SWOBODA4

My wife and I are back home now after a wonderful visit to Egypt. Mustafa Ahmed, a Tour Consultant for Memphis Tours, worked with us on developing two day-long tours that included everything we wanted to experience. (Our tour operator for the two week trip, not Memphis, offered optional excursions, but they were thin on content, included agroups of 40 people and expensive.) Mustafa set us up with Meleka Shaker, an extraordinary Memphis Tours egyptologist. (The trips included only my wife, me, Meleka and the driver. The cost was only slightly higher than tours offered by others for groups of 40 with much smaller itineraries.) Meleka provided us with two highlights of our trip. On Dec. 8, he and a Memphis Tours driver took us to Saqqara, Dahshur and Memphis. He made sure we had every opportunity to enjoy the sites, enter pyramids and museums, etc. His knowledge of egyptology, archaeology and linguistics went far beyond other tour guides we met during our trip. When he took us to lunch, a 3-piece band greeted us as we got out of the car! The meal was among the best we had during our trip. The next day, Meleka took us through Alexandria. I had requested a long list of sites to visit, much longer than is normally done in one day..........and some of the sites (e.g. the National Museum of Alexandria and the Midan Saad Zaghoul) do not appear on any standard tour of the city. Meleka made sure again that we visited every site and enhanced our visits with his extensive knowledge..........and, of course, provided lunch in a restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean. One memorable moment (of many) occurred when Meleka, in explaining that "Nefer" in the names "Nefertiti" and "Nefertari" means "beautiful," turned to Mary, my wife, and proclaimed her "Nefer-Mary." I still call her "Nefer-Mary" and will always remember Meleka's passion for and knowledge of his country, its history & culture. Thank you Meleka. Thank you Mustafa. Thank you Memphis Tours.