My sister and I have had our plans for a Nile River cruise in the works for several years. We postponed from March of last year due to the damage and clean up to my Florida home from Hurricane Helene in October 2024.

We rebooked for this March with high hopes. On Sunday we arrived in Cairo for three days of Cairo activities, followed by plans to board a Viking Nile River cruise starting March 4th.

Yesterday we were informed of Viking’s decision to cancel all Nile River cruises for the month of March due to Trump’s illegal war in Iran. We booked our flights separately, not through Viking, so they pretty much cut us loose here in Cairo. See you later, bye.

We have had, through Viking, two days of touring the main tourist sites of Cairo.

We started our first day’s tour with a drive through Cairo, from our hotel to the Sakkara Step Pyramid and the necropolis. Cairo and the surrounding area is home to 25 million people, and 12 million cars. These cars do not necessarily stay within the traffic lanes or abide by the traffic lights and laws. I would not recommend renting a car. We were escorted through Cairo in a Viking motor coach.

We toured the Tomb of Kagemni in Saqqara, the most well-preserved tomb in Saqqara, dating from Egypt’s Old Kingdom, c. 2345 BCE. The artwork is truly incredible. Our guide, an Egyptologist, explained the meaning of the animals and symbols carved in the stone.

Also at the Sakkara (Saqqara) site, we saw the Step Pyramid, the first and oldest pyramid.

We toured a carpet making school, gorgeous silk carpets (very expensive) and had lunch. There is no issue in finding vegetarian meals here with plenty of hummus, quinoa, lentils, falafel, etc.

After lunch we headed to the Citadel to tour the Mosque of Muhammad Ali.

Back at our hotel at 4 pm, we had a quick nap, still adjusting to the new time zone, and then set out for an evening tour of the Khan el-Khalili market and dinner. We are here during Ramadan, so things really ramp up after sunset.

We followed our guide through the Khan el-Khalili market, passing several mosques, through throngs of Ramadan celebrants, dodging dogs and cats and eventually to our dinner location, a rooftop restaurant at a boutique hotel.

We made our way back to the bus after dinner, stopping for a little shopping in the market. We saw many cats and dogs. Some of the cats were sleeping in the shops, and looked as though they were taken care of. Many looked a bit less cared for, and many looked pregnant. The most heartbreaking for me was a small kitten trying to cross the busy main market street. We also saw a lot of dogs, which mostly looked homeless, sleeping in all sorts of places, sometimes in packs, sometimes alone. During our trek back through the crowded streets we saw three dogs walking in the center of the street looking very casual and unconcerned.

Our talented driver maneuvered the large motor coach through the crowded narrow streets to deliver us back to our hotel safely. He got a round of applause.