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