48 hours in Cairo
It’s on the doorstep but a trip to Cairo this Easter offers an insight into a different world
It’s only an hour by plane from Larnaca but a weekend in Cairo is a world away and well worth the trip.
We decided to book our journey independently. There are many packages but we wanted to be free to organise ourselves and stay in a small hotel in the downtown area. On arrival at the shiney arrivals hall, we instantly became confused: we knew we had to have a visa but it wasn’t clear where to go or how much they would cost. As it happened, getting a visa took less than a minute and cost £15 each. So far, so good.
We had booked the Hotel Windsor, enticed by the fact that Michael Palin had stayed there on his, Round the World in 80 Days TV programme. Its website advertised it as an “architectural gem” and, more importantly, as having the most characterful bar in Cairo. We had rung ahead from Cyprus for the hotel to arrange a taxi to meet us at the airport. It was $5 each well spent, you would be a brave soul to jump into a hire car, driving into downtown Cairo was not for the faint hearted. The roads heaved with people, buses, bikes, carts, camels, donkeys and got increasingly narrower as we reached our hotel. It made Cyprus drivers look like old ladies in Morris minors.
We grew to love the Hotel Windsor, which is indeed a hidden gem with the famous “barrel bar”, a relic of the 1920s when it was the RAF mess, but it was not exactly in the oasis of quiet we had been led to expect, nor would its lumpy mattresses and heavy Victorian furniture be to everyone’s taste. It was rather like staying with an elderly maiden aunt, it smelt of lavender polish and moth balls and had definitely seen better days. With a cranky wrought iron lift, faded posters of the Alps from a time when it had been owned by the Swiss, it made us feel as though we were in a bygone age, doing the ‘grand tour’. Indeed our large room had a another room attached for our valet to unpack our valise, but it seemed we had left him at home.
From our window we looked onto the local caf?, with its constant clatter of backgammon and chess, shishas filled with spicey apple tobacco, a TV set showing gyrating belly dancers and a continual stream of heated discussions. It never seemed to close. Men sat over hot sticky sweet coffees or refreshing mint teas late into the night and early in the morning.
Arriving at dusk we headed out to find some food. Our hotel manager sent us around the corner to the faded grandeur of a corner restaurant. The chandeliers which would have once sparkled and glittered in the heat of the night now had most of their bulbs missing. It would have seated a 100 people, there were now just us three. Old photos lined the walls of the belle epoque, Greta Garbo and Humphrey Bogart. Cary Grant and for some unfathomable reason, Bobby Charlton.
What was on the menu? “Pigeon”, the proprietor said, “It’s a speciality”. I ordered it, and have to admit, when it arrived flattened and with its head staring up at me, beak still open in surprise, my appetite waned. “Could we have a beer?” we asked. His eyes twinkled, “A moment”. He hung out of the window, instructions were shouted. A few minutes later he pulled on a string and a plastic bag was hoisted up, “Please keep hidden,” he said. We did. It helped wash down the pigeon though.
The next day we were up early and hired a minicab for the day that would take us where ever we wanted. On his advice we headed out of town away from the morning traffic jam. It was good advice as at 10am Cairo was still cloaked in a heavy haze of smog and morning dew. As we drove out along the road to Saqqara, the landscape changed from urban sprawl to village life. We followed an ink black canal, awash with women scrubbing their carpets, old men lazily laying a line for fish, and the ubiquitous plastic bags.
Water buffalo wallowed, boys gave us cheeky grins. Along the road we got glimpses of everyday life.
Poverty and plenty, squalor and colour. Cairo is a city of contradictions. On the horizon, date palms swayed under a blue sky, white egrets sat on the backs of creamy coloured cows and the landscape buzzed with activity. It is all the more of a surprise when you arrive at Saqqara, one of the oldest pyramids in the world. It lies, along with many others, on the edge of the desert. The contrast is startling, from the lush valley of the Nile to the startling white of the sand dunes and the wilderness beyond.
Like the great pyramids at Giza, that we would see later, these amazingly impressive structures do not disappoint. Here at Saqqara you can enter deep into the heart of the tombs. Titi’s has a long narrow entrance which is about four feet high for about 40 metres taking you inside its chamber of secrets. You must bend and double up to reach its heart. It’s claustrophobic but very atmospheric.
There is no doubt that the pyramids of Giza and the sphinx together provide one of the greatest wonders of the world. Despite all the photographs I had seen they had the power to make us simply stop and stare. They are beautiful and awe-inspiring against the clear blue of an Egyptian sky. See them. Marvel and then enjoy all the hustle and bustle of Cairo.
To some extent one is spoilt for choice on a short visit of places to go and things to see. We headed for the Nile. Large steamers plough up and down, small feluccas criss cross, and water taxis hop from bank to bank. There are many trips you can take, some organised by the hotels with full dinners and entertainment, others just lolling in the back of a small boat watching the water drift by. We opted to sit and watch the sunset from the shore with plates of local “mezza” in one of the numerous riverbank caf?s, ours came with pelicans squawking on the water beneath.
Once outside the five-star hotels, street food is cheap and plentiful. Fresh fruit stalls will squeeze juices with local sugarcane for 10 cents a glass. Particularly delicious is Fakhfahina, a fruit cocktail with fresh strawberries and sweet yogurt. Hot breads are filled with spicy kebabs, beans and roasted vegetables for 20 cents. From local vendors one could easily exist on a pound a day.
We headed for the Khan al Khalili souk that night. It is touristy, but it is also a feast of smells, sights and sounds. Carpets, spices, wooden boxes, jewellery shops bedazzle and bid you to buy. The narrow alleys bustle with barter. We headed for the famous little restaurant hidden in its depths and of the same name . Just a door in the wall, it opened on to a magical world of mirrored walls and painted ceilings. We ate hot, steaming dishes cooked in small clay pots to the sounds of traditional music. As in many of the local restaurants there was no alcohol available but the food more than compensated.
The next day we took the metro to the Coptic area known as Old Cairo. The trains were cheap and easy to use. Here you will find the Greek Orthodox Church of Mari Girgis, the pretty ‘hanging church’, and the simple, beautiful small church of St Sergius where the Holy family is traditionally said to have rested on their journey to Egypt. The whole area is under renovation and there is a slightly artificial feel of gentrification about the project, but nevertheless it is worth a visit.
As the haze cleared we took a taxi ride (cheap and readily available, but fix your price before you get in) to the colossal Citadel, Saladin’s great fortress built in 1178, and subsequently home to the Sultans of Egypt, which still stands guard over the city. The panorama is fantastic, across ‘the city of the dead” to the Nile and the Giza pyramids on the skyline. The complex houses the impressive Alabaster mosque – dress disceetly and you can sit inside on lush red carpets and gaze into its beautifully decorated domes.
Our short stay was coming to an end. We were sated with the visual impact of the place, and headed for
our last stop. After the overwhelming scale and vastness of the Citadel, the Gayer-Anderson museum is a total delight. Two small Ottoman town houses, renovated and restored by an English doctor are exquisite in their detail and give a total sense of how life was lived in the 16th century and beyond. The ornately carved screens bring to life the secrets of the harem and hidden, segregated lives. From the roof terraces there are glimpses of the largest mosque in Cairo, Ibn Tulun, and a bustling market below. The magnificent and the intimate. The grandeur of great monuments and the privacy and delicacy of the quiet courtyards made it a fitting end to our stay. Cairo is a city of contrasts, exhausting and exhilarating. We will definitely return, but in a short visit you can feast your senses with culture, chaos and, of course, camels.
