Zambia World Wide

Although our main reason for coming to Cairo was to see the Pyramids there was so much else we also wanted to see, while we are here. We found Cairo to be a city of two parts, the old and the new, the old city has narrow winding streets, bazaars' and many historic mosques. We spent one or two mornings in the old city which we found fascinating, the bazaars were interesting and the variety of goods sold plus the noise and smells were different to anything we had come across before. Bartering seemed to be the normal way to purchase goods, which of course Jan loved. It was during our visits to the old city that we noticed that Gary seemed to get a lot of attention, particularly from the Arab women. After a while we realized it was once again because of his blonde hair. Blonde hair is unusual anywhere in Africa and seemed to fascinate African women. Although no harm is meant it can be a nuisance and annoying to a young child. However Gary did learn to put up with the interest as he realised they were just being inquisitive and friendly. The new city is mainly wide boulevards and high rise buildings, there are of course many shops, museums and open air markets. The volume of traffic was unbelievable, the sounding of car horns constant. It's doubtful if the drivers would be able to drive if the car horns were removed from the vehicles. Although it seemed pure mayhem, we saw very few accidents.

We had a really great time in Cairo and found out a lot about the history, which fascinated us. Our time in Cairo has come to an end and it is now time for us to continue on to England. We would as before be landing at Heathrow, where our parent would once again be meeting us. This time they were travelling in two cars and we would have to split up for the trip to Great Yarmouth. It was decided that Gary and Craig would travel in each car for half of the journey, as both grandparents wanted their company. The boys have now reached the fun age, Craig is three and Gary is six. Having been away from their grandparents for such a length of time, they all had much to talk about.

This time we stayed with Jan's parents in Caister-on-sea which is about 3 miles from Great Yarmouth and close to the beach. This was good for the boys as they had only a short walk to the beach where they could play in the sand and among the dunes. They would also take the two dogs that Jan's parents had for walks along the beach. There was also quite a lot to interest them along the beach, at the South end was the lifeboat station and close by there were a number of long-shore fishing boats which they enjoyed watching when the boats brought the day's catch ashore. At the North end was the start of California Cliffs, where the boys would play, climbing the cliffs and following the sand tracks along the cliffs plus playing among the sand dunes. Great Yarmouth had not changed much since our last visit, so we had less trouble adapting this time than previously. Most of the places we visited around Norfolk and Suffolk have been mentioned in previous chapters, so I will move on. The sea front at Great Yarmouth had also changed very little since our previous visit but as the boys were now older they had more fun. When I lived in Great Yarmouth, I always enjoyed chips and chopped tripe with loads of mustard-vinegar from the stalls in the market-place. Jan and the lads didn't and couldn't understand my liking for it. There are quite a number of foods that we had as children but many would not eat today. Some of these are shellfish, cockles, mussels, whelks and winkles, to name but a few. There are other food items that youngsters don't eat today, one of which is Pork Dripping on bread or toast, another is Pork Cheese often known as Brawn, this we would often have for Sunday tea. There are others but they don't come readily to mind.