Ma'a Salaam Cairo

It was our last day in Cairo & our first day without a guide to help us find our way! Time to brave up & tackle this city on our own!!!! We decided that we should have a go at traveling by Metro, and as there was a station not far away at Tahrir Square, we knew we could get some exercise in, take some photos of the square to prove to our son we had been there & then catch the metro south back to the Coptic Museum. It looked fairly simple on paper! We got off to a good start...not much traffic, beautiful embassy buildings, leafy trees....and then we realized we really should have turned left by now!!!! We got ourselves out of that predicament only to find ourselves in another. The police had barbed wire fencing up, stopping all traffic, both vehicular & pedestrian from proceeding up the street (towards Tahrir Square). This meant a DETOUR. Which means...another period of time when we got completely lost! Eventually we asked someone who set us in the right direction. We took photos of the square, went to the Metro...only to discovered the entrance doors bolted shut! Okaaaaaaay...we went to another entrance...same thing. We dodged traffic & went to a third entrance...same again! For some reason we were not meant to be getting on the metro at Sadat Station at that time!!!!!! We sought the Nile (easy) & followed it back to our hotel, where we were able to thaw out a little as the concierge showed us a few little directional tips! This time we headed for the other station & got there NO PROBLEMS! The metro car that we were in is not used to foreign visitors...especially female ones! I didn't feel any sense of danger or threat, but I was noticed!!!!! We found the Coptic museum without problem & obediently handed over our camera to the security guard! This is an impressive little museum but oh so dark. I wished I'd stashed my torch in my handbag! Beautiful frescoes, embroideries & carvings from the Coptic Monastries, filled the space. Up above exquisite wood carved ceilings, just begged me to snap my neck back & have a really good moment of admiration!! One of the delights was seeing a page from the book of Thomas, one of the Gnostic Gospels found at Nag hammadi, which, we discovered courtesy of a map...was very close to where we had been in Dendara & Abyddos...way back at the beginning of our trip. We are back in the hotel now... having survived going solo, and face the task of fitting everything into two suitcases! In sorting through our collected bits, we laid out all the entry tickets to museums & sites that we had seen over the past month. WOW! What a trip! We head to Jordan early tomorrow morning. For those of you who have shared this journey with us through our blogging...thank you...we aim to continue whilst in Jordan, but have yet to discover how reliable 3G & wifi coverage are. For now, Ma'a Salaam!