American in Riyadh Visiting Cairo

Hi Everybody in the Egypt Forum!  I'm from the Saudi Forum

I'll be visiting Egypt from the 20th of November to the 28th with my daughter.  My plan is to stay at the Windsor for a few days (unless one of you knows a better place? Windsor is about $70/night for an ensuite double and it's very centrally located and while somewhat run down, a very historic place).

Can we take the metro from the airport into the city?  Can we take the metro out to the pyramids?  If not, any idea how much taxi fare is from middle of Cairo?  Any good restaurants in the Windsor area that you can recommend ??? BTW, the Windsor is located at 19 Alfi Bei Street.

Are there many bazaars in the city?  Which do you recommend?  Do we need to book a 'tour' to see the pyramids or can we just do it ourselves (we have never ever booked tours anywhere, just take public transport and do what we want to do).. we're very independent travelers!

I was thinking about taking the night train to Luxor for a few days.  Any of you ever do this?  Hotel recommendations for Luxor?  Also, what goes on in Aswan?  Is it worth going there??  Or will Luxor satisfy our need for the wonderful history of Egypt??  Any hotel recommendations in Luxor ???

QUESTIONS!!!

Thanks so much for your time