The price was so low I couldn’t resist, even though I knew I might be mad to go to Egypt in August. I only had a week, so I was determined to make the most of the short time there, and fit in Luxor, some diving in Hurghada and a visit to Cairo and Giza too. The Egyptian Museum had been on my ‘to do’ list for ages, and who can visit Egypt and miss the pyramids?

So it was that we boarded the night train at Luxor’s dingy station, and enjoyed a pretty luxurious air-conditioned trip for a knock-down price (an Egyptian had kindly booked it for us, more than halving the tourist rate). We had arranged to meet our guide at Cairo’s main train station, and sure enough Emad was there in the dark at 6am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed! It was too early to press on with the tour, so Emad, with typically sweet Egyptian hospitality, took us back to his family’s house where his wife had a hot, gigantic breakfast waiting for us. Full of ‘foule’ and coffee, we hit Giza.

The early morning sun over the pyramids was spectacular, and in the claustrophobic crawl inside I was glad of the relative cool at that time in the morning. As we left, the first tour buses of the morning were arriving.

As the day started to heat up, we took refuge in the Egyptian Museum where I was enthralled by the stunningly well-preserved faces of Pharaohs I had studied and touched by Tutankhamen’s toy collection. I could have spent all day taking it in, but there were more locations on the day’s busy agenda.

Lunch was deep in the labyrinthine Khan el-Khalili souk, a manic, colourful place just perfect for people-watching over a pomegranate juice. I treated myself to a jade scarab, and we took a drive around the dusty city before our final area of the day: the Citadel.

The Citadel is the centre of Islamic Cairo. Remember your headscarf and long sleeves, and the ornate and lovely Muhammad Ali mosque is well worth a stop, helping to make a better-rounded view of Cairo than antiquities alone. That’s not to imply that the area lacks history! Muhammad Ali Pasha’s family ruled throughout the 19th century, and he is respected by many as the founder of modern Egypt. I loved his huge iron clock tower, presented by King Louis Philippe, with a tea salon in the top. The clock was given in exchange for the obelisk in Paris’ Place de la Concorde, but has never kept time! Paris certainly got the better deal.

We boarded another train back to Luxor at 7pm, arriving back at our hotel in the night for a well-earned sleep. It had been a crazy 32-hour trip, but Cairo’s a crazy, fascinating city, and I wouldn’t have missed a minute.