The Traveling Gringo

If you mention the pyramids, what comes to people’s minds? Egypt. Would you like to visit them? “Yes!” Almost everybody would. I have had the privilege of visiting the pyramids twice in less than two years, but what I have found is that the pyramids are just the tip of the iceberg in Egypt. Egypt is a place like no other. The almost tropical scenes of the Nile allowed an amazing civilization to flourish, but the desert a few meters away preserved it for us today. It is a Muslim culture, but it is the home of some of the oldest churches in the world, some of which the large Christian minority still use. You can also find Greek and Roman history as well as the history of Arabs, Turks, British, and French. But the best part of Egypt for me is the people. They are a people who know hospitality, who are ready to dance, who know how to cook, and are ready to be your friend. For all of these reasons, Egypt is a destination you do not want to miss.

In this post, I want to describe what it is like to travel through Egypt and introduce you to the places I visited in two trips. Our trips consisted of six parts: Cairo, Aswan, Abu Simbel, the Nile, Luxor, and Hurghada. That’s our route in this article.

Cairo
Cairo is huge and filled with people. About 30 million people, one fourth of the population of Egypt, lives in and around Cairo. Make sure you see it from the air as you come in to get an idea of its size. The traffic is unbelievable. It makes driving anywhere in the United States look orderly and easy in comparison.

On the edges of Cairo, you come to Giza, still very crowded. There, you find the pyramids. No matter how many pictures you’ve seen, there is simply no way to do justice to the size and wonder of these ancient structures. There are three great pyramids named after the kings who built them, Khufu, Khafre, and Menkaure. You come first to the largest, the pyramid of Khufu. You can enter into this pyramid and ascend to the tomb deep within the pyramids. The second largest is that of Khafre, and the third is that of Menkaure.

Continue reading “The Wonders of Egypt: The Pyramids Are Just the Beginning”

If you’ve ever thought of visiting the “Florida of Europe,” you really should have no hesitation. Traveling to Spain could hardly be easier, and you will enjoy a country that is hospitable, enjoyable, beautiful, secure, tranquil, and interesting.

One thing to remember about the Florida of Europe is that it is actually far to the north of our Florida here in the U.S. That means it’s quite a bit cooler. Experiencing temperatures in the 80s here, I told my wife that I was not going to bring a jacket to Spain. She responded, “Have you looked at the weather forecast?”

“No.” I replied.

“That might be a good idea.” She said. She proceeded to check it for me. Turns out I definitely needed a jacket, but the weather was still pleasant.

One of the big issues with traveling internationally is still Covid-19. However, if you are traveling to Spain and have been vaccinated, it is super easy. You simply fill out this form, and you will receive a QR Code. It takes just a couple of minutes, and you are good to go. We did not even have to show our vaccine cards.

As of now, to return to the U.S., you need a negative Covid test one day before you leave. This does not mean 24 hours. It means one day. So, if you are leaving on Sunday, you do the test on Saturday. We used the Binax Now tests from Abbott Labs. It was very easy, and we had no problems. You can order them here.

When people think of Europe, they often think it is very expensive. It can be. However, I found that it was not much more expensive than the U.S. and, for many things, less. For example, we stayed in downtown Madrid and Barcelona in very good hotels for less than $150 a night in Madrid and less than $100 in Barcelona. Continue reading “Traveling from America to Spain, the Florida of Europe”

I read it again and again. To enter Egypt, “you’ll need a Covid test that is stamped and signed on original paper, not a copy. This test must be taken within 96 hours of the departure of your last flight to Egypt.” That was the clear directive from the Egyptian government.

The Plan(s)
Fall 2020 brought a new school year but a strange one. Kids could go to school and wear masks, or they could do the “online option.” They could sit in front of a computer for 8 hours and watch school. My oldest daughter, an extremely outgoing and social senior, opted for the online option. She hated it. So, she decided she wanted to do “homeschool” instead. This would also allow her to work first shift once she had turned 18, relatively early in the school year.

One thing that was disappointing about her not going to school was that she would not have any senior trips. So, I said to her one day, “Why don’t we do a senior trip and go somewhere in the world. If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you like to go?”

She replied, “Scotland.”

I said, “Let’s do it.”

Now, I had not travelled outside the country in 25 years, other than Canada, which, with all due respect to my Canadian friends, was not that different than driving somewhere within the United States. So, I had a lot to learn.

That fall, it was my great pleasure to research the ins and outs of travel to Scotland. I planned the trip day by day and even made cancelable reservations for hotels. We were going to spend two weeks in Scotland and explore it from one end to the other.

There was only one really big problem. Covid. Now, I am not saying that Covid itself was the problem, even though I do think it is a problem. The problem was the reaction of the Scottish government to Covid. Scotland’s reaction to Covid made the strictest state in the U.S. look virtually unconcerned about Covid. So, that was the problem. Continue reading “Traveling to Egypt in the Time of Coronavirus”

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