Here's a compilation of email excerpts written by fellow-travelers Tom and Bill C. to their respective spouses here in Charlotte: Our "fabulous five" (connected by family and/or St. Gabriel Choir) constitutes nearly half of this STA Travel Tour twelvesome. Joining our Charlotte ensemble in Cairo are seven more 20-ish "student types": 2 from Canada, 2 from New Zealand, 2 from Australia, 1 more from the USA (thus we are now a group of 7 women ...

FROM STEAV AND BILL: DAY 4 The 5 of us are on our own for the last day before meeting tonight with our 7 other travelling mates. We (Steav and Bill) went off to the Egyptian Museum while Tom, Bill C. and Lisa continued their walking tour of Cairo. The Museum is as it has always been: a vast repository of antiquities that Egypt has been able to prevent leaving its borders. So much of this country's history was, literally, stolen by the museums of NY or London ...

FROM STEAV AND BILL: At 5:15 AM the local Imam sang us to sleep after arriving at our hotel about 4:30 AM. Interesting to listen to the "Call to Prayer" from a half dozen mosques nearby: one of which is directly outside our hotel window. We woke up circa 1 PM and readied ourselves for the day. Upon opening our door we found Bill C, Lisa and Tom standing outside our door preparing to leave us a note! Undoubtedly bored from waiting for us to wake up. L...

THE NEWS THAT YOU HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING TO HEAR: YES, STEAV AND BILL HAVE ARRIVED IN CAIRO! Although our travelling fivesome is no longer "en route", unfortunately, I cannot get that title to change . . . SORRY! Here are the latest updates from Tom, Lisa, and Bill from the "Cradle of Civilization" Day 2: We (Bill and Lisa) spent our second day (morning) in Cairo walking along the river Nile promenade and saw the opera house. Later aft...

While Bill and Steav wing their way overseas, these messages arrived from the others (Bill & Lisa began their multi-plane route to Egypt on Tuesday, Tom flew out of Charlotte on Wednesday, Steav & Bill began their transatlantic trip on Thursday)! Thursday, January 03, 2008 2:06 PM from Bill & Lisa So, after lunch we continued walking around Cairo. We explored along the Nile, past the Egyptian Museum and across the bridge. There seemed to be some...