airlines office. This time, we take the exact address with us, I know, I know, rookie mistake. We find the place, highly disguised, with a big sign above Canada Air. They were unable to help but did tell us that we needed to contact the STAtravel to make any alterations. They allowed us to use their wifi to initiate that conversation, but it quickly became clear that this was not going to be possible to change or get credit. We finally were able to understand that they could only make a change for the same route, Beijing to NYC, so we burned it. The round trip was only about $25 more than the original price for a one way...
We decided to head to Zamalek Island and visit the Cairo tower. We walked over one of the 3 bridges that connect to the island from the east side of the Nile River. We then meandered around the grounds of the tower. When I say around, I truly mean that. The grounds are walled off and we couldn't find how to enter! At long last we found the access road and made our way to the tower. The access road was very leafy with trees and scrubs, but just off to the side on each side of the road was rubble and trash. I can't figure out why the government allows tourist sites to become so trash filled. It wouldn't be difficult to hire a few people to clean up these areas and put out a couple of trash cans.
View from the top of the tower
Our destination
The washed basketball courts and below the haze and pyrami
The tower is a large lotus blossom tipped phallus. It rises majestically above all of Cairo, I am assuming to assert the country's manhood. We take the elevator up to the observation deck. You immediately know you are not in the states. The barrier between you and kingdom come curves outward.... Not inward to prevent access, but outward as to invite one of Darwin's testers to crawl out for a selfie. Which we did see. A young man was sitting on the barrier and only came off when someone came over and half-heartedly yelled at him to get down. I can only guess that was the content of the exchange as it happened in Arabic.
The view was spectacular. I could see the entire city stretching out before us and to the southwest, the tips of the pyramids poking out of the haze that surrounds Cairo. Below us was a HUGE sports complex. Tennis courts, basketball courts, a dressage ring, soccer fields, etc. The irony was there was someone hosing a basketball court down, but the rest of the city was covered in dirt and grit. It would take so little to clean up the city. They could use the Nile water rather than potable water and take a block or two a day and clear the grit from the facade, windows, doorways, etc. That is my biggest take away from Cairo, the eternal grittiness, literally, of the city.
After the observation deck we hit the cafe a floor below, well, only after a fruitless trip to the revolving restaurant directly below the deck. The door slid open when we approached, Bill took a walk through trying to find someone, and no one was there. So another half floor below was the cafe. We got a good sampling of shishies and a salad. One observation that I made was Egyptian Feta cheese has the texture of soft tofu and kind of looked like tofu. Bright white and an easily mashable texture. Not as sharp as other fetas and it worked very well in the salad.
After lunch we walked around the island on the west side trying to find the Marriott. It was reported to be a great place to get a drink. Originally, it was a palace for Queen Eugenie of France and it was converted into a hotel. There were 2 wings, an old wing and a new wing. The new wing had zero, and I mean zero, character. Soviet bloc style painted tan. The old wing, this is where you would want to stay. Beautiful Arabic style. We had a drink and some cookies in the cafe, before migrating down to Omar's Cafe. I stayed in the Cafe while Bill explored the casino.
We walked back to the hotel, I had a lie down and Bill explored the multitude of casinos in the other nearby western hotels. We ended up having Indian again at the Maharaja restaurant in the hotel.
The view of sunset from our balcony.
We decided to head to Zamalek Island and visit the Cairo tower. We walked over one of the 3 bridges that connect to the island from the east side of the Nile River. We then meandered around the grounds of the tower. When I say around, I truly mean that. The grounds are walled off and we couldn't find how to enter! At long last we found the access road and made our way to the tower. The access road was very leafy with trees and scrubs, but just off to the side on each side of the road was rubble and trash. I can't figure out why the government allows tourist sites to become so trash filled. It wouldn't be difficult to hire a few people to clean up these areas and put out a couple of trash cans.
The tower is a large lotus blossom tipped phallus. It rises majestically above all of Cairo, I am assuming to assert the country's manhood. We take the elevator up to the observation deck. You immediately know you are not in the states. The barrier between you and kingdom come curves outward.... Not inward to prevent access, but outward as to invite one of Darwin's testers to crawl out for a selfie. Which we did see. A young man was sitting on the barrier and only came off when someone came over and half-heartedly yelled at him to get down. I can only guess that was the content of the exchange as it happened in Arabic.
The view was spectacular. I could see the entire city stretching out before us and to the southwest, the tips of the pyramids poking out of the haze that surrounds Cairo. Below us was a HUGE sports complex. Tennis courts, basketball courts, a dressage ring, soccer fields, etc. The irony was there was someone hosing a basketball court down, but the rest of the city was covered in dirt and grit. It would take so little to clean up the city. They could use the Nile water rather than potable water and take a block or two a day and clear the grit from the facade, windows, doorways, etc. That is my biggest take away from Cairo, the eternal grittiness, literally, of the city.
After the observation deck we hit the cafe a floor below, well, only after a fruitless trip to the revolving restaurant directly below the deck. The door slid open when we approached, Bill took a walk through trying to find someone, and no one was there. So another half floor below was the cafe. We got a good sampling of shishies and a salad. One observation that I made was Egyptian Feta cheese has the texture of soft tofu and kind of looked like tofu. Bright white and an easily mashable texture. Not as sharp as other fetas and it worked very well in the salad.
After lunch we walked around the island on the west side trying to find the Marriott. It was reported to be a great place to get a drink. Originally, it was a palace for Queen Eugenie of France and it was converted into a hotel. There were 2 wings, an old wing and a new wing. The new wing had zero, and I mean zero, character. Soviet bloc style painted tan. The old wing, this is where you would want to stay. Beautiful Arabic style. We had a drink and some cookies in the cafe, before migrating down to Omar's Cafe. I stayed in the Cafe while Bill explored the casino.
We walked back to the hotel, I had a lie down and Bill explored the multitude of casinos in the other nearby western hotels. We ended up having Indian again at the Maharaja restaurant in the hotel.
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