Return to Newbury en route to home

Enjoying a proper English pint with Sue & Will (after a country walk) at the (famous) Pot Kiln in Berkshire.

Laurie having conquered the 1426 m. Mount Vosac in Croatia -

10+ hour hike up and down.

Laurie visiting Jamie's famous 15 Restaurant in London...yummy!

And the top prize winner of the Great Canadian Quiz is...

Our descent to the coast from the National Park summit shown below. Our hotel is down there somewhere on the coast section on the right...

Bridey with Dave (70 yr old short guy, who is one of the walk leaders) an Chris at the summit at the National Park in Croatia - just starting the 9 hour decent.

English garden party (aka BBQ) with friends in Newbury.

Some final pictures as we wind up our 60 Days of Travel...

We are now in our last 24 hours in England - enjoying the laid back summer days we had hoped for. bridey was wise to have planned our time in Newbury as a conclusion to our trip as it really has been laid back. If we had done our tourist days in London as the last part, I am sure we would have been quite tired out from last minute sightseeing.

Hope you have enjoyed the images that I have been able to get on to the blog. It took me awhile to figure things out but with a few tutorial hints from Kieran I was able to figure it out. Of course, some of you will have the option of being entertained with the viewing of the 4000+ digital images we have taken between us...not necessarily all in one sitting or viewing the pared down armchair travel evening!

After Croatia we returned to Newcastle and the next day travelled to London by train. We spent 3 days in London taking in the best that London has to offer: free exhibitions at the museums / galleries - Quilt Exhibit 1700 to 2010 and sculptor Henry Moore, live stage shows in Picadilly Circus - Sweet Charity (musical) and a play by Arthur Miller, All my Sons, (both were well done and definitely very different) and great food at some of our favourite restaurants. What more could anyone ask for.

After 3 busy days, we then travelled to Newbury and have been staying with our friends, Will and Sue. We had lived with them during our final months in 2007. We have walked in the countryside, enjoyed a good meal at one of our favourite restaurants, took in an excellent movie at our favourite movie venue, basked in the sun during our garden party, visited with old friends and colleagues and generally had a really easy end to a long journey!

It now feels like we are ready to end the trip and return to home - at least for a while. This also suggests a time to reflect upon the past 58 days and all of the places we have been, things we have done and all that we have seen.

So, for some thoughts / feelings about our travels...

Egypt; Definitely the hottest and driest of all the countries we visited. Usually this would have been a problem for me (Laurie) but because it was so dry I did not find the temperature to be a bother. Egypt was the most different of the countries (outside the normal comfort zone) and this presented the most opportunity to have every sense in the body stimulated on a daily basis. Other than in the tourist sites, we were clearly the visible minority. When we were off the beaten track, which we took every opportunity to do, we found the Egyptian people to be welcoming, friendly and most helpful. We never felt threatened or unsafe. They were more than pleased to show us the way even when the language barrier was getting in the way of giving directions. There is no question that historically this country is the cradle of civilization and the historical sites are almost overwhelming at times - so many kings and dynastys to keep track of. We saw all of the major sites on the regular tourist travel road but also saw many other sites because we had more time (typical time is about 2 wks in egypt for most tourists). We were definitely on the road less travelled...as we got lost alot! Cairo is a crazy city for traffic and auto noise but somehow pedestrians figure it out. We quickly learned to jump and jive to cross a road through cars, buses and scooters all of whom were honking their horns to signal their intentions. The highlights of Egypt were Abu Simbel, the trip into the Black and White Desserts with Maureen and Peter and Alexandria with the new library. Having M & P's home as our base in the suburbs of Cairo worked so well as we dipped in and out of the chaos of central Cairo.

Czech Republic and Prague: This is the portion of the trip we did with our friends Ed and Denise. We loved Prague. It felt clean and orderly and perhaps a little too reserved after coming out of crazy Cairo / Egypt. We ended up spending more time there than originally planned, 7 days at the beginning and 4 more days at the end. This may in part have been because of our connection with our friend, Josef and his family. I think we saw Prague in some ways that the mainstream tourist experience would not have - this view was made possible because of our time talking and walking around the city with Josef. - e.g. our pints in the old communist bar that Josef took the 4 of us to are not in the tourist guides. I am glad that we rented a car and got out into the countryside as well, even if only for a few days. Our trip took us through South Bohemia, beautiful rolling countryside - part farm land and meadow and part forest. Our drive also took us through one of the mountainous areas along the German border and at that point it felt as if we were in a German countryside.

Prague is an old and wonderful city having never had full on military conflict unfold within the city. Consequently the centuries of architecture and all of the different styles are wonderfully reflected throughout the streets and alley ways. The Republic is home to the pilsner beer one of the Republic's claims to fame. Spending as much time as we did with Josef and family I think we came away with a real feel for what it has been like for this country to have been occupied by the Nazi army and the Soviets. Our trip out to Terezin and our time in the Jewish quarter left us with a very different feeling for this chapter of our world history and I think this consciousness will be useful in our future thinking / acting on these types of events around the world.

Croatia and the Grimbsy Walking Club: Seeing old friends and meeting new friends on this amazing coast line backed by the limestone karsk mountain formations was wonderful and impressive. The history in Split (Dioceltians Palace) was our only historical experience as Makarska is a very modern community catering to the tourism industry. A real highlight for bridey and I was the Great Canadian Quiz. We had to keep putting the quiz off over the course of the week (because it was hard to get 60 people together) and so there was an incredible build up... We were told that some of the pub nights involved studying and trying to mislead one another about Canadian facts. The quiz finally unfolded on the two buses on the way to the airport. Bridey and I split up and rode back to the airport giving the quiz. I was the lucky one who got to use the PA system on the bus to run the quiz - bridey had to get along without this aide which made it alot more work for her. On the airplane, after the meal was served, I then again got to announce the results of the quiz over the PA system (after a lovely and funny announcement about the walking club by one of the flight attendants). What a hoot to announce the winners while bridey ran up and down the isle giving out the prizes to the grand winners. Everyone got a little pin and you could see that they were quite touched with our wacky antics. What a great conclusion to our time with the club! It is truely amazing that you can be away for 3 years and just pop back in and it is just as if we had never left. That says a lot about the kind of relationships we established.

And now the writing ends...but not the thinking and sharing about what we have experienced and learned. Our power of place and privilege in the world is something that must be pondered...

Thanks for vicariously taking this journey with us. We do hope it has given you at least a little taste of our joy as we have travelled from country to country. Hopefully our journey will have been an inspiration to others to get on the road again and / or soon. We look forward to seeing you all over the next few weeks as we settle back into the routine of life in Victoria.

Cheers from us both!

bridey and Laurie signing off for the last time!

Leaving Croatia

Hello again to everyone,

We are now getting ready to leave Croatia for England. It is a late flight but we are staying overnight at a hotel right by the airport in Newcastle. Tomorrow we will board the train for London and begin a 4 night stay there. This will give us some time to have a look around museums and galleries. bridey and I are really keen to visit the British Museum again and look at the Egypt exhibits with a new perspective!

Our time in Croatia with the Grimsby walking club has been brilliant. The hotel part of the trip has been a little different for us (not having ever stayed at a * type of resort) as everything is so regimented by the hotel. They cater to English, German and Scandinavian guests and they all seem to thrive on things happening at certain times. The meals have been buffet style prepared in a large industrial kitchen so you can well imagine that they have not been something you would be over the moon about. Also, mostly not typical Croatian food. They have been generous in quantity if lacking in variety and quality!

The weather here has been great for early May and we have only had a couple times of very short showers except for today. The only really˝cooler day was the day we took a boat trip to two of the local islands. We had 1 hour on the one island and 3 hours on the other. This allowed for a brief walk about in the one village and a walk along the island on the other. The boat trip included a meal which was accompanied by some rather wretched wine.

bridey had to take it easy the first couple of days due to the chest cold she left Prague with. She and I did a short local walk along the sea on the first day and just took it easy. After that she eased herself into walking with the shorter walks. I tackled the mountains with our 80 year old group leader. Mount Vosac at 1426 meters was the first ascent / descent...all on foot. I was exhausted at the end but exhilirated by what I had done. The dip in the Adriatic that day felt great even if it was fresh.

Yesterday bridey and I joined about 30 of the club for a drive up to the highest peak in the National Park for a planned descent on foot. When we arrived at the top it was enveloped in cloud and was sleeting. It has been so cold that the winter snow was still present at the top and would not likely be gone for another month. Farther down the mountain, the alpine flowers were brilliant and as we dropped in our ascent we came out of the clouds and into brilliant sunshine and blue skies with the Adriatic spread out before us in the foreground. An incredible sight!Getting down was a real accomplishment as we had a couple of women with us who just should not have been on this walk.

We have had a great time here re-connecting with the club members and they have all been so welcoming...it is as if we had not been away for the 3 years. There have been some new club members we have met as well and we have hit it off with them.

Last night finished with a free wine festival that was being held on the pool deck. This was a private function but we were all invited to participate. There were great wines and incredible food provided by local caterers. We really should not have eaten the hotel buffet dinner! There was a live band that played throughout the evening. Their music was a fusion of gypsy / jazz. It was incredible and the fiddle player and sax player were amazing with their respective instruments. What a way to finish the week!

We leave Croatia having had a great time...and would come back again to explore more of the countryside, coastline and culture.

Hugs to all and look forward to seeing you all.

Croatian Riviera

Yes, we are now onto our Croatia leg of the trip with the Grimsby Walking Club. All travel after we left Prague - Manchester - Newcastle...to Markaska went smoothly. Very cold on the North Sea while in Newcastle but we did manage a walk on the beach and of course, a hot order of chips.

Arrived last night and it was quickly dark. Woke up this morning to blazing sunshine and blue sky and a gorgeous view of the Adriatic Sea. bridey and I have completed a walk around the two local bay areas. Did not go for a walk with the club as we got up too late and bridey has a very bad chest cold that she picked up in Prague from Josef s daughter. We are taking a lazy day. Will go back to the hotel and have some time at the poolside...25 degree pool!

I am adding some photos of Prague and Makarska. The first two images are here in Croatia and the other two are from Prague...Josef and his family and Prague Castle.

We will add some additional images and update our post later in the week.

hugs from us to all of you!

Hello and Goodbye to Prague

I know, I know, most of you thought that maybe our 60 days of travel had suddenly come to an end and bridey and had eloped for a second marriage ceremony somewhere mysterious. But no this has not been the case. We have been putting 10 and 12 hour days touring the city of Prague, travelling in South Bohemia and spending much time with our adopted Czech family here in Prague. Some days it has felt like a full time job!

bridey and I connected with Ed & Denise two weeks ago as planned. Thank goodness things with the volcano settled down, so our flight from Egypt was successful in getting us to Heathrow and then on to Prague the next day. Ed & Denise flew in from Amsterdam after one of the first flights out of Vancouver to Heathrow.

We spent 10 days with Ed & Denise here in Prague and the south counstryside. We have shared an apartment here in Prague with breakfasts that you would not believe. The breakfasts were so big that we could make our lunch every day from the breakfast table. During our time with Ed & Denise we did meet up with our friend, Josef (a fellow volunteer when we were volunteering in Iona) and his family. This has been a wonderful time; a real opportunity to experience the daily life of a Czech family. Josef also toured the four of us around a part of Prague that tourists would not see and took us to an old style "communist era" bar for beers. These were the cheapest beers we drank anywhere...and the atmosphere created by the oppressive natured bartender and the dour old men drinking beer was surely remeniscent of the communist time.

During the week we also travelled to a Nazi era transit community, Terezin, where the Jews of Prague and the surrounding countries had been taken to hold in the ghetto until they were transferred to the concentration camps for execution. This was a very moving, emotionally difficult day for all of us as we walked through such a troubling part of our world history.

We have had awesome weather for 7 days with blue skies and sunshine every day. We saw lots of historical sites (too many too describe), went to a marionette show, a blue light show and ate great Czech food and consumed many litres of pilsner beer - yes, at times, even bridey was drinking beer which will be a surprise to many of you (there don't have cider here).

Last Friday we packed up and headed out from Prague in a rented car to see some of the countryside and a few historical communities (UNESCO world heritage sites). This gave us an opportunity to view the Czech countryside so that our only perception of the Czech Republic was not that of the city of Prague. On our last day of the weekend, we travelled through Plzen (any beer drinker will recongnize that this is the home of the original pilsner). It just so happened that this was the same day (May 2nd) that the city was celebrating the liberation of the city by the American forces at the end of WW 2. They have hundreds of WW 2 vehicles and uniforms that they get dressed up in and re-enact the American army rolling into Plzen. This was an unbelievable sight to see and the feeling was probably as celebratory as the day it happend on the 5th of May 1949! We could not believe we were so lucky and blessed to have fallen upon this experience!

On Sunday evening we took Ed & Denise to the airport for their flight to Italy and bridey and I returned the rental car and returned to the same hotel residence into a studio apartment - same great breakfasts though. Max, the manager of the residence has been the most helpful and gracious operator that a traveller could expect to be blessed with.

This past week we have spent immersed in the lives of Josef and all of his family with the exception of the one daughter. We have learned so much about day to day life and have had so many political discussions. They have fed us every day and we have spent hours talking and being guided around a different face of Prague. Josef's son, Jacob, led bridey and I through the Jewish part of historical Prague. This took us through all of the synagogues. cemetery and celebration hall. Because he is studying Judaism there was much that he was able to tell us that we would not have learned from the literature we had been given.

Today we spent the afternoon with a friend of a friend - this is Janet and Laura's friend Martin. Through our time with him we had another layer of Prague exposed and a very entertaining time as he is surely the funniest person we have met on our travels to date. He is an entrepeneur and investment adviser. This gave us a different perspective than that from Josef and the members of his family who are all either clerics or studying theology or social work. Although saying that he is different, he took us to a restaurent that he has involvement with in terms of charity work and youth.

The weather turned on Sunday and for the first time since we left Canada we have had cloudy cool weather with periods of rain. Quite a shock to the system after Egypt and the original very pleasant transition into Prague.

Tomorrow evening we will leave for England and preparation for our charter trip to Croatia with our English walking club. We will be in Newcastle for a couple of days and this is a city we had not spent any time in while working in the UK. We have been having an amazing adventure and holiday! Hard to believe that we are on to Croatia now!

I do not have my card reader with today so could not post any pic's. I will do a catch up while we are in Newcastle!

Hugs to everyone from us and hope life is treating all well!

Leaving Cairo or at least we hope so!

Greetings to all on our last day in Cairo!

It has been 8 days since I last put up a post and we have once again covered a great deal of ground. Hard to believe that our 25 days in Cairo is now coming to an end! We have seen so much. We are now ready to move on to a very different cultural context with our travels on to Prague and the Czech Republic.

The last few days have been a little tense or at least once we learned that there had been a volcanoe in Iceland and the skies over the UK and Europe were shut down. We weren't aware of what had happened as we were out in the desert with Maureen & Peter.

Our trip to the desert was quite simply mind blowing! The landscape is beyond words and probably the 100's of digital images that I took will not really do what we say justice. We went to the Bahariya Oasis by mini bus from Cairo, about a 5 hour drive. We were then bunked into an oasis lodge for the night. The following morning we were allowed to leave for the desert at 10:30...it is all "regulated" so we had to wait for our permit. The 4 of us and our guide, Alberto and driver, Mohi, piled into a Toyota Landcruiser for the trip into the Black and White Deserts. We started with a visit to the Golden Mummies and the Valley of the Golden Mummies. They have discovered 500 of these mummies in this valley but they believe there are many more. They are called golden mummies because of the manner in which the facial area of the mummy was covered in guilded gold and artistic ornamentation down each side of the chest. They were remarkable particularly the family of four - mom, dad, 6 year old and 6 month old child. You would not believe the "museum" that these were kept in!

Then it was off to the Black Desert where bridey and I got to climb a huge sand dune up onto the top of a small mountain. The reason this desert is black is because of the basalt from the era of the volcanoes which would have been before or after this was all at the bottom of a sea. The landscape is very black broken by large dunes of golden sand. We were then off to "Crystal Mountain" which was a small mountain entirely constituted off quartz crystal. One is not supposed to remove any but we broke the rules as would seem to be the case with everyone who stops.

Next up was our dramatic entry into the White Desert! Honest to god, neither bridey or I could have been prepared for the landscape. Breath taking to say the least. This desert is white because of limestone. This is again from the time when this area was at the bottom of the sea. We drove through the desert in the setting sun and then we stopped to set up camp for the night at the base of one of the formations. Another Landcruiser joined us for the night with a young American couple. This was the night of our desert BBQ and the night visitors...yes, the camp was visited overnight by dozens of desert fox (proper name is Fennec Fox - look them up on Wikipedia). Bridey and I chose to sleep out from the enclosure that the guides had built in between the two Landcruisers and slept under the desert sky - We could not believe the stars! During the night and moreso in the early morning there were apparently as many as 2 dozen fox busily looking for scraps from our BBQ. The others who awoke at 4:30 said that the fox were running back and forth across bridey and I in our sleeping bags. We had no idea until I stuck my head out around 5'ish because I heard funny little noises. I guess it didn't help that we slept right beside the BBQ grill...duh!!!!

Morning saw the day greeted by the most incredible sunrise and of course, the landscape was such a different colour from the sunset the day before! We had a quick breakfast and were on our way by 5 am 'ish. The driver Mohi was crazy and gave us a thrill of a lifetime roaring across the desert. When we got back to the lodge we were given a room for a shower which was a real treat. We ended up delay for a 3 hours as the mini bus had blown a tire on the way our of Cairo...probably did not have a spare either! This turned out to be a blessing. Mohi, our driver, (who Peter and Maureen know really well from ther trips they have taken) invited us into his family home where his wife prepared our lunch. Our guide told us this was a real honour and he did not think that this had happened before.

We then headed out with Mohi who drove us to the edge of Cairo in the Landcruiser. He was a bit of a wild driver. Another long ride back to the city but the good news was that the vehicle was air conditioned.

The next day we headed off to Alexandria on the fast train. 2.5 hours later we found ourselves in a very different community from Cairo. The hotel porter first showed us a side view room when we had in fact booked a front room over looking the Mediterranean Sea. As usual, Bridey got us our room! and what a view. We were right on the sea and the Corniche.

We found Alexandrians to be very friendly. As we typically do, off the tourist track, in the 2 days we were bought our falafal lunch by a businessman, then it was a free pastry offering in another shop and the next morning an offering of free pita fresh from the communal oven. We also had our first taste of Egyptian ice cream a popular treat in Alexandria we learned. That evening we went off for dinner at a local favourite that offered Egyptian pizza.

Our second day we visited a couple of Greco-Roman sites and then when our plans got completely misunderstood by our taxi driver, we abandoned those plans and headed to the Alexandria Library which we were going to give an hour later in the day. We timed our visit perfectly as we got in on the only English language tour of the day. We were so in awe of this complex and what it had to offer, so we abandoned all other plans, went off for a seafood lunch at a local favourite of residents of Alexandria. Small street side restaurant in a back lane with buckets and racks filled with seafood where you could choose what you like or go for the seafood platter. They were so generous that bridey and I bought only the one platter and were glad we did as between the two of us we had trouble finishing all of the seafood...white fish, prawns, clams, calamari, seafood kafta, salad, pita, etc. With a full belly we headed back to the library and finished our day in the library looking around and visiting the permanent exhibitions. This is a library on a whole other scale than anything we could have imagined! We headed back to Cairo on the fast train for our last 2 days in the city.

Yesterday was spent trying to determine whether or not we were going to be able to leave for London and then on to Prague. After 2.5 hours going back and forth to various airline companies, I don't think we really were any clearer on our options. So we abandoned the mission and headed off to the Island of Zamalek - which is in the middle of the Nile where most of the embassies are located.

Today we visited the last of the pyramids with a guide recommended by Peter and Maureen. These pyramids are the oldest in Egypt. We actually went down into the heart of two of these pyramids and one was 140 steps into the heart of the structure. Hot, hard to breathe and a smell like ammonia. But what an experience!

As I have been posting bridey has been re-packing our bags for our flight tomorrow. It very much looks like we will fly. We are keeping our fingers crossed that Denise & Ed also fly seamlessly to meet us in Prague.

And so the Egypt chapter of our travels comes to an end! It has been marvellous from start to finish. When reflecting with Maureen and Peter this afternoon when they arrived home from work, we have identified our top 3 highlights - Abu Simbel (historical) , the White Desert (natural landscape) and the library in Alexandria (mo. I think we have seen far more than any tour would cover - I have close to 2000 photo images to prove it and many moments we have experienced.

Farewell to Egypt! hugs from us...bridey and laurie

Back in Cairo

Greetings from Cairo!

Bridey and I have now been back in Cairo for a couple of days. Arrived on Monday evening after a 10+ hour train trip from Luxor. The train was for Egyptians only or so they say, but our hotel bought us the tickets. At the station we did have to use a little bagsheesh with the tourist police to get on the train without any fuss.

Luxor was amazing given the sites that the city is surrounded by. Bridey had booked us into a 3 star hotel on the West Bank of the Nile where a good number of the historical sites are. The city of Luxor is on the East Bank. We were delighted to find that the West Bank is also the quiet side and it is also considerably cooler than the east side. Given that every day had temperatures over 30 and closer to 40 it was much appreciated to be just off the Nile and have the benefit of the breeze. The hotel also had a swimming pool and our room was right on the pool level. Every day was broken up with pool time in the afternoon and this was a salvation from the heat. The hotel price included a very good buffet breakfast so that too worked out very well. In fact we could lunch every day from take away from the buffet. They also sold beer and wine and this too was a good deal.

Luxor is the heart of much in the way of ancient Egyptian history for any who are history buffs. Karnak Temple which is actually the site of many temples on the one 2.25 acre site is amazing and almost overwhelming. You could easily spend a whole day there but the tour groups move through like a frenzy of feeding baracuda. We were approached by an older gentleman who offered to guide us through. We worked out a price and took him up on his offer. He had a guides badge so was legit.

Michael turned out to be 70 years old but had been guiding since the 70's. Needless to say we did not speed around the site as he was pretty slow. He was however a font of knowledge about the site. After our 2 hours with him we worked back through the site on our own. The heat was intense by the time we finished. When we finished with Michael he asked if we wanted a guide for the Valley of the Kings, Toombs of the Nobles, Workers Toombs, Queen Hatshepsut's Temple, etc. He recommended a friend who was an archeologist and once again Bridey negotiated a good price. Then of course it was pool time!

The next day was taken up with being guided by Hamdan who had also booked an air conditioned cab for the 6 hours of site seeing. He was an excellent guide and worked us through the sites in an order that made sense to him so that we worked from one style of architecture to another and from great wall paintings to brilliant wall paintings. We were totally pleased and were in awe from the beginning to the end. The 6 hours were followed by...yes of course, pool time. That evening we visited the Luxor museum, one of the best we have been in.

The next day we were on our own and rented bikes to make our way to the one remaining site on the West Bank that we wanted to see, the Temple of Ramses III. After this it was...pool time. And then we were off to Luxor Temple for the afternoon which brought us to the end of our site seeing.

We did our falucca float on the Nile late afternoon on our last day. This is an Egyptian sail boat. Of course we picked the least windy day of our whole stay. So the captain and his one man crew tried to pole us up the Nile and eventually got us stuck on the bottom. They then had to phone for a tow from a motor boat so we made our way down the Nile being towed. However we were able to float back down as the current carried us but it was taking too long so out came some rather rudimentary oars to speed us on our way (more or less). Nonetheless Bridey and I enjoyed a bottle of wine and a float on the Nile!

Found a great sea food restaurant where all of the fare came from the Red Sea. Had a couple of great dinners which was a nice change.

Since returning to Cairo we spent a day wondering around Islamic Cairo home to dozens of mosques. We also walked for miles through market street after market street. Almost overload for all of the senses. Today was our meeting with the pyramids at Giza and of course the big pussy cat...the Sphinx. We did the site on our own - 4 hours in all. Not too hot either so that was great. We saw everything to see although we choose not to go into the pyramid. WE choose instead to put out the money for the barque museum... the Pharoahs boat all 30 metres of it that had been buried next door to the toomb to take him on the ride in his next life.

Tomorrow we are off to the White and Black desert with Peter and Maureen our two friends who teach in Cairo. This is a 3 day trip which will take us to one of the famous oasis and through the two deserts. This is a camping trip so we will sleep out under the stars! We can hardly wait!

After the desert we will be off to Alexandria overnight for a 2 day visit and then back to Cairo for our last 2 days in Egypt. We are still having a great time and have really experienced very little conflict in spite of the heat. We are appreciating the drop in the temperature here in Cairo. We continue to have amazing little adventures each and every day when we get lost of turned around.

Greetings to all from B & L

Bad News folks....yes it is the same old story...I have tried for the past hour to upload digital images and have had now success. I have sent an email to Kieran to see if he can point me in the right direction to overcome the problem. Sorry to disappoint you all!

Laurie

LUXOR

We are now on day two in Luxor...actually only day one as yesterday was a travel day. Spent the day on Karnak Temple site. Just simply overwhelming. We used a 70 year old guide to take us around the site and then went around again on our own after some lunch. We have our guide booked for tomorrow for the Valley of the Kings, etc. It will be a 6 hour day and no doubt hot as we will be out in the desert.

We are trying to insert a mid-day break into each day where we swim in the pool and cool down. Having the pool is a real blessing.

I am not going to text more at this time as I am trying to get photos up...so hopefully tonight will be successful?????

Still having a great time and had one of our best meals tonight...seafood (fish) from the Red Sea.

Hello to all who are following!

B & L

You will need to look at the bottom of the posts as I did not get these two photos in the right spot. Will try again over the next couple of days and place them differently.