{"id":17140,"date":"2022-08-14T10:00:29","date_gmt":"2022-08-14T14:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=17140"},"modified":"2024-11-19T13:26:44","modified_gmt":"2024-11-19T18:26:44","slug":"way-cool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=17140","title":{"rendered":"Way Cool"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published August 9, 2020 by Linda Lou Burton posting about Cairo, Egypt and Reykjavik, Iceland from Little Rock, Arkansas \u2013 <\/em>Fortunately I woke up from my Charlton Heston dream, it\u2019s time to pack, and go. I must be thinking FAMILY today, getting excited about the grandkids that join me tomorrow in Reykjavik.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>But I haven\u2019t yet written anything really positive about Cairo. Like its designation as \u201ccity of a thousand minarets<\/em>,\u201d and the Old City<\/em>, which includes the site of a Roman-era fortress and Islamic-era settlements pre-dating the founding of Cairo. Pretty awesome stuff, that you can only see right here<\/em>; I should have planned longer to explore. There are cultural tours, historical tours, art tours, and even ghost tours. I\u2019ve done the top rated suggestions \u2013 the Pyramids<\/em> and the Nile<\/em> cruise. But I haven\u2019t mentioned the many parks in the city, or delved into the food scene at all. \"\"<\/a>Most of the posh hotels offer five-star dining; and it\u2019s cheaper here than in many countries. Lots of international choices \u2013 Spanish, Indonesian, Vietnamese, and traditional Egyptian of course; lots of rooftop and riverside dining if you don\u2019t want to brave the bustling local spots. Looking for \"\"<\/a>seafood, sushi, steak, or ful medames<\/em>? Ful medames<\/em> is a stew of fava beans, with garlic, onion, chili pepper and other vegetables; a staple in Egypt. Egyptian cuisine makes heavy use of legumes, vegetables, and fruit from the rich Nile Valley and Delta, similar to Eastern Mediterranean cooking. Rice-stuffed vegetables, grape leaves, kebabs; common meats are chicken and lamb. Tea is the national drink.<\/p>\n

Cairo International (CAI); Egyptian Air this time, flying 2,000 miles north over Greece, Croatia, Austria, and Germany before a stop in Copenhagen, Denmark (CPH) for a few hours. Then 1,330 miles in a northwesterly direction over the the tip of Norway and the North Sea to Reykjavik, Iceland (KEF) and the biggest change on the entire trip.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>First of all, two of my grandkids arrive in the morning from Seattle; so the rest of the trip is \u201cfamily time\u201d instead of a singular experience. Then there is climate change, geography change, food change, and even \u201cdaylight\u201d change \u2013 that far north we\u2019ll have 17 hours of \"\"<\/a>summer daylight to play. From the heat and humidity of Thailand and UAE and Egypt; from palm trees and monkeys and sand and camels; from Aboriginal and Buddhist and Islamic religions; from a generally hectic pace to the no-frills Lutheran way of life, where fish top every menu, swimming in geothermal pools is a year-round habit, and there\u2019s not a poisonous snake to be found.<\/p>\n

Just a wee bit south of the Arctic Circle \u2013 Reykjavik, Iceland, the northernmost capital city in the world. Way cool.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published August 9, 2020 by Linda Lou Burton posting about Cairo, Egypt and Reykjavik, Iceland from Little Rock, Arkansas \u2013 Fortunately I woke up from my Charlton Heston dream, it\u2019s time to pack, and go. I must be thinking FAMILY today, getting excited about the grandkids that join me tomorrow in Reykjavik. But I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3464],"tags":[3358,3873,3852,3874,3870,3872,3871,570,3875,3876,3465],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17140"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17140"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19204,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17140\/revisions\/19204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}