What a day!
I escaped the building noise this morning intending to visit a friend out in Gabawi. I called for a car to take me there, he was busy but would get me in a little while..... a missed call to say he was on his way.
So I sat for a little while trying to ignore the cement mixing machine outside my balcony and not succeeding. I decided to walk into the village to catch the bakery for the new, fresh bread and pick up some cakes to have with our coffee. Called my friend and told him I would start walking and to call me when he was on his way so that I could tell him where, exactly, I was and off I went.
It was a beautiful morning, perfectly warm with a slight breeze.
After visiting the bakery and stopping at a couple of other shops, I started to walk towards Tod and the checkpoint. Halfway up the "dual carriageway", coming around the corner towards me was A BIG RED DOUBLE DECKER, OPEN TOPPED BUS!!!! I could not believe my eyes! Full of tourists it was! I thought I was in London!! I must have looked absolutely gobsmacked as the little man who was cleaning the road was laughing his head off at me! I didn't have my camera with me, and by the time I would have got my phone out, the bus was gone. So I am very sorry I do not have pictures to show.
I asked a few questions and apparently the bus has a Cairo registration and no-one seemed to know if it was offering tours locally or was here for a special group. But what a great idea! It looked fantastic!
But my day continued, full of the unexpected. I ended up walking to the Colossi of Memnon, watched a fight going on between the police and one of the hawkers there, had a cuppa in the Memnon Restaurant, chatted about the Hatshepsut bazaar incident and the tour guides boycotting the temple, before calling my ride to find out he had forgotten all about me! At this point I did consider walking to Gabawi, refreshed after my tea, but he sent another car for me, and 2.5 hours after leaving home, I was at my friend's house.
I spent a lovely afternoon chatting, drinking Kenco coffee and eating cake, before heading home. Even that ended up with a detour to the bridge because they had received a delivery of diesel and my friend did not want to miss out on filling the tank! It ended up taking an hour and a half to get from Gabawi to my home!
Wonderful day on the West Bank!
I escaped the building noise this morning intending to visit a friend out in Gabawi. I called for a car to take me there, he was busy but would get me in a little while..... a missed call to say he was on his way.
So I sat for a little while trying to ignore the cement mixing machine outside my balcony and not succeeding. I decided to walk into the village to catch the bakery for the new, fresh bread and pick up some cakes to have with our coffee. Called my friend and told him I would start walking and to call me when he was on his way so that I could tell him where, exactly, I was and off I went.
It was a beautiful morning, perfectly warm with a slight breeze.
After visiting the bakery and stopping at a couple of other shops, I started to walk towards Tod and the checkpoint. Halfway up the "dual carriageway", coming around the corner towards me was A BIG RED DOUBLE DECKER, OPEN TOPPED BUS!!!! I could not believe my eyes! Full of tourists it was! I thought I was in London!! I must have looked absolutely gobsmacked as the little man who was cleaning the road was laughing his head off at me! I didn't have my camera with me, and by the time I would have got my phone out, the bus was gone. So I am very sorry I do not have pictures to show.
I asked a few questions and apparently the bus has a Cairo registration and no-one seemed to know if it was offering tours locally or was here for a special group. But what a great idea! It looked fantastic!
But my day continued, full of the unexpected. I ended up walking to the Colossi of Memnon, watched a fight going on between the police and one of the hawkers there, had a cuppa in the Memnon Restaurant, chatted about the Hatshepsut bazaar incident and the tour guides boycotting the temple, before calling my ride to find out he had forgotten all about me! At this point I did consider walking to Gabawi, refreshed after my tea, but he sent another car for me, and 2.5 hours after leaving home, I was at my friend's house.
I spent a lovely afternoon chatting, drinking Kenco coffee and eating cake, before heading home. Even that ended up with a detour to the bridge because they had received a delivery of diesel and my friend did not want to miss out on filling the tank! It ended up taking an hour and a half to get from Gabawi to my home!
Wonderful day on the West Bank!
Remake of Summer Holiday? Afterall, all films have to be remade after about 5 years these days so that one is well over due! LOL!
ReplyDeleteSounds pretty surreal for sure.
bFS
There is a company that does Big Red Bus tours in cities. We went on one in Marrakesh. I wonder if they have started a franchise in Egypt? They are brilliant as you pay for you ticket and you just hop off and on whereever youu want on the route.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.city-sightseeing.com/our-tours
We were up near the Sonesta this afternoon and we were also amazed to see the open top bus, no passengers on board but there were TWO of them. A handful of tourists boarding acoach outside of the Sonesta and a couple of caleches and mini buses were in the way so we did not get a photo either. But now I know we did not imagine it !
ReplyDeleteEdward and Freda