Egypt, Cairo!

My first trip ever away from Avery and we went to Egypt! I never figured I would go that far for my first child free trip but I guess I never figured I would go to Egypt either!

The airport car picked Josh and I up at 4:15am. When we we arrived at the airport there was a huge line for our flight. There should never be a line before 6am! After more than a half an hour in line we finally found out that there was a computer failure and our entire flight was standing in line with no one checking in. After 2 hours in line we were finally checking in. We were pretty sure we would miss our connection in Istanbul but the airline wouldn't offer any other flight options. When we arrived in Istanbul and started the sprint to the next gate we saw our connection flight to Cairo leaving, without us. While standing in line waiting to sort out a new connection we met up with our friends from Georgia Tech, Nathan and Mandy Becker who are currently living in Zurich and expat friends of theirs who are also living in Zurich, Sarah and Zann. They had planned to go into Istanbul to make use of their 6 hour layover. Unfortunately the airline couldn't get us our connection tickets in time for Josh and I to join everyone on the excursion. Instead we found ourselves being treated to free Burger King (Burger King in the Istanbul airport, gee thanks) while the airline sorted out our tickets, along with about 14 other people on our same flights. They then moved us to the airline lounge and three hours after landing we finally had our connection ticket on the same flight as our friends. Our layover was 6 hours, fun times. Our next flight went smoothly and we finally arrived in Cairo...with no luggage. Yep, that's right, no one on our original flight from London had their bags. We spent almost two more hours in the Cairo airport trying to find out where our bag was and when it would arrive. I could kick myself for not packing two carry on bags instead of one checked bag. We were finally told that the bag should be on the next flight that arrived at 11pm.

Our trip was set up with airport connections, guides and all transportation so we were met by our driver (poor guy had been waiting forever) as we exited the airport. An hour later we arrived at our hotel. It was now after 11pm, almost 20 hours from when we left our house. Sure seems like we should have been further than Egypt after traveling for that long. The next morning our bag still hadn't arrived and the airline wasn't able to give us any information. Luckily I had packed an extra shirt in my purse so it was off to tour Cairo for the day in semi clean clothes.

Our first stop was the Giza Pyramids built by King Khufu, his son Khafre and his son Menkaure.

The largest pyramid on the left is King Khufu's. The one in the background on the right is King Khafre's.

Check out how big each section is.

We went inside Khafre's pyramid. The entrance way is less than 4ft tall and just wide enough for one person going each direction. No cameras are allowed in the pyramid but we managed to get one in.

Me, Josh, Zann, Sarah, Mandy, Nathan

The Sphinx. They are currently rebuilding part of the feet and body.

We visited a local papyrus shop. They showed us the steps in making papyrus.

Josh and I got the tree of life with Teitelman written on the top.

Then we toured the Egyptian museum. It was huge and very overwhelming. King Tut's tomb is in the museum. The tomb consists of several tombs with in tombs and included thousands of pieces including a solid gold death mask. There were also mummy's of all sorts of people and animals. No cameras were allowed in so no pics inside just this one of the outside of the museum.

At the end of the day when we got back to the hotel we still didn't have our bag. So frustrating considering we were getting ready for a dinner cruise down the Nile River. Mandy and Sarah jumped in and were able to outfit me for the night, complete with sandals that actually fit! Thanks girls!

The cruise was less about the view of the Nile and more about the entertainment. Little did we know that this spinning guy was traditional Egyptian entertainment and we would see it several more times.

Mandy and Sarah even joined in the bellydancing. You can find more of Mandy's dance on YouTube.


What a day! We experienced so much and saw so many amazing things.

1am: OUR BAG ARRIVES AT THE HOTEL!!! (can you tell I was thrilled?)

Ireland with Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa were able to come visit during spring break again this year. After a quick day recovering from jet lag we headed off to Ireland. Josh wasn't able to make the trip with us due to work obligations. We flew into Shannon and headed east to Cashel where we toured the Rock of Cashel.


We stayed at a working sheep farm B&B. After an amazing breakfast we got to see all the sheep including all the new baby sheep, several we saw were only 4 days old.



Then we headed to the west coast. Along the way we stopped to explore Cahir Castle.



We stopped at a waterfall near Killarney. The entire area was covered in moss.



We had amazing views as we neared the Ring of Kerry.


We stayed in the Parknasilla lodge the next two nights.

View from the lodge.


Our first stop the next morning was Staigue Fort, a stone fort. Dad and I did some climbing while Mom and Avery stayed a bit more grounded.



We drove the Ring of Kerry followed by the Ring of Dingle, stopping along the way for many awesome views.



Gallarus Oratory, a stone church on the Ring of Dingle




On our last full day we took the car Shannon Ferry on our way to the Cliffs of Moher. Taking in the very rainy view from the dry waiting area.


When we arrived at the cliffs the wind was gusting, it was raining and the temperature on the car said 2.5*C (36*F). Brrr!!!! Little did we realize just how miserable the conditions really were until we were on the edge of the cliffs. This is one of only 4 pictures we managed to take.


I'm not sure that we ever warmed up for the rest of the day. The next morning we decided to fit in a second quick trip back to the Cliffs on our way to the airport in hopes of a better view. It was still cold and very windy but we were able to get a few more pictures and enjoy it a little more.




Before we knew it our trip was over...

Weekends

For the past month or so we have been trying to take advantage of our weekends and explore areas of London that we haven't been to before. Our weather in February was very rainy so any day where we saw the sun we packed up and headed out for the day.

We did a walking tour of the South Kensington and Knightsbridge areas including Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park.

The Albert Memorial

After a few miles of walking it was nap time for someone.

Another walk to Little Venice along Regent's Canal



Valentines Weekend

The London Eye lit up in red lights.

Chinese New Year
We went to China Town for the Chinese New Year. It was quite an event with lanterns, dragons, music and just a little bit of rain.

Entrance to China Town. It took us an hour to move one block.

We also visited the London Zoo again. Avery loved looking at all the animals.

I wasn't quick enough with the camera and the sheep were gone as soon as Avery and Daddy turned the corner.

Hampstead Heath play area just north of Hampstead.

Steering the boat.

Driver and sidekick.

Mother's Day was March 14th in the UK. I woke up to Aunt Jemima pancakes. A real treat considering the English don't really do pancakes. I even received two very special cards.

Custom artwork by Avery

We went to Kentish Town City Farm

Avery loves ducks!

Oink, oink!

Baa-Baa

We have also now experienced Avery's first stomach bug, probably the norovirus. This was not a fun 24 hours. We went through stacks of sheets, towels, blankets, pj's and stuffed animals. On the positive side it was only 24 hours!