A few more pictures

It looks like we are properly settled; after just 3 weeks our house feels like home, helped by the beautiful weather and lot's of progress on the domestic front. Mary whitewashed our bedroom and has been assembling our new Ikea wardrobe this weekend, with lot's of help from all of us. Also our new car is standing in the driveway, we chose a Peugeot 308 SW, which we had been driving last summer in France. It has proven its worth the first day, as our Ikea packages (2.5 m long!) fitted in easily.

We are still sleeping on mattresses on the floor, and our sea freight is not in sight yet, but we manage pretty well. And we can go on the bike everywhere, the car is not used on most days

School and work are going fine, and first friendships are starting to form. Mary and the girls had their first horse riding lesson last Thursday, at the stable across the road. The stable has an informal feel, which is what they like. Piet has also started with his cycling reconnaissance of the surroundings, and has been doing a 2-3 hour ride the last 3 Sundays.

So far, so good!

Dorien and Mary cycling in the dunes near our house

Icecream on Scheveningen boulevard

Dorien and Paula are testing the sea water temperature

Our first days in The Netherlands

We have been back in The Netherlands for more than a week now, and settling back in has been quite easy so far. After a day flight from Cairo we landed in Schiphol at 3 pm on Thursday, picked up a rental car and drove to our new house, which the girls hadn’t seen yet. It was “welcome to Holland” as we got stuck in a traffic jam straight away! We dropped off our luggage at the house and went to the hotel, a few kilometres down the road. We planned to spend 4 nights here, to allow us to organise some stuff to be able to camp in the house. After that we moved into the house, where we are sleeping on mattresses on the floor. The first days Mary’s brother, Piet mum and sister (with family) visited, each of them contributing to our small household with some essentials. We even spend time walking and hitting some balls on the nearby beach, which is only a 15 minute walk away.

On Tuesday Easter Holiday was over and the girls started at their new school: the International School of The Hague (ISH). It is a 10 minute bike ride from the house. It looks like they settled in reasonably well, at least on the academic front. We managed to get Paula in the advanced French class, so she can continue at her level. Making friends will take some more time, they are daily talking about their lives in Cairo. With internet not up and running yet, contact with Cairo was difficult.

We spend our week at the immigration office, buying a car, getting a washing machine and dryer installed in the cellar, new fridge, IKEA …. you get the picture. As a bonus we received the airfreight (our additional luggage allowance) within a week, containing Piet and Dorien’s bike, tools, sport gear and linen.

Then we got the internet working and contact with friends in Cairo was established. Mary and the girls visited the 3 stables in the area, and have arranged their first horse riding lessons for next week, at the stable across the street.

Piet started working in the head office, which is new for him. It is quite relaxed so far, and he can spend most of his time catching up with old friends, and chasing HR on administrative issues. The best part is cycling to the office, a 25 minutes ride. And no rain so far!

The girls on the beach near our house

Packing up the house

End of a posting... experienced expats know the feeling when a number of unknown local men come into your house and pack up all your belongings. It was our turn again, and for the past 3 days 4 Egyptian packers were busy putting everything we have in boxes, bubble wrap and thick cardboard paper. The foreman ("reis") didn't speak any English, so Mary could practise her Arabic again. Constant supervision is the key, and the men did a decent job. On the 4th day the container arrived, properly dented from an earlier traffic accident, and in true Egyptian fashion there was no lifting equipment. So the packers had to lift everything above their heads to get it in the container. Mary had ordered a fence for our house in France, and it took 4 men to carry it, and an additional 2 to get it in the container. Backbreaking, but people are expendable here. The container left for Alexandria, to be unpacked again by Egyptian customs, and hopefully all will arrive in The Hague in reasonable shape.

Paula and Dorien in "box city"

Waiting for the container to arrive

In the evenings we were first invited by Reda, to have dinner at his house. His family outdid themselves, and as local hospitality dictates there was plenty of food for 10. The next meal was cooked by Piet, from some of the leftovers. This turned out to be a bit of a disaster, as afterwards Paula and Dorien spend the night throwing up in the toilet. And they were wiped out for the next 2 days! Luckily Piet and Mary were not so badly affected, so they could still supervise the loading of the container. That evening was Piet's farewell with his office team, a felucca ride on the Nile. We had to leave Paula and Dorien at home, but we had a very enjoyable sail, with some drinks and snacks. There were nice words for Piet, a few presents, and then off home for a very early night. Now there are a few days with little to do, just camp in an empty house. Only Paula's friend Annabelle will visit for 2 nights, but she is very low maintenance. Some calm before the storm......

Dinner at Reda's house, with his daughter Miriam

Piet on his last sunset felucca ride on the Nile

Farewell tour: Wadi Hof by bike (II)

Friday, and another bike ride. We planned to take Maarten, who is leaving soon, on the Wadi Hof "the long way round" trail (see post of 12 February), which he was keen to do. However, Maarten whimped out and went kite surfing at the Red Sea instead, but we set out anyway (already getting used to Maarten's absence!). So at 8 am Piet, Marcel, Paul, Ruud, Willem and Floris assembled at the Katameya gate for an all-Dutch expedition. Temperatures, close to 40 the day before, were slightly more benign this day. We set off on the known route, past Paul's Point and up on the Wadi Hof trail. Willem did a back flip after trying to go over a large rock and Floris flipped over his handle bars after misjudging a soft sandy patch, both without any (physical) consequences. Up on the plateau the views were somewhat disappointing, due to the large amounts of dust in the air, but the trail was not less spectacular. We descended into Wadi Hof, which was by now boiling hot. On the long climb out of the Wadi, after 2 hours on the bike, Willem's lights went slowly out, and he had to be stimulated up by Marcel. On top Floris realised that the suggestion of bringing 3 liters of water was serious, when he drank his last drop. We cycled slowly back towards "the house", and on the last descent Piet was called by Willem: his rear derailleur hanger was bend, and cycling was not possible anymore. Piet cycled back up again, and after consultation with Marcel (already at the house) it was decided that Marcel would continue to Katameya and get his car to pick up Willem at the house. Willem could still freewheel-descent, and had to walk the flat and uphill trails. At the house Ruud was still waiting, we parked Willem in the shade and continued home, and saw Marcel retuning with the rescue car. And after a trip of more than 5 hours ( 3 1/2 hours cycling time) it was coke and snickers time again. And the rest of the day: more organising and ...... packing!

Piet speeding up one of the little climbs

Farewell tour: the Egyptian Museum

As Piet had to clear off some leave days before our departure, we decided to pay a final visit to the Egyptian Museum, which contains thousands and thousands of artifacts from the pharaonic era. We visited the Museum before when we had just arrived in Cairo, but it was difficult to appreciate the displays and without any pharaonic knowledge they were truly overwhelming. In the mean time we have done a lot of reading (Amelia Peabody's adventures!), and visited many of the sites throughout Egypt. So it was time to put ourselves to the test.

After dropping off the girls at school we drove to Maadi and parked the car. We wanted to take the metro to downtown (a first after 4 1/2 years!). It is a modern system, with 1 LE tickets, automatic turnstiles, and regular trains. There are special women's carriages, and a sign on the platform where they should stand to wait for the next train. We got in on one of the mixed carriages and soon felt like tinned sardines, as it was morning rush hour. At Sadat Station, below Tahrir Square we got out and walked to the Museum.

At the museum it was very busy, heaving with tourists, guides and school classes. After a double security check we were in and went straight to Tutankamun's treasures, as most of the guides were still explaining the basics near the entrance. It is amazing what this insignificant pharaoh, who died at an age of 19, managed to collect for his burial. Everything was crammed into his relatively small tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Luxor: 4 huge gilded wooden shrines, fitting into each other, with the 3 sarcophagi inside them (also fitting into each other) with the mummy with the famous golden mask in the centre. The mummy and the outer sarcophagus are now in his tomb in Luxor. Further there are rooms with funerary couches, canopic jars (containing Tut's internal organs), a throne, many golden statues and two lifesize wooden statues of Tut, which were placed as guards at the tomb entrance. Most of the artifacts are stunningly beautiful, and 3500 years old! We also had a look at the goodies from the royal tombs of Tanis, the tomb of Yuya and Thuyu, the animal mummies and the Amarna area (of heretic pharaoh Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti). Slowly suffering from pharaonic fatigue we decided to call it a day and took the metro back to Maadi and had lunch at Cilantro.

Back home, and we were off again: we picked up the girls for their regular horse riding lesson at the stable. They saddled (with Reda's help) Mirinda (Paula), Humphrey (Dorien) and Mr. Small (Mary) for his first real lesson. They did some of their regular exercises, but the Mr. Small / Mary team was struggling a bit with directions. Reda tried as well and fared a little better. Then Sayed turned up and showed them "the hand of the master", and Mr. Small looked like he has been doing these twists, turns and changes of speed for years. Feeling confident Sayed decided that it was time to put Piet on horse as well. Mirinda was volunteered and Piet did a few laps, closely supervised by all his girls and the other horses. No accidents! Afterwards we had an Egyptian dinner with Sayed at the stable, as it was (possibly) Piet's last visit to the stable. But Mary will go again tomorrow, and Thursday, and Friday, and .......

Luxor revisited

Tuesday

For our last trip within Egypt we returned to Luxor for a second visit. We had several reasons: First of all we really enjoyed Luxor last year. Also Paula missed that trip as she was on a school outing to Kenya, and you certainly can't leave Egypt without visiting some of these famous sights. And there is so much to see that one trip is just not enough.

After a morning spent organising some house-buying paperwork at the Dutch Embassy in downtown Cairo, we took a late afternoon flight to Luxor. After some haggling (this starts as soon as you leave the plane and only stops when you have returned to the airport), we took a taxi to the Iberotel, where we had stayed before. It is a bit run down, but ideally located on the Nile, close to Luxor Temple. It has a sloping garden with a view of the West Bank and a pool on a floating pontoon in the river. After a meal in the Italian restaurant it was lights out quickly, to be ready for a busy day seeing the sights.

View from the hotel: felucca's at sunset

View from the hotel: the West Bank at sunrise

Wednesday

After breakfast we walked to the public ferry, dodging several hasslers (need taxi, motor boat, "my uncle has good bikes, very cheap") and crossed over to the West Bank. We rented bikes (made in China and maintained in Egypt!) and cycled towards the monuments. The first stop was "the Colossi of Memnon", two giant statues at the entrance of the temple of Amenhotep III. This temple has completely disappeared due to the yearly flooding of the Nile, and is now painstakingly being reconstructed by an enormous archeological team. We decided to visit the Valley of the Kings next. This is a small, narrow canyon, which contains some 60 tombs of the pharao's, and 15 of these are open to public. It turned out to be a pretty long, hot ride, on an uphill road. At the site we let the girls decide which tombs to visit; you are allowed to enter three on your entry ticket. Based on the 3D model in the entrance hall they chose the largest and deepest ones. So we saw the tombs of Tutmosis IV and Siptah, which were indeed deep, and modestly decorated. As third choice Ramses II had a long line of tourist waiting to enter we redirected to Tutmosis III, which we had seen last year. This tomb is beautifully decorated with cartoon-like paintings of some 700 gods and demi-gods. It is located in an almost unreachable crack, in a remote corner of the Valley, and it really makes you wonder how this was all constructed some 3500 years ago (considering that the pyramids are even 1000 years older!). Cameras are not allowed in the Valley, to preserve the delicate paintings.

Cycling up to the Valley of the Kings

We cycled back and had an Egyptian lunch (with beer) at the Ramesseum Restaurant, next to the

temple with the same name. Paula wanted to see Hatshepsut's temple, and she and Piet cycled there, while Mary and Dorien returned to the hotel for a swim, as they had already seen it last year. We walked around the blazing heat amidst busloads of Russian tourists, appreciating again the size and spectacular location of this monument. Then it was swimming time as well, and after a Chinese meal we again had an early night.

Thursday

After breakfast we went across to the West Bank and rented bikes again, with now our best friends. Having bikes gives us a lot of freedom and also keeps us relatively free from hasslers. We cycled to the ticket office and got tickets for Deir al Medina and some of the Tombs of the Nobles. Deir al Medina, a short, steep ride from that office, contains the workers village, where important craftsmen and artists, who worked in the Valley of the Kings, used to live. The village has been excavated and partly reconstructed, but the highlights were the two tombs we visited. Sennedjem was an artist who lived during the reign of Seti I and Ramses II, and his small tomb is stunningly decorated and extremely well preserved, matching some of the finest tombs in the Valley of the Kings. Next door is Inherkhau's tomb, who was a foreman during Ramses III and IV, and managed to get himself a beautifully painted burial site as well.

Making our pick at the West Bank ticket office

Deir al Medina, the workers village, with a Ptolemaic temple ruin in the background

Another short cycle ride brought us to the area of the "Tombs of the Nobles", which is a large hill full of holes, with some "modern" dilapidated houses of the village of Gurna on top of it. The Gurnawis were (are?) the infamous tomb robbers of the past, but now live in poverty and squalor. There are more than 100 tombs and we visited the ones of Rekhmire (a governor during Tutmosis III and Amenhotep II), and Sennofer (a garden supervisor for Amenhotep II); especially the last one was again beautifully painted, and very well preserved.

We cycled back to the Nile on some back roads through the fields, and had lunch at Ali Baba's Restaurant, at the edge of the river. We had excellent fresh fruit juice and some simple Egyptian food of local bread, tahina, tomatoes and cucumbers. The clouds started to come in and, before we knew it a gusty dust storm ("chamsien") had started; it is the season for it. Still Mary and Dorien wanted to go ahead with a donkey ride and our friends from the bikeshop quickly hustled up two animals. They went for a ride along the Nile and back through the fields, while Piet and Paula returned to the hotel for a swim and some reading. On return of the donkey riders we had some snacks, played card games and had another short swim, followed by a meal in the Italian restaurant and our third early night.

Mary and Dorien are getting ready for the donkey ride

Friday

Today was Paula's choice: either go to Karnak at the other end of Luxor or have a Luxor Temple-Brooke Hospital combi. She chose the latter and we were off to Luxor Temple. This is a large complex build by several pharaoh's (mainly Ramses II and Amenhotep III), with large columns, statues, many hieroglyphs and reliefs, depicting the pharaoh's deeds. There are even Christian paintings and a 14th century mosque within the complex; it has been used by everyone. We were obviously too early for the tour operators as we had a leisurely wander around, without too many other people. When we left the busses were emptied and the complex was flooded by tour group after tour group. Unfortunately the weather was still suffering from the dust storm: windy, quite cool, and very, very hazy due to all the dust in the air.

Piet and Dorien on the Avenue of Sphinxes, connecting Luxor Temple and Karnak

The sweepers of Luxor temple

We left and searched for Brooke Hospital, which was supposed to be close-by. However, that area is now totally razed for (apparently) excavations. Then we made the mistake to ask one of the caleche (horse cart) drivers what happened to Brooke. "Very far, no walking, difficult finding", and on our 4th day in Luxor we obviously mistrusted the old fellow. In the end he was right and took us in his caleche to the outskirts of Luxor, to a place we would never have found ourselves. Brooke Hospital for Animals is an organisation that provides care to horses and donkeys that have to work in poor conditions, with clinics all over the 3rd world. In The Netherlands they are famous due to a reality television show, where three young, female vet students were sent to Egypt to help with the Brooke doctors. The way some of the animals are treated, especially in Cairo, is shocking, and this is obviously an organisation close to the heart of Mary and the girls. The duty vet explained what they were doing: acting as a first aid station and using three mobile clinics to go around the villages to offer free care and advise. The place was very clean and organised, and there was just one resident donkey recovery from a traffic accident. The doctor explained that in the busy (tourist) season owners are less likely to turn up, as this could mean some loss of income.

With our caleche at the Brooke hospital

We returned to the hotel with the caleche and had a piss poor lunch in one of the "fancy" waterfront restaurants, and went back to the hotel for a last dive in the pool. Late in the afternoon we had one more hassle taxi ride back to the airport and a short flight back to Cairo. On arrival it turned out that it had been raining heavily in Cairo, and traffic was a complete chaos. Our regular driver Ashraf was stuck on the Ring Road near Maadi, and quickly organised his Italian-speaking friend Tarek to pick us up. This also proved difficult, as a number of the underpasses were flooded due to poor drainage. In the end it all worked out and we arrived home at 20.30, ready for some food and the winter Olympics!

Another long horse riding trip

It's school holiday, so that means horse riding and more .... horse riding. Mary planned a last long ride through the desert, with Paula, Dorien and Els, who will look after Mirinda after we leave. Last week they have been preparing the horses by making long rides in the desert and fields (and using this as an excuse to go to Saqqara twice a day!). Early this morning they were picked up by Els and drove to the stable where Reda was waiting already. Unfortunately one of the horses, Nour, had a small injury and couldn't go. In the end Mirinda (with Els), Adham (Paula), Humphrey (Dorien), Mr Small (Mary) and Batuta (Reda) went on the trip.

They went into the desert first, the Adham/Paula team leading the way. They passed the Abu Sir and Saqqara pyramids, and after a few uncontrolled canters ended up at the Cairo-Bahariya railway, the furthest point. Last time (read the post of 19 December 2009) they continued to the Dahshur Black Pyramid, but today there was no back-up team (with water and food for the horses) and also it was Els' first long desert ride. They stopped at the edge of the desert between some palm trees for a small snack of carrots and fruit bars. Then they turned towards the fields and followed the December route back to the stable. In the first village large numbers of obnoxious kids made the horses restless, Mr Small panicked a bit and Batuta reacted with a high kick, right on Mary's hand. It's a bit blue and swollen, but she claims it doesn't bother her (yet). After 5 hours on the road the horses got a deserved shower and loads of carrots and bersim, and it looked like some of the riders were more tired than their mounts. Now a day of rest and off to Luxor.

Mirinda and Els in the desert, with the Abu Sir pyramids in the background

Adham and Paula resting at the edge of the desert

Riding back through the fields