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The British Airways A350 that flew us from Toronto to London.
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Smoked salmon appetizer en route to London
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Caterina in Glyfada
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Aegean still life.
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Caterina and her daughter Anna Maria.
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Aegean Airines' nearly empty Business Class lounge, prior to boarding our midnight flight to Cairo.
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Michael and I arrived at Mena House at 4 a.m., fell into bed in a stupor, and awoke at noon to this amazing view.
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The 4,600 year-old pyramid of the pharaoh Khufu. At right is the pyramid of Khufu's son, the pharaoh Khafre.
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Walking on the grounds of Mena House means always having Khufu looking down on you!
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In Egypt's Western Desert, on our way to the Valley of the Whales.
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Bedouin insouciance
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40 million year-old whale vertebrae; one of hundreds of petrified whale skeletons discovered in this part of the Sahara.
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Skull and vertebrae of a 40 million-year-old whale in the Valley of the Whales Museum, located in Egypt's Western Desert.
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'Ships of the desert' in The Fayoum, a vast, middle-of-the-desert lake about a 3-hour drive west from Cairo.
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Like abstract art. A rest-stop in the Sahara.
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The Sahara. Like being on another planet.
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A stop for a traditional lunch in The Fayoum.
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Shade!
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Grilled chicken and vegetables, saboob (Egyptian flatbread), the ubiquitous French fries, and a cooling lime drink.
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Back to Mena House for a much-needed shower, followed by dinner with 5 of the 9 friends who joined Michael and me in Egypt. (The other 4 were en route.)
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Dinner with a view.
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Our friends, from Canada, the States, and Australia, did not know each other before arriving in Cairo, but happily everyone hit-it-off immediately.
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The grounds surrounding Mena House are meticulously maintained.
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It's a new day, and having recovered from her Los Angeles - Doha - Cairo flights, Diane is ready to take-on the Giza pyramids.
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The pyramid of Khafre is not as tall as that of his dad Khufu. But it is built at a higher elevation, and so it appears taller. At its top, Khafre's pyramid still retains some of the smooth-sided stone that once clad the entire structure.
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Staring up at the north side of the 4,600 year-old Great Pyramid. A row of double chevrons diverts weight away from the entrance - hacked into during the Middle Ages.
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Good little Australian that she is, Lindy shields her skin from the searing sun, while taking a break at the base of the Great Pyramid. Note the size of the massive stone blocks. 2.3 million of them were used to construct Khufu's tomb.
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In the early 1970s, when I first visited Egypt, these pyramids were out in the desert. Over the decades, ever-expanding Cairo has spread to the very edge of the Giza plateau.
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Out of work camels. Anxiety over Israel's unchecked war on the Palestinians has reduced the number of visitors to Egypt.
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The Great Sphinx of Giza faces directly from west to east, with a face that appears to represent the pharaoh Khafre. The original shape of the Sphinx was cut from the bedrock, and has since been restored with layers of limestone blocks.
