Egypt Day 5 - Luxor

November 19

Luxor is easily the highlight of the trip. It is the first place we are spending two nights in the same hotel and it's for a good reason.

A 6 am wake up call was tempered when we arrived to the Colossi of Memmon. Giant statues with the temple behind still being excavated and farm land all around, I could feel the West Bank of Luxor was going to be special.

Or guide was smart and took us to Al-Deir Al-Bahari Temple, the temple of the gender bending pharoah of Egypt, Hatshepsut. A queen of Egypt, Hatshepsut decided that she would instead be a king. All the statues and inscriptions of Hatshepsut show her as a man. She even went so far as to exile the rightful king for 22 years. He wasn't happy when he got back to Egypt and you'll the throne. As such, her image is erased throughout the temple. The temple is immense and we had the place to ourselves. We left after a solid 1.5 hours. Two major monuments and it wasn't even 9 am yet.

Next was one of the most stunning sites, Valley of the Kings. No pictures were allowed here. Big bummer. We visited 3 tombs, Tutmoses III, Tausert/Setrakht, and Ramses IV. Addie got a bonus tomb, Ramses VII. The decoration of the tombs and the way they were carved in to the mountain left me speechless. It was also great to connect the mummies we saw in the Cairo Museum with their stories and tombs. Tutmoses III was my favorite tomb, amazing colors and an incredible location fitting for the Napoleon of Egypt.

Habu Temple was the next stop. In Habu Temple we saw more amazing colors, statues and columns. After Habu, we returned to the hotel to rest up  more sites at night. Hassling and haggling in the streets was an unwelcome but necessary part of finding dinner. Pool time was then had.

Luxor Temple was our nighttime site. The columns and statues are given an impressive look with the lighting and the high moon. Looking back on the temple from the Avenue of Sphinxes (a lined path of 3 kilometers, most still underground, connecting Luxor and Karnak Temples) was gorgeous. Remarkably, even inside this temple, people on the street were hassling us to ride in their carriages.

After Luxor Temple we went for a buffet of traditional Egyptian foods specially prepared for our group. The food here is great.

This day in Luxor is the highlight of the trip for me. Amazing.

Egypt Day 4 - Trip to Luxor

November 18
We sailed on the felucca until sunset on Wednesday before anchoring to a sandy shore for dinner and to spend the night on the felucca. Most of our group quickly fell asleep after dinner.

The next morning, we awoke with the sun on the felucca. A quick bite to eat for breakfast was followed by Isaiah and I having a swim in the Nile. The water was surprisingly warm and the current stronger than anticipated. Swimming in the Nile was a must do for me on the trip.

We were met by our bus a little way upstream from our sleeping spot. Boarding the bus, I wished the felucca had taken us further. The roads and driving in Egypt are easily the scariest part of the trip. The only time I have felt at all unsafe was in Cairo traffic. They drive crazy here.

The first stop of the day was Kom Ombo Temple. Kom Ombo Temple is dedicated to Sobek and Horus. Sobek is the crocodile god. Before the creation of the dams at Aswan, crocodiles were known to inhabit the area around Kom Ombo Temple. The temple is situated off a large bend in the river. The slow moving water was perfect habitat for crocodiles. Another stunning temple filled with hieroglyphics, statues and columns, Kom Ombo is known for its crocodile museum. Inside the crocodile museum are many mummified crocodiles that were given to the temple as offerings to Sobek.

Next up was a stop at Edfu Temple. This temple is a huge monument to Horus. Without knowing how to put my pictures in to the blog through the app, much is lost. Believe me when I say, these places are awesome.

After Edfu, we headed to our hotel in Luxor. Luxor is the only place we are staying for two nights, so laundry and relaxing were the schedule for the rest of the night. On Thursday we are scheduled to visit 5 sites.

Egypt Day 3 - Aswan

November 18
Some of our tour group booked a side trip to Abu Simbel for this morning. The 3am departure, 3 hour bus ride each direction and the high cost of the trip did not appeal to me. Instead we opted to spend the morning relaxing in Aswan.

A leisurely breakfast with views of the Nile (our hotel directly bordered the river) was a great way to start the day. After breakfast we caught a cab to the Nubian Museum. A fair amount of haggling is needed on most transactions throughout Egypt.

The Nubian Museum is filled with artifacts and pictures from the area now covered by Lake Nasser. The amount of history lost with the building of the High Dam colored my time at the museum. An entire wing of the museum is filled with black and white photos as the only thing left from hundreds of known temples and ruins covered by the lake.

As with most sites in the tour, we pretty well had the place to ourselves until two bus loads of elementary aged children joined us at the museum. Addie was the star attraction for the Egyptian girls. They all wanted to take pictures with her. Addie was a great sport and posed with them until the teachers saw and shooed the children away.

We walked from the museum back to the hotel to experience the full on hassling of the people trying to get us to ride felucca or taxis. Back at the hotel, we took a dip in the pool and enjoyed the sun while reading and admiring the Nile.

When the remainder of our group returned from Abu Simbel, we boarded our felucca for an afternoon of sailing the Nile.

Egypt Day 2 - Sleeping Train to Aswan

November 16
Our group boarded the Watania Sleeping Train from Cairo to Aswan around 8pm. After a 13 hour or so train ride from Cairo to Aswan, we arrived in Aswan having slept haltingly in the bumpy and noisy train.

Our first stop was the Aswan Dam. Two dams are built on the Nile in Aswan. The lower Aswan Dam was built around 1902. It was not seen as adequate for Egypt's water needs by the 1960s when the High Dam was built. The High Dam submerged thousands of ancient sites in Lake Nasser important in both Egyptian and Nubian Culture. The High Dam also did keep thousands of important Egyptian sites downstream from being flooded by the fluctuating level of the Nile. The recurring theme of the time in Aswan for me was amazement at the willingness of the Egyptian Government to destroy so much of their history for the High Dam.

Due to the importance of the Aswan Dam to Egypt and the devastating impact of a dam breech, a full 1/3 of the Egyptian Army is stationed in Aswan to protect the dam. Everywhere near the dam requires going through heavily armed checkpoints.

After the dam, we went a little downstream to Philae Temple. When the lower Aswan Dam was built, Philae Temple was inundated with water. In the 1960s a temporary dam was built around Philae Island to rescue the temple. The temple was moved, stone by stone, from Philae Island to Agilika Island. Philae Temple was a beautiful place of quiet and tranquility much needed after Cairo and the sleeping train.

After the trip to our hotel for the night, we freshened up and went for a swim in the hotel pool. Showers and a change of clothes were needed after the night on the train. Before heading to a Nubian restaurant for traditional Nubian food, we visited the Aswan market. The area is known for their spices. I found some amazing smelling cumin and watched one of our group haggle down the price to 10 Egyptian Pounds (about $1 US) for 150 grams. Haggling is not really my cup of tea, so I entertained myself watching her work. The sights and sounds were also very entertaining. Definitely can't find a market like this in Idaho. 

The Nubian food was very similar to flood Addie and I regularly cook. Maybe I'm Nubian and never knew it.

A tiring, but amazing day.

Egypt Day 1 Nov 15 - Cairo

Today we saw the pyramids and the Cairo Museum.

The most amazing thing to me has been the sheer number of ancient monuments around. Outside the museum was littered with stone statutes, offering altars, and hieroglyphic tablets. The effect is that locals don't seem to even notice the massive quantity of history all around. One room in the Cairo Museum would be an entire museum on the Egyptian cultural in the US.

I'm not able to figure out how to pay pictures through the app. Sorry bout that.

Travel Day November 13-14th

Travel day started at 330 in Los Angeles. Up early to make our flight to Newark, the day started before the sun.

All and all the day was easy and uneventful. We arrived in Newark as our flight to Munich was beginning to board.

We had a longish layover in Munich, so we opted to spend some time in a nearby village, Erding. A beautiful Bavarian village, Erding was a nice way to spend some time and stretch out our legs.

Anther uneventful flight from Munich to Cairo had us landing at a little before 6 pm local time, a full 24 hours after leaving LA. Exhausted, as I somehow managed to only sleep during the shortish flight between Munich and Cairo, we met one of the tour guides and hopped on a private bus to the hotel.

There are no words to describe the traffic in Cairo. None. Lanes are suggestions, 4 lane highway often has as many as 7 cars abreast. Random cars with no lights on at night. Constant cacophony of honks. It really is indescribable.

After a long day of travel, all of us feel quickly asleep, anxious for the start of the tour.

Day 1

4:00 and day 1 is off to a start.

4:30 - get an email alerting us to the Lufthansa strike. Now in its 6th day, United wasn't the one who sent the message on the strike. Instead, it was the tour company. Lufthansa is our carrier between Munich and Cairo. Fingers crossed.

5:00 - arrive in the Boise Airport. Immediately succumb to the truth that my bag is not carry-on sized. Addie gets her bag pulled out in the security checkpoint. Wipe thingy shows a reaction. Addie gets pat down. Bag gone through again.

5:30 - Get to the gate as boarding is starting. Walk on tiny plane to discover Addie's carry-on doesn't really fit. Take some stuff out. Jam it in. Away we go!

A tired pair made it to LA. Some fun was had.

Highlights:
Visit to the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library.
Driving through the Santa Monica hills.
Beach and nap time at El Matador State Park.
Santa Monica pier to watch the sunset while riding the ferris wheel.

Tomorrow is an even earlier morning . Travel will be an entire day. Fingers crossed we don't get stuck in Munich, but if we do, I can imagine worse places to be stuck.

Egypt/Jordan Adventure

Tomorrow we head out to Los Angeles to begin our journey to Egypt and Jordan. I haven't really been out of the US and have never left North America. Anxious energy is the feel of the day.

The journey will take us to Cairo, Aswan, Luxor, the Dead Sea, and Petra.  Wish us luck and follow along.

Moving forward