A Walk along the Nile

A Smile goes a long way…

We slept in on New Year’s Day, recovering from our travels, then enjoyed a late breakfast at the sumptuous buffet spread here at the Fairmont Hotel, Nile City, Cairo. By noon the temperature had reached its high for the day, 20C. We hit up one of several ATMs in the lobby for some cash and headed out.

The US dollar to Egyptian pound exchange rate is almost exactly 50 pounds to the dollar, which makes conversions easy. The ATM spit out 200 pounds, which seemed like a lot, but it’s only $4. Still I was happy to have the cash. It came in handy a few minutes later when we crossed the busy six lane road between our hotel and the Nile.

There is a lovely, well-maintained wide walkway along the Nile here, stretching for a good 2 or 3 kilometers. I had checked it out on Google Maps. It’s called “The People of Egypt Walkway.” We paid 20 pounds a piece ($.90 for both of us), walked through the turnstile, down the stairs, and joined the people enjoying the sights and sounds along this mighty river.

We made a number of friends along the river just by smiling and helping folks take pictures.

There are many restaurants along the walkway. We ended up at a Lebanese place.

The enterprising owner put us in a prime spot next to the walkway. It was early for dinner but soon the place was full. Many of the customers enjoyed a Hookah pipe.

There were four women and two men each with their own hookah, smoking away. This fellow is preparing the hookahs. Each person gets their own tube and pipe end. The Hookah Guy gets it smoking then hands them the pipe end. They seemed to enjoy it, and the smoke seemed to quickly disappear, not bothering us at all.

Most of the women who were out and about, probably 75%, had their hair covered with scarves like the lady in the opening photo. Maybe 15% had the full hijab look. Less than 5% were westerners like ourselves. The waiter wanted to know where we were from. English was spoken by many, but most were not that fluent beyond the words necessary to the task at hand.

The Nile flows at about 8 kilometers an hour here, and is said to be 30- 40 feet deep. It’s not muddy at all. And sure enough, there was a steady breeze blowing UP the river, just as the guide book predicted.

The ancients quarried their rock upriver, then floated downstream on the current. Once they unloaded the heavy stones the sails were hoisted and the breeze carried the empty barge upstream against the current, back to the quarry. Very efficient!

We have a felucca ride scheduled later in the trip. No one was sailing today in spite of the breeze. I suspect that most of the feluccas will be further upstream where there are fewer bridges.

The temperature dropped quickly as the sun sank in the west. Even though it’s green here, we are surrounded by the great Sahara desert, and it gets downright chilly at night.

We watched these two youngsters cross the highway, ignoring the traffic, then carefully crossed ourselves.

After a nice G&T at the hotel bar (alcohol is not widely available here) We headed back to our room.

We have a big day planned for tomorrow.

Thanks for traveling along~!

Signing off!

Congratulations to the Ohio State Buckeyes! Wow must have been quite a game! Love the Rose Bowl.