London to Cairo

Bang! The wake-up call felt as if it came out of nowhere in the middle of night. I bolted up immediately wondered, "WTF"? "Your 5:30 wake-up call Mr. Ranney!" I thought it was a joke. But jet lag is a real monster and it was almost comical seeing many Americans asleep during on the bus tour in Cairo later in the day.

The typical dismal gray English sky greeted us at Luton Airport near London and soon we began our first leg of the jet journey. The cloud began to break over Germany, just as I was beginning my lecture. There were a few problems with the audio system so I was able to get a few pictures of the Alps as we crossed into Austria. (The iPad platform for my images  worked astoundingly well though)! More cloud covered the route from the former Yugoslavia to the Mediterranean coast. Today was fly day with clouds except for the Alps and so there are not too many pictures today.

Somewhere over the Tyrolian Alps, Austria, very close to the place where Ötzi the "ice man" was found. They have had a lot of snow in Europe this winter and it is obvious on this glorious day. Wish I could have photographed it more but I had to work!

View southwest over the Alps with the Adriatic Sea reflecting light in the upper left. Somewhere out there is Venice on the coast.

Near the front edge and slightly ahead of the jet engine, you can make out Salzburg, Austria

It was cloudy all the way to Cairo but we began to get good views of the little towns along the river

Populations are clustered tightly in Egypt. Here you can see a city near Cairo with the fields all around. American tend to spread out upon the landscape, here they cluster tightly.

Downtown Cairo

Ditto

There are 85 million people in Egypt. 80% of them live within a few miles of the Nile River.

Soldiers doing drills as we approach the airport

The Egyptian Museum does not allow camera's inside the building but it was a fabulous display of the King Tut artifacts. Looters in the Arab Spring uprising stole 29 artefacts from King Tuts Tomb but some have been recovered.

Egyptian statue made of diorite rock from the Nubian Desert

This is the National Party (Mubarak) headquarters that was destroyed during the February, 2011 uprising. It sits adjacent to Tahrir Square and the Egyptian Museum. Tomorrow's posting will relate the changes that have occurred sine the uprising. Right now things seem calm here.

As I went to wide angle, you could see the National Party Headquarters building framing our canape reception outside the Egyptian Museum

The scene was dripping with irony