Europe Day Sixty Two to Sixty Five - A London Christmas

Our last morning in Egypt we packed up our bags and had breakfast at the hotel before taking one last crazy Cairo taxi ride to the airport. We thanked our taxi driver who was very nice and got on our plane to Athens, Greece. After we landed in Athens we got on our connection flight to London. Once the long flight was finally over we landed in London with snow on the runway. We got off our plane stretched our legs, took a train to the same station we had left for Scotland from and walked to our cozy little apartment. We checked in and relaxed for a bit before heading to bed after a tiring travel day.

The next morning we hit the road early and got some more Pret de Mange smoothies for breakfast like we had done at the beginning of our trip. After we finished our smoothies we headed for the London Christmas market. We walked the streets of London in the rain to the market. It was pretty cool. They had all the lights and rides, carnival stands, and market stalls selling wood carving, gemstones, ornaments, and food.

We walked around all the stalls for a bit before getting some amazing vegetarian chili in an edible bowl for lunch. When we had finished and had warmed up a bit we went Christmas shopping at all the stalls. After an hour or two we finished our shopping and started heading back to to our apartment. Dad got us some fish and chips for dinner. We finished our meal and stayed at the apartment for the rest of the night.

In the morning we headed to the London Bridge. It is the latest of many bridges built there, the first probably built by the Roman Empire and some of the more famous by kings back when there were many buildings on it.

At the London Bridge there were a few wood carving stands on the side of the Thames river.

There was a beautiful plastic Christmas tree that Sage pointed out with a backdrop of the London Bridge.

After we took a picture Zaddek and Dad quickly ran over to the London Bridge to put a lock on it like all the other tourists were but the rest off us were happy just being there.

We had some veggie wraps for lunch along the market before heading back to our apartment to pack our bags on our last full day in Europe. We left our apartment and headed to our new hotel at the airport for our early flight. We got into our hotel room and had some take-out for dinner before getting some shut eye for our flight back home. We all fell asleep a bit happy to go home and a bit sad to leave Europe. Early the next morning we woke up to a shrill alarm and went through one last European airport before boarding the plane for our long flight home. 

Total planes: 4

Total taxis: 1 crazy Cairo one

Total subways: 4

Total miles walked: 11.9 miles

Europe Day Sixty One - The Egyptian Museum

We had breakfast in our room again and headed out to the streets of Egypt. Our first stop was the bizarre where they sold a lot of merchandise that honestly wasn't that great but was neat to see. We didn't buy anything we just looked around for a bit. The bizarre was called Khan El Khalili. Once we left we headed to the Cairo Citadel complex and went up to a Mosque called Muhammad Ali which was huge.

We had to take off our shoes to go in which I didn't mind because the carpet inside was really soft.

We checked the inside of the Mosque and it was beautiful. The lights were amazing and the roof stretched on forever. After we checked out the inside we went out to the courtyard with the view of the Egyptian desert. As we looked out across the city it was dry with not a blade of grass. Our driver had given us some booklets to read about his religion and that of the Mosques we were visiting. Even though we had seen so many cathedrals across Europe it was interesting to see a different place of worship.

Outside Muhammad Ali we met our driver and grabbed some ice cream as a cold treat for the really hot day. We left Old Cairo and headed to the Egyptian Museum. Once we went inside every corner was filled with sculptures, clay pots, papyrus, statues of ancient gods, powder paints, and the coolest of all - Mummies.

We got tickets to the Mummies room and made our way through the Museum. Every few minutes somebody wanted a selfie with Zaddek because of his blonde hair and two girls practically followed him through the whole Museum. It was funny. We finally made it to the Mummy room and it was pretty creepy. They were in glass boxes laid out across the room and some were missing fingers, jaws, and one was practically caved in at the chest. 

Then we made it to the other Mummies room. This one was mostly the same as the other one but one of the Mummies was wrapped with what looked to be a pet cat which was very important in Egyptian religion being the form Egyptian Gods took when they come to Earth. Once we finished looking around the Mummies room we left and walked about the rest of the Museum. 

After we looked around the Museum and got our last looks at all the amazing art and history we left the Museum and went back to the hotel for the night. We had our last buffet dinner at the restaurant before heading up to our rooms. 

Total miles walked: 4.5 miles

1 Van Taxi with the same driver everywhere 

Europe Day Fifty Nine and Sixty - The Pyramids of Giza

When we landed in Cairo, Egypt we got our Visas for entering the country and some Egyptian Pounds before finding our taxi driver. He was holding a sign that said Paul Taylor so he wasn't hard to find. We all got in the car and started down the road. In Egypt they don't have lanes so its a big jumble of cars. We jolted and stopped and lurched like we were on a crazy roller coaster. The ride was fun and I don't know how the taxi driver was able to drive in that crazy traffic but we made it to the hotel safe and sound but a little jumbled up.

The front entrance to the hotel had a security belt and a metal detector to be extra safe. We went through the security and got checked into our rooms. We could see the pyramids from our balcony!

We had a nice dinner in the hotel restaurant and went to bed. The next morning we woke up and looked out the window to see the magnificent pyramids of Giza. It was kinda smoggy so it was hard to see but it was pretty beautiful. We got breakfast in our room which was awesome because most of the places we had stayed at hadn't had that (or had been very expensive). Since we were in Egypt we decided to get a nicer hotel to be safe.

We had two rooms - one for Mom, Dad, and Sage and one for Kaden, Zaddek, and I. We ate breakfast which was really good and headed out to the Pyramids of Giza. After another crazy taxi drive we got our tickets before going into the Giza Plateau. (The plateau is what the Egyptians built the pyramids of Giza on.)

We got our first up close look at the Pyramids. It was amazing how they constructed such a huge structure with so little tools and the blocks were so heavy it would seem rather impossible yet they did it. One theory is that they blew up animal skins with air and floated the blocks of limestone on the Nile to the Pyramids. Not to mention each and every block is so perfectly crafted to fit it would take a ton of time to craft just one and there were thousands that make up the Pyramids. The one we were looking at was the largest one. The one Khufu built. There are three giant pyramids - Khufu's, Khufu's son, and Khufu's grandson.  They go in order in size with Khufu's the biggest and Khufu's grandson the smallest. We all got a good look at Khufu's pyramid before getting on a camel ride to see the rest of the pyramids.

Once we got on our camels we started to ride and passed a few smaller tombs for priests and tenants and large cemeteries for the higher class Egyptians. We passed the cemeteries and kept riding to the other pyramids. It turns out that riding a camel is a lot like riding a horse but a lot higher. One of the guides was riding a horse next to us and he was dwarfed compared to the camels. We rode all the way to the best vantage spot of the Pyramids of Giza. We took a ton of pictures and took in the once in a lifetime view of the Pyramids that have survived many. If someone wished to never be forgotten build a pyramid and your name would be known for centuries to come. We got back on our camels and got a few photos of the Pyramids with us in it before riding to the Sphinx.

On the way there the guide told Zaddek that his camel was named Michael Jackson and he remembers that to this very day. The rest of our camels had names like Pepsi but none were as good as Michael Jackson. We kept going and arrived at the Sphinx. The Sphinx is a giant statue that was said to guard the Pyramids. It is a huge statue with the body of a lion and the head of a Pharaoh. We looked all around the statue and got all the vantage points looking at the fantastic statue.  I wondered how they built such amazing things with tools like a rock, chisel, and some rope. We took a few photos of the Sphinx and got the tour guide to take a family photo for us before leaving the Giza Plateau for quite possibly forever.

 We got on our camels and headed down to our last stop of the tour, a papyrus shop. Once we left the Plateau and headed into the Papyrus shop we were given a demonstration on how the Egyptians made paper and kept records. First they take the papyrus plant and harvest the fronds. Then they dry the fronds and weave them into a square or size they want the papyrus to be. They press it for a few days until it is dry and flat. He showed us how to weave one and put it under the press and then told us about all the papyrus in the shop and their meanings. Kaden and Zaddek got one and we got one for the family. We thanked our tour guide and our camels before getting back in the taxi and driving to the hotel.

After going through security and getting to our room we took a little rest before heading back down for dinner. Once the buffet opened for dinner we ate quickly and headed out to the laser light show at the Pyramids.

We grabbed our seats and once the audience filled up the show started.They had some fog show up and the lights bounced and danced across the Pyramids and the Sphinx in a variety of colors. When the fog turned off the Sphinx had a Pharaoh face projected on it. The Sphinx face talked about it's sacred job protecting the pyramids as it watched society advance before it's eyes. It talked about the Pharaohs who built the Pyramids and the different rulers across the ages. (Most of which the guide had already told us but it was still pretty cool.) Once the show was over and they did the grand finale of lasers (not real ones) we all clapped. The pyramids went dark and the audience slowly dispersed. We got into the taxi and drove home in the dark which was more bumpy then it was in the day. Once we were in our room we fell asleep thinking about all the wonderful things we had seen that day.

Total miles walked : 6.5 miles

1 Taxi Van

6 Camels!

Europe Day Fifty Five to Fifty Eight - Santorini

   We got onto the ferry around 7pm and got a nice seat in the lobby. The ferry wasn't overnight, just until 1am, so we didn't get a room this time. This ferry rocked around a lot and within an hour Mom and I were sea sick. I didn't throw up but my stomach was a bit queasy. The ferry ride stretched on for what seemed like forever and I was quite excited when we docked in Santorini. We got a taxi ride up the mountain-like island to the city of Santorini. The taxi dropped us off at the entrance to Santorini because you can't drive cars in the town. A woman met us and led us through the walkways to our cave house. Once we got there we went right to bed as we were all so tired from the ferry ride.

The next morning we headed out to explore Santorini. We saw all of the white houses that were carved out of the cliff on our way to breakfast. We ate at a little cafe with a view of the turquoise waters at the bottom of the cliffs.  We had some really good crepes and omelettes for breakfast before heading out to the streets again.

We admired all of the art and decorative plates everywhere and were thinking of what to get everybody for Christmas. We got some groceries and had some lunch at the cave house and relaxed for a few hours until sunset when we tried to get some sunset photos from the temple that was just ten steps from our house.

After the sunset Sage put on a puppet show with her toy Unicorn from Edinburgh and her wooden duck from Barcelona. After the puppet show we watched a Christmas movie on the TV. Once the movie was over we went to bed.

The next morning we had some breakfast and Dad went to pickup a rental car so we could go to the red cliffs. The new rental car was a bit bigger than the Death Car and had a higher roof so that no one hit their heads on the way there. Once we got into the parking lot Sage wasn't feeling good after the bumpy car ride and threw up on Mom. Once Mom changed her shirt we went down to the red cliff beach.

We walked across the dried seaweed that covered the beach, back up the cliffs and got back in the car. Then we drove to a little town on the edge of the cliff. We checked out the market and bought a few Christmas presents then got some lunch before going back to our cave house in Santorini.

We went to Mom's favorite market shop and got some Christmas presents. We had them shipped back to Canada since we didn't have any room in our backpacks. Once the sun was about to set we got ready to take some photos of the windmill.  We walked to the windmill and climbed up on a gate way to get a good angle. We got some great photos and headed back to the cave house for the night.

The next morning we decided to attempt the cliff jump that we had heard about when we were researching Santorini. It turns out the the cliff wasn't far from our cave house it was just a few hundred stairs down the cliff.

Once we got to the bottom we navigated the rocky path across the cliff side to the giant rock that was sticking out of the water 10 meters out. Once we gathered the courage to get in the cold water Zaddek, Kaden, and I swam out to the rock and rock climbed up the side. There was a small concrete platform at the edge of the cliff side.

Zaddek was the first up and he wanted the glory of going first so he got a running start and launched himself off the platform.

After I made sure Zaddek was safely out of the way I jumped off the platform. Kaden calculated that the cliff was about 30 feet tall and it felt like you were flying once you launched yourself into the air.

Once you're at the bottom the cold water hits you abruptly and it stuns you for a second or two before you swim back to the cliff side. After Kaden took his first jump Zaddek and I took two more turns before we had to go. Kaden was the last one to go and he said he was going to attempt a flip. He jumped off and did a full flip but couldn't stop and overshot his flip and did a belly flop.

He made it back to the rock and took a few minutes to catch his breath before I helped swim him back to the cliff side where Mom, Dad, and Sage were waiting. We made the long trip up the mountain, packed up our stuff and headed to the airport saying goodbye to the beautiful cliff city, Santorini. We got on the plane and flew to Athens then we slept the night in an Air BnB and the next morning we got on a flight to Egypt.

Total ferries: 1

Total planes: 1

Total cars: 1 small one

Total miles walked: 15.4 miles