Holiday snaps #2
Ok, so I've done some work tonight (the Knowledge Base articles) therefore I reckon I can post some totally off-topic stuff....
The previous photograph from our holiday, posted earlier, was of Mont St Michel in France, near Normandy on the Bay of Brittany... a very cool, temperate climate.
Before we went to Mont St Michel where that photograph was taken we were in Egypt... hot, crowded, a total contrast to the world that is Mont St Michel - poverty and decadence side by side. I have so many amazing stories to tell, and photographs to share.. immediate family members are receiving CDs full of stuff... you, my gentle reader, are constrained to what my audience at large will accept, so a smattering of photographs is what you will see... and some fun stories... scattered over time so that the geeks amongst us don't get too bored....
A story from Egypt. My darling husband had custody of my digital camera the night before we left Cairo to fly to Paris. Now, because we were travelling through some pretty dangerous areas (theft and pickpocket dangerous) I chose to leave all computer equipment at home - all I had was my camera - so when I discovered, not long before we were due to leave for Cairo Airport to fly to Paris, that my digital camera was missing... well, I was in a *terrible* state - if we lost that camera, we lost all record of our holiday (hey Patchou, I know you think I have given you a hard time over the years, but that is *nothing* compared to what that dear hubby of mine faced when I thought he's lost our camera).
Anyway, hubby went down to the bar that we had been in the night before and, miracles of miracles, the camera was still there.. he gave the bartender $100 Egyptian Pounds for his honesty - when you consider that the average tip in Egypt is around $2 to $5 Egyptian Pounds ($5 if you are *really* generous) you can see how big this tip was, and how important the camera was to us. I am not ashamed to admit that I broke down in tears when I realised that the camera had been found... the thought of losing all of our photographs was just heartbreaking.. but all was well...
Here is a picture of the pyramids of Giza... I have *many* other photographs taken around Giza and Cairo, and a funny story or two which I hope to share over the next few days... some may say that this photograph is boring, taken from a distance and with no great detail, but I wanted to show you the four pyramids, and Cairo in the distance... close up shots will come later, including some fantastic shots of the pyramids which will help you gain a realistic perspective of just how *big* they are...
The one that seems largest in this photograph is actually the 2nd largest.. the one to the far left is Cheops Pyramid, and is actually the largest of the lot, albeit further away. We were able to go inside what seems to be the largest pyramid, an expedition that proved to be quite a physical challenge.. you see, they tell you it is 45 degrees down, then 45 degrees up, but you don't realise that the tunnel itself is so low you walk the entire way down, then up, bent over double because the ceiling is slow low ... and it is *hot*, and stuffy.. the air is very stale.
This part of the trip was another dream come true - I've always wanted to go to Egypt, and honestly believed it would never happen, but it did....
