Party time

This weekend we had Dorien's birthday party. There are some advantages of having your birthday on the 26th of December, but this also means that your party is normally a few weeks later, when everybody is back from Christmas holidays. Dorien invited 5 of her friends. The plan was to go to the Hash for a "treasure hunt", but when we turned up at the run site ("the house" from the 15th of Jan blog post) there was no one there. We still don't know what happened, but we will find out eventually. Anyway, we did a walk and some climbing in Wadi Digla, then hide and seek in the visitor centre. (This visitor centre is a typical Egyptian project: a beautiful building at an excellent location, on a viewpoint high above Wadi Digla. However, since our arrival 4 1/2 years ago this has been closed for unknown reasons, but speculation is of course that money didn't change hands properly - a shame).

Back home for cake and playing in the garden, followed by pizza, a movie and a sleepover in our basement, which is ideally equipped for that. We just close the door at the top of the stairs and not a sound comes up. After a short night and some breakfast play in the garden continued, it had a lot do do with horses. Just before lunch the girls got picked up and we spend the afternoon preparing for the move and doing homework.

Capu, Kate, Santi, Dorien and Monique on top of a boulder in Wadi Digla

A new house!

After 20 years abroad we will be moving back to The Netherlands, probably in April. Piet was told in December that he got a job in the head office in The Hague. And then there were two main things to sort out: a school for the girls and a place to live. Luckily we were prepared for the school and secured placed at the ISH (International School of The Hague) without any problems. Finding a house was a bigger issue, as we are both strangers to this city. We used the excellent Dutch site "Funda" for screening, and as soon as our move was confirmed Mary hopped on the plane to see 13 houses for real. After her first day it was obvious that we would find something to our liking and Piet flew over as well to look at Mary's top 3. We quickly decided on the top house and, with help of our own estate agent, started the bidding. It was over in a few days, and we made a deal at the price we were willing to pay. The house is semi-detached, with a large garden and a garage, close to the school, the beach and a horse riding centre(!). It will need quite a bit of work in the coming years, but that is also to Mary's liking!

Our new house!

Friday mass

Fridays in Egypt are like Sundays back home; not much is happening until the noon prayers are done at the mosques. It is the ideal time to drive around Cairo, as everybody is having a rest. We have our own Friday morning routine: get up early and prepare for the outdoors. Mary and the girls have their weekly horse ride in the desert or the fields and Piet attends his own mass: a mountain bike ride in Wadi Digla. After a long "career" as a football player Piet has slowly been converted to a passionate cyclist, and every week he rides at least twice: once on his racing bike, mounted on a stationary trainer, and once with his mates in the Wadi. There are two meeting points for this: "gate"; the entrance of the compound where we live, which is the starting point for the very fit. A 20 minute cycle ride further is the second point, "house", a visitor centre that never opened, where the less keen members assemble. Normally we make a loop around the Wadi, and then the "gate" boys split and cycle a bit further and back out again. Our usual companions are a couple of rabid dogs, helping us to test our lungs, the local inbred boy, waiting for his high five, and the sound of some agitated mullah from the mosques we cycle past. This is all nicely rounded off by an uphill sprint finish, arriving back home after a ride of 2 to 3 hours. Then lunch and often off to the next activity: the Hash. I will write another post about that religion soon!

Maarten is leading the pack on the climb to "The Tree"

Ruud is cycling up on one of the many little hills

Saqqara revisited

Today we were just a 2-person family. Piet drove Paula to the stable for a ride in the desert and took the opportunity to visit Saqqara again. Saqqara is a huge pharaonic cemetary, dominated by the first real pyramid, the Step Pyramid of Zoser. This is surrounded by numerous other pyramids, tombs and mastaba's (a tomb in the form of a flat-roofed, rectangular structure). Although we have been many times, we still hadn't visited all the sites. Piet went to see the pyramid of Teti, which looks like a small, 10 m high sandy hill. The interior is still in very good shape and you can enter the burial chamber and see the sarcophagus, and walls covered with many hieroglyphs. Next door is the mastaba of Kagemni, who is thought to have been a judge and priest. The walls are covered with detailed reliefs, with many fishing scenes. Unfortunately Mereruka's tomb, the neighbouring mastaba, was closed for renovation. Next on the itenary was the small, but excellent Saqqara museum, with a large number of artefacts properly displayed and labeled. Something you really hope the Egyptian Museum would end up looking some day! After a wonder around the south side of the Step Pyramid it was time to pick up Paula again, and drive home for lunch and Dutch lessons.

Teti's pyramid (left) and some of the hieroglyphs in the burial chamber (above)

Rain, snow and a little bit of sunshine

During our Christmas holiday we went to our house in France for a week of snow and skiing. We arrived on the 23rd in pouring rain, without a flake of snow in sight in the village. This set the scene for the rest of the week. After another rainy day when we did some shopping and organised the house and equipment we drove the 20 minutes up to the ski resort of Alpe d'Huez, some 1000 m above the valley. There was snow! We bought lift passes and got going...

After 2 days of "practice" the girls started their lessons; Paula at the highest "Competition" level, basically a preparation for racing. Dorien joined the "Etoile d'Or" group, one level lower, where they work on technique. They did their lessons in the morning, and after lunch we skied together.

The weather stayed pretty unstable during the week, lots of rain (up to 2500 m), wind, low clouds and only a few sunny periods. On one of the afternoons it took us more than 3 hours to drive down to the house, as the road was covered by thick wet, slippery snow, and some people "parked" their campervan against the barrier. Snowchains are great! The famous Sarenne (claimed to be the longest ski slope in the world) was only open once, and we managed to be there at the right time. The last day many slopes were turned into sheets of ice with a thin layer of powdery snow, giving a clear sign that our holiday was ending. Despite all this we had a lot of fun skiing, being outside in the mountains and enjoying the French food and wine. Back to New Year's resolution diet time again!

Paula and Dorien on Clocher de Macle, during one of the few nice weather breaks