Number 100: Egypt, one of our 2020 World Cruise destinations, was “COVID” aborted before arrival. Fortunately we had visited previously!

“In each generation every Jewish person must see themself as having personally left Egypt”. So the December 2003 question of family and friends in Israel was: Why go there?   

Well:   We love traveling to new countries, tasting different foods, exploring history, Jewish life, exotic markets, local art.  

It transpires that despite the March 1979 Peace Agreement with Israel, most Israelis do not visit Egypt. “Egypt discourages their people from visiting Israel, Israelis are unwelcome there and there are security concerns” they say. But our tickets had been purchased…

So much to experience: One of the last Jews of Cairo guarded the Ben Ezra Synagogue entrance, rich in history; the Egyptian Museum antiquities;  dinner sailing the Nile; papyrus art; drinking sweet milky sahlab at Khan El-Kalili market. 

Standing at the Pyramids of Giza was awesome, midst camels and cries for “baksheesh”.   Close up – they don’t look like the photographs! The magnificent Giza sound and light show included the Sphinx calling (in vain!) for Egypt to host the 2010 Soccer World Cup. (South Africa eventually won the bid). 

Each day our guide called for Mr and Mrs “Scolin” at our “Le Sphinx” Hotel Sofitel: The chaotic traffic, the ubiquitous buildings in construction – unfinished for tax reasons; the markets’ vibe; travelling through the trash and people who live in it, en route to the Cave Church Monastery.   

Delicious food, but “fuul” (beans) was the wrong choice just before flying back to Israel!  Security was tight. While our bags were “only” searched, questions and body search of the Arab Israeli men on the flight took a lot longer.

Egypt is central to our consciousness, embedded further at each year’s Pesach Seders. My father z”l spoke of the Egypt he visited during the War and the incomplete Cape to Cairo highway. However realistic the pictures, there is nothing like being there on the ground! While just a small taste of the place, we bask in our reflection of our special few days in ancient Egypt.