Sandy's Further Adventures
Approaching the pyramids
When I flew back to the US, Sandy still had a week of travels before she could come home. Ideally she would do a post but since she is really busy (gone on another trip after only four days at home) I will fill in for her. Since I wasn't there, I'll just give a very rough overview.
When I left Sandy still had two and a half days of meetings. Nothing exciting there. But then she had a day and a half free in Barcelona (Friday afternoon and Saturday) before flying on to her next stop, which was Cairo Egypt. One of her coworkers was also going to Cairo. Her husband flew to Barcelona to meet her after the meetings (as opposed to I flew before the meetings). Sandy got to spend another day exploring the area of La Rambla with her friend and her friend's husband.
On Sunday she flew to Cairo. She said everything was crowded and confusing - a real third world city. Fortunately the vendors she was meeting gave them the real VIP treatment. They had someone meet them as they got off the plane to help them with customs, getting to the hotel, etc. They were driven and escorted for their whole stay. That made it a lot easier.
The pyramids and the Sphynx
Probably the most exciting thing was a chance to go see the Great Pyramid of Ghiza late one afternoon after her business meetings. It is only about ten miles from the city center. I am very envious. But her main impression was how poorly it was taken care of. The city came right up to the edge of the necropolis. People vandalized the area around the pyramids ("people were carving their initials right in the stone"). Another hp person who went to the museum in Cairo said that while there was incredible stuff there, it also seemed poorly taken care of. Very sad.
She really didn't have much good to say about Cairo. She said it was crowded, had terrible traffic, was dirty, smelled bad (ok, she is getting me really psyched to go there). The most telling comment was that she thought it was worse than Bangalore (India), which she has visited many times. And she REALLY hates Bangalore. She was glad when she could come home. Her flights back were not as eventful as mine.
Since we split up, I brought one camera home with me (the DSLR) while Sandy kept the small pocket camera. So I didn't have all of our pictures from the trip when I did the other posts. So I am including some additional photos below. You might want to reread the earlier posts on the various parts of the trip.
Additional pictures
Torla has a pizzaria hidden in there
