Cairo, Egypt

Arriving in Cairo is only the beginning of the adventure. There is one road leading to/from the airport and you learn immediately that every hour is rush hour in Cairo. We’ve heard stereotypes of driving in different parts of the world, but riding as a passenger is physically exhausting. The lane markers act hardly as guidelines as our taxi bobbed and wove through the streets of Cairo. Every car experience was like this. In several instances we were centimeters away from hitting or scrapping adjacent cars. When driving it is best not to look at the cars ahead or nearby, but just take in the amazing chaos of the Cairo streets. At one point we hit a pothole that seemed to swallowed the entire car – looking to the side was a bus (inches from the window) and two cars almost on top of the rear bumper. This was very typical.

Perhaps the only thing more gut wrenching then driving in Cairo is crossing the street. Greater Cairo has a population of nearly 20 million people. Greater Cairo has approximately 3 sidewalks and 0 pedestrian bridges or subways. This means crossing the street is a human version of “Frogger”. No joke! Throughout 5 days in Cairo there were multiple situations that forced us to cross the street and take this leap. Watching locals do this was magical. Picture a line of New Yorkers trying to cross 5th Avenue at Rush Hour while the stop lights are green. Native Egyptians make this passage with the utmost confidence and rarely get hurt. This does not just happen on the city streets but also the highways.

A thunderstorm blew in on Monday that brought high winds, sideways rain and gridlock traffic. They say that it only rains in Cairo 5 times a year, lucky for us.

The people of Cairo are extremely friendly, at least from what we saw. Often in travels any attempt of humor with someone speaking their 2nd language will lose its affect – not the case here. Many encounters throughout Cairo brought not only warm conversations, but some solid humor with great punch lines. For instance, when our taxi driver to the pyramids picked up that we were talking about how insane driving is in Cairo, he deadpanned “well, why don’t you drive us back after the pyramids”. Great delivery. Our trip highlight was probably a local family hosting us for a home cooked meal. Getting out of the hotel and tourist areas gave us a real flavor for what family life is like in Egypt.

They say no trip to Cairo is complete without a trip to the Pyramids. On the approach to Giza, you can easily see why. The pyramids dominate the skyline and the outskirts houses a community that thrives on tourists visiting the Great Wonders.

We saw some classic examples of capitalism in full force here:

1) Being asked by a guide if we wanted to go to the “Papyrus Museum”. In the museum they demonstrate how papyrus was made 5,000 years ago. The presentation is very cool, but you’ll quickly be escorted around the “museum” where you can pick out your papyrus art. There was no question the guide got a nice commission for the business he brought in to the shop.
2) Constant harassment to purchase souvenirs or take tours of the Pyramids on camels, horses or buggies. We saw dozens of smooth operators literally putting souvenirs on tourists and then trying to charge them for it.

We finally caved into the buggy/horse guides. There were three of us at the time, so the girls were in the buggy and D was on the horse (see video above). A price was agreed upon at the beginning for the tour. After 30 seconds on the horse the guide handed me the reins and said ‘you’ll be ok”. GREAT! The girls were way ahead now in the comfort of a buggy and here I am in the middle of a desert barebacking 500 yards behind them. The guide started having fun with us and speeding the horse up shaking up the insides of my stomach. Every local we passed was just laughing (at me) or smiling (at the girls). Glad we could provide the days entertainment. We had opted for the medium tour which brought us outside the gate complex of the pyramids and sphinx. The girls in the buggy took off down small streets through the village in quite a hurry. D was quickly no where to be seen, it turns out he was taken through the make shift dump rather than the small streets. D's guide thought the dump would be a good place to ask for a tip. After a long bumpy road through small streets the girls ended up at the main entrance of the pyramids. They were asked to pay to re enter or show our tickets. Finally D emerged and we are all reunited at the main ticket gate. At this point we have all lost our patience with our insides all mixed up. We find our driver and happily prepare for a long ride to the airport. Our guide gave D the bird for his apparent displeasure with the tip! Apparently #1 translates in Arabic as well... :)

We would do this again in a heart beat! In the future we will hire a guide from the hotel. For some more pictures from Cairo, please come back soon...

Laax, Switzerland

Last day in the Alps and what a day it was! Switzerland is definitely hurting for snow, but Laax/Flims/Falera seems to be some of the best in the country. Set about an hour and a half from Zurich this is pretty easy to get to via train and bus.

On the mountain you’ll find some of the best parts of Swiss skiing – good bumps, soft snow, lots of gondolas/cable cars, glacier skiing, snow parks and festive après ski locations at the mid mountain stop.

This was a great place to end the season with no crowds and cloudy skies that lifted off by late morning. For a link to some of the pictures click here.

Munich, Germany

Munich fits many stereotypes of Germany - famous beer halls, automobile manufacturers and traditional Deutsch wardrobes. On a quick visit we had a chance to see some major sights.

Near the center of town (Marienplatz) you'll find the town hall (Rathaus) and the "world famous" Glockenspiel. If you've been to Munich you already know this is possibly the biggest tourist trap in Western Europe. High above the main square at least three times a day 11, 12 and 6pm you'll get the song and dance of figurines highlighting some Bavarian history. To put this in perspective best, K's little brother watched for about 30 seconds and said "that's it". Yes that's it. The "people watching" was far better as you see others gawking (mouths wide open) and trying to guess who might get their pocket picked.

A far better spend of time was the BMW factory tour. Reserve ahead (we didn't) to guarantee a spot, but this was a very cool display of German manufacturing. Our guide did an excellent job explaining the production, but there were several words where he got tripped up on his accent. For example, throughout the production floor he explained that robots now perform close to 97% of the actual work on the floor. Due to his accent robots actually sounded exactly like "rabbits" which brought chuckles throughout the group. For example when he talked about "programing the robots", it sounded like we might have been on a cloning tour (programming rabits?) rather then one of the top car manufacturers of the world.

No visit to Munich is the same without one trip to the Hofbrauhaus. This legendary beer hall is filled with litres of beer, um-pah-pah bands and many tourists. An incredible scene. The Aberdeen Scotland Football club had a match the next night, so the Hofbrauhaus was filled with Scots. They thrived in the atmosphere. Lots of chanting, toasting and drinking. At our table we had 4 Scots (in for the game), 1 S. African man accompanied by a women from London. Upon the UK women opening her mouth to the Scots, they immediately started making fun of her accent and where she was from. Rather then "taking her medicine" she did not back down and kept egging the quartet on... In any other enviornment, you'd think that this was a terrible idea but this is par for the course.

Our English friend provided two other laughs. She claimed K's brother wasn't properly eating his meal (pig knuckle, potatoes and coleslaw). Not a minute later she had nearly climbed over the table to feed him from his own spoon. This brought many laughs and cheers from other tables. About 5 minutes later she decided to have a couple shots with her S. African friend, which led to a make-out scene that would put Dicaprio's performance in Titanic to shame. That also brought some laughs and cheers. You can get a dose of the atmosphere from the video above. For some the rest of the Munich shots click here.

More from Davos...

The locals really seem to dig just hanging out on top of the mountain - perhaps because they need some more snow, perhaps because it is such beautiful scenery or perhaps because with a little bit of effort you can pull off a setup like this...

FC Zurich

This was a great entry to European football. Sunday matched Basel (#1) vs. Zurich (#3) here in town. If you haven't been to a football match there isn't much like it compared to other sporting events. From the moment you leave your apartment on gameday in Zurich you'll see a sea of blue and white (the home team's colors); most often you'll come across scarves sporting these team logos and colors. The streets, trams and trains all turn into a massive tailgate with fans taking full advantage of no open container laws over here.

As Basel isn't too far away it looked like they were going to travel well. Streams of Basel fans in red and blue were parading through the streets of Zurich in route to the stadium. You definitely got the sense that there was a bit of a rivalry between the two teams. After asking about it, there were some riots/field chargings (in 2006) after a contraversial goal in the 93rd minute. Security has been increased at these games since, which was witnessed in full force (riot gear police and security on the roof). There were 4 main sections in the stadium (A-D), but the areas are fenced off to keep different sections of fans corralled. At one goal the diehard FC Zurich fans packed the stands, by standing on top of their seats, chanting and waving flags the whole game. On the far end, the Basel fans barely put a dent in their seat allocation. We learned later that Basel claims Zurich prices are too high, so they refuse to pay? These sections are literally fenced off and it looks a large zoo exhibit.

The Zurich fans gave a great taste for what a football match is all about. They filled their section with smoke upon the smart of the game and seemed to chant non-stop for 90+ minutes. Very impressive. A penalty kick in extended time let Zurich tie the game which made for a really dramatic finish. An afternoon like that makes it easy to see how football is so popular over here.

Davos, Switzerland

Known mainly as the host of the World Economic Forum, Davos makes for another typical Swiss outdoorsmen's paradise. The ski mountain is pretty spread out, 3 peaks (1 requiring train transfer) and an additional 3 at neighboring Klosters. You can find just about any terrain on the mountain. It would be a great on a powder day.

On top of one of the peaks rests a large outdoor bar/restaurant that was jammed with people all day. If you've skiied A-basin in Colorado, think of the "beach" at the base and this is the scene here. At this resting point you not only get a perch overlooking Davos and the surrounding Alps, but this is the primary take off point for paragliders. As you sit eat lunch, drink hot chococate, etc. you get to watch these guys run off the mountain and start flying in midair. By early afternoon no less then 15 of these fliers zoomed overhead. If the paragliding did not trigger your eye a quick glance to your right overlooked a snowboard park where dozens of snowboarders and extreme skiers showed off their latest moves.

They say the Swiss really like to relax on the mountain as much as they enjoy skiing. Davos is a great place for it. Besides the location above, a few runs over had a lunch spot w/ lounge chairs in addition to covered park benches for picnics. The town itself seemed pretty underwhelming, at least compared to Wengen or Zermatt. Lots of concrete square architecture, which you don't see much of over here. To see Davos at its best, head up the mountain!

For some additional shots of Davos click here...

Zermatt, Switzerland

This was one of the best ski experiences of Switzerland combined with a beautiful Swiss village. Zermatt is tucked down near that Italian border in the southern portion of Switzerland. You can reach it by three hours from Geneva, Zurich or Milano. Here you will find plenty of skiing (4 peaks), lots of transport up the mountain (trains, gondolas, cable cars, escalators, helicopters, elevators) and beautiful views of the Matterhorn at every turn.

Off piste skiing here was pretty good, despite most of the something for every type of skiier here,country needing some snow. Almost every day has been spring like conditions, which is typically great. You can literally find but the scenery really made it easy to stop and catch your breath.

The village of Zermatt was lively and beautiful at night. You can find all kinds of lodging options (5 star to budget). There are plenty of options for apres ski or dinner venues. We opted to go with a traditional Swiss meal, splitting some meat fondue.

Until you see it, you don't really understand what the big deal is about Matterhorn. We caught it from many different angles and after just a few glances you quickly understand why this is such a key source of national pride among the Swiss. Perhaps one of the favorite views was walking out of our apartment in the morning, catching Matterhorn lit from the morning sun.

Since Zermatt backs up to Italy, you have the ability to ski in two countries on the same day. The conditions were relatively the same, although the Swiss side (Zermatt) had more terrain then the Italian side (Cervinia). After one cable car ride up on the Italian side, you quickly realize how much more social and outgoing the Italian are compared to the reserved Swiss. The decibel level was a noticeable difference on each side.

The highest point you can ski from is about 3900m (over 12,800ft). This cable car may cause some white knuckles on the ascent, but the view makes it completely worth the angst. Atop this peak you get spectacular views of the Matterhorn, Italian and Swiss Alps. At this altitude you are surrounded by glaciers which seem to go on forever toward the southeastern corner of Switzerland. Even from a lower altitude (just below 2500m) you get some great views of Matterhorn and the surrounding mountains. In fact we had a pretty nice view at lunch Sunday...

For some more pictures of scenic Zermatt, click here.

Look Big Ben, Parliament...

This will be the last run to London. Although pricey it has brought lots of familiarity (language, friends, etc.) that at times has been very welcomed. Its a great city and you can see why so many ex-pats choose to call this home. The past couple times we've been through here it has been sunny skies and about 45-55 degrees. If you are lucky enough to get a blue sky day in London, you're really in for a treat! Two days in a row like this really get the town buzzing and everyone is out and about walking through the parks. For a few extra pictures of Westmister Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, Westminster Cathedral click here...

Signs that you travel too much...

Observations from flying too much….

Please keep in mind that upon writing this it is known that we fly entirely too much, but there were a couple situations worth noting. After going through security at JFK we noticed a couple being scrutinized at the security line. They were trying to bring hummus and butter on the flight. Tubs of butter and tubs of hummus (think Costco portions). Have these two people been living under a rock for the past 5-7 years? Unbelievable…. Also, as an addendum to our European rants of a few weeks ago there is an addition – loud passengers can be on any flight, any airline and of any nationality. Two Swedish women yapped on the first three hours of the flight like they were hosting a pep rally. Neither of them took a hint to lower their decibel levels, despite being sushed and stared at by 6 rows of passengers. Polite smiles and stares don’t go very far with a language barrier. For 9 hours they talked constantly.

Since people obviously don't take hints in these public situations what about letting passengers control this situation. What if you could send a message in any language via text to there seat requesting that passenger to shutup (in their language of choice). The more nastygrams you accrue you can either get moved to a lousy seat on that plane, lose status/miles in a frequent flier program. In theory you could get voted off the plane (survivor/reality tv style). By no means does this need to be restricted to planes, it is just as necessary on trains.