March 2025

In March 2025, we were invited to join our humans as they were going to study Ancient cultures in Egypt. On the itinerary were visits to the world famous pyramids at Giza, a Nile cruise and a visit to Abu Simpel in the far south. We would finish with some sunny days in Hurghada. Click this map to check out, where we went.

Click each photo to enlarge

Dublin, March 2025

Before the trip, our community of stuffed animals had been hit by fake news. One bear who in particular had been affected by misinformation, was... Roger! He had started panicking when a rumour went around, that since Roger had already been to Egypt, his seat had been made vacant and had been reallocated to TutankhBear. Good lord, did Roger panic? In the weeks to come, we were all - including humans - lectured about right and wrong, about unjustice and anti social behaviour and political correctness and... you name it!

Then it was revealed that it was just fake news, and boy, was Roger relieved? It meant that it was business as usual, and that we could pack our suitcases and go to Dublin Airport on the 1st March as planned. Here we are at the old B-gates in Dublin Airport. Cairo was waiting.

Cairo Intl airport, March 2025

After 5 hours, we arrived Cairo International Airport and went to pick up our luggage. Here we are at the conveyor belt waiting on our suitcases. There were lots of people from Ireland, and we would be joining some of them on a tour group from the travel agency, Travel Department.

Cairo, March 2025

We were transferred from the airport through a bustling Cairo city to our hotel, the Holiday Inn Maadi Hotel on the east bank of the River Nile. Here, we would be staying two nights while studying the city.

Gizah, Cairo, March 2025

Early next morning we were taken by coach to the new museum, called the GEM - The Grand Egyptian Museum. It's huuuge to put it mildly. It openend in 2024, and the museum has a hundred thousand artifacts from ancient Egyptian history on display.

Going to Egypt meant that McBear, just like Roger, would have been to Egypt. There had always been a certain rivalry between them about which bear had been to the most countries. McBear had taken the lead with his pioneering trips to Peru and Scotland in 2000. But then in 2001 Roger went to not only America, but also Egypt. This of course caused McBear great concern, and since then a regular counting was being conducted to check if any new travel may have stirred up the balance. But going to Egypt in March 2025 meant, that McBear once again was in the lead.
"You're turning into Roger," Tom noticed.

Gizah, Cairo, March 2025

Our guide, Dodi, was very competent and knowledgeable, and he told us everything we needed to know about pyramids, pharaohs and ancient Egypt. Here he is telling us about cartouches. They were visible everywhere - just everywhere! One could see them on the ancient monuments. They were a kind of stamp or identifier, and the pharaohs used them so other people could read who had built a certain temple or who had won a battle.

Gizah, Cairo, March 2025

In the entrance hall was a massive statue of Ramses II on display. The statue was almost 10 meters tall and weighed a staggering 83 tons. Ramses II was the pharaoh of Egypt from 1279 to 1231 BC so it was a long time ago.

It didn't take long before Roger had started to visualize himself as the great pharaoh, Roger Ramses - or perhaps it was Ramses Roger.

Gizah, Cairo, March 2025

The Grand Egyptian Museum has tons of sculptures on display, but also art and Egyptian writing known as hieroglyphs. It had been very difficult for scientists to read hieroglyphs until the excavation of the famous Rosetta Stone. On this stone, text was written in both hieroglyphs, Demotic writing and in Greek. Thus it was easy for scientists to compare texts and finally learn how to translate hieroglyphs.

As we were walking around and studying the exhibits, a custodian passed by. He looked at us as if he'd never seen bears before. Then he turned to our human, pointing his fingers towards us and asked:
"What is that?"
Well, we believed it was obvious what it was: it was two bears visiting the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Gizah, Cairo, March 2025

We ended our tour in front of the official souvenir shop. During the visit, Roger had learned about the gold and glamour surrounding the young Pharaoh, Tutankhamun. Roger left his visions of being Ramses Roger. Instead, Roger visualized himself as the all time greatest pharaoh, TutankhRoger. Standing in front of the souvenir shop with all its gold and glamour stuff, he felt tempted.
"Howabout we go in and get me some pharaohnian art to bring home? I wouldn't mind a golden sarchophagus, a golden goddess and of course a golden chariot with a sword and a club to show my heroic nature."
"Some pharaosious art? No, Roger, no is the answer, just NO," McBear pointed out.
"I can imagine our humans' faces when they get the bill for a massive overweight on the return flight."

Cairo, March 2025

After lunch, we went to see the old national museum in Cairo. The building was finished late 1800s. But due to all findings being brought in from ongoing archaeological excavations around the time, the building got too small. Among treasures at the museum are many of the belongings of the famous pharaoh, Tutankhamun.

Here we are in front of the museum. Tutty Bear and Isabella were with us. Tutty Bear was his official name, according to the factory settings (the name were sewed underneath his left foot), but that didn't deter Tutty from changing it to a more appropriate name, TutankhBear. It was a name that would more accurately point to his heritage and what he represented: Tutankhamun.

Cairo, March 2025

We weren't allowed to take pictures of the treasures of Tutankhamun such as his massive sarcophagus of gold. We were not allowed to take a photo of his golden mask either, so instead we took a photo of TutankhBear.

Later in the day, however, we made a stop at an alabaster factory and they had a large model of Tutankhamun's mask on display. Our photgrapher got a good shot for the banner on our website. Tutty Bear was delighted.

"Such a grand treasure. It's amazing to admire all the art work," he said.
Roger was listening. He felt that the great TutankhRoger deserved the same kind of golden mask - at least.

Gizah, March 2025

The next day it was time to see the pyramids. TutankhBear was delighted. For the first time in his life, he was now standing in front of a real pyramid. TutankhBear said he was a multicopied entity of the great pharaoh, Tutankhamun from 2,000 years ago.

Roger was in a semi-sulky mood. He wasn't too happy with this pharaohnian rivalry. Roger believed that he was the supreme pharaoh, TutankhRoger.

Gizah, March 2025

Here we are in front of the three world famous pyramids: the Khufu, the Khafre and the Menkaure pyramids. At 146 meters, the Khufu pyramid is the tallest, though it lost 9 meters of the top due to an earthquake. Scholars believe the pyramids are layed out to resemble the three stars in the belt of Orion, the constellation, and that the Milkyway resembles the Nile. McBear believed the scholars had a good point.
Seeing the pyramids, Roger felt very inspired.
"McBear, we should build a pyramid at home in the garden."
"A pyram... Wha'?...In the garden?"
"Yeah. The tomb of the greatest of pharaohs, TutankhRoger. If we build it to the scale, you always talk about, scale 1:8, the pyramid only needs to be 15 meters tall."
"Roger, I am sure our neighbours will be delighted when they wake up to discover a huge thingie overshadowing their entire house. Our neighbours will see a pyramid taking up half their garden area to each side."
"Ah, McBear, you're always shattering my visions."

Gizah, March 2025

We also went to see the famous Sphinx. The sculpture is a massive lion lying down with a pharaoh's head. McBear told us that some scholars believe the sphinx is much older than the pyramids even though the head is shaped like a pharaoh's head. The reasoning being that first: the head is too small compared to the rest of the sculpture, and second: in modern times a layer of stones have been laid out to cover the original paws. The original paws carries signs of erosion from far before the pyramids.

Cairo, March 2025

Inspired by the pyramids, the golden sarcophagus and all the hieroglyphs, Roger wanted a cartouche of his own.
"Every great pharaoh seems to have their own cartouche and so should every world famous bear."
Roger asked McBear help him design and make a cartouche. When it was finished, Roger looked content as he studied the outcome.
"At first glance, people will know that this is the great pharaoh, TutankhRoger.

Cairo, March 2025

We finished the day at the old bazar in Cairo. Here, one could buy all sorts of useless stuff. Tom had a chat with one of our humans. Tom returned with some disturbing news.
"Our human told me, that this would be a great place to sell the bears," Tom said. "Our human said there are way too many bears at home."
"He said what?" McBear was in shock.
"That's right, he said that." Tom continued:
"He also said it would be very easy to sell world famous bears first."
"He said WHAT?" Roger asked with horror.
"Then he said 'Only kidding'," Tom finished.
"McBear, we can't publish this on our website," Roger pointed out. "It's not good for humans to read such cruelty..."

Cairo, March 2025

The last morning we enjoyed the view from our sunny balcony. Well, to say "enjoyed" is a big word. As you can see on the photo, the area had plenty of high rise and Cairo is said to have 20 million citizens - and 3 million cars. McBear believed it would help improving the air quality if all the citizens would start to cycle instead.