We had a fantastic nights sleep and were up bright and early at 06:15. We made it down to breakfast at 7am. The buffet style breakfast was superb. Fruit salads, yoghurts, cereals, porridges, quiche, all manner of eggs, bacon, sausages, beans, tomatoes, breads, croissants, cold meats, cheeses, pastries, pan-cakes, chocolate fountain….. you name it, it was there! I tried Hibiscus juice for the first time, it was gorgeous.

We eventually managed to tear ourselves away from the spread to meet our tour director, Wael,  in the lobby at 8am. We were immediately whisked off to a conference room for a tour briefing. They briefly ran through our itinerary and detailed which optionals were on offer. We booked and paid for our optionals and also provided details of our flights home, so that our transfers could be arranged for us.

We left the hotel at 9am and headed straight to Giza to see the pyramids.

We started out at the Great Pyramid – awesome!

We then went to an area where we could go on camel rides. Paula and I decided to be extremely brave (well that was me, Paula thought it was a piece of cake) and go on a camel ride.

Note to self: being short and stout is obviously not conducive to climbing onto the back of a camel. Once I had got over the getting-on part, I thoroughly enjoyed the 15 minute ride. It was SO special to be wandering around in the desert, on a camel, with the pyramids as back-drop and to share this experience with Paula was lovely. Having got off the camel (which was a lot easier than getting on, the secret is to lean back, so that you don't get pitched over the head of the beast) we went to the viewing deck and took some photos.

We then drove to the second pyramid, where those who wanted to could go inside. Being the claustrophobic sort, I decided against this, but Dad, Rox and Paula went in, while Grant and I wandered around outside, taking photos, fighting off the vendors and drinking in the atmosphere. Dad said the walk inside was quite a strain on the thighs… he ended up being horribly stiff for a couple of days, so I was VERY glad I hadn’t attempted it.

Then it was off to the sphinx. Very impressive and yet another great photo opportunity.

We were taken to a fast food outlet which specialises in falafel and shwarmas to buy a take-away lunch to eat on the bus. I thoroughly enjoyed my first falafel.

We then drove the approx 45 mins back to the Egyptian museum. There is SO much to see, it’s quite mind-boggling. Wael gave us a guided tour of some of the exhibits and we were then left to wander around on our own and to pay the extra fee to enter the Royal Mummy room if we wanted to. The girls and I decided to go into the Mummy Room and I was glad we did, I got a bit spooked by the mummies, but it was quite amazing to see them literally in the flesh. We also went to see Tutankhamen’s jewellery etc and that was really amazing.

It was a relief to get back to our hotel for a nice soak in the bath after a very big day!

We went back to the Sherlock Holmes pub for Happy Hour and supper with Walter. Cheers!