back in Luxor

We are just back in Luxor and have gone up to Quena and spent last night and went to the temple of Dendera this morning. The river boat is fabulous. Sailing up and back on the Nile is just awesome. It is the best riverboat we have done. You can just imagine life in Bible times and we have enjoyed it so much. The boat does not have heat and wish they had told us that as we have worn jackets far more than we expected. It has not been that cold but without a place to get really warm, it has been hard to warm up! The houses are made of mud just like you imagine and we have seen some awesome birds. Yes, the vendors are worse than even Morocco. The food is good and I am faring well in that dept. The staff here has been fabulous and we have enjoyed the group very much. Luxor has several places we will go to in the next day or two and then we will fly back to Cairo on Friday. Can't wait to post some photos so you can see our Galabaya night and some of our other fun things. Jim fell getting off the bus yesterday and is quite sore. He fell on his bad leg and we think it is just bruised badly and we were lucky but it shook both of us up. Will write more later but more are waiting for the one good computer! Love to hear from you all!

Monday on the Nile

We are at an internet cafe in Luxor and there is a group of little boys yelling in at us and trying out their limited English. We started out the day sailing at 5AM and the Nile is a beautiful river to sail on. We are amazed at how beautiful it is. It has palm trees and dessert and lots of shore birds and we don't want to do anything but look out for fear we will miss something. About the time we think it is getting to be the same, the scenery changes and mountains of dessert or something new appears. People use donkeys and there are little fishing boats all along. We went to the temple of Edfu today and it was really huge and the hieroglyphs were unbelievable and to realize they were 2000 years old and these are the "new" ones! We are now approaching the old ones! Christians lived in this temple for 300 or so years at one time too before the Romans would let them practice openly. We have been surprised at how many coptic Christian churches there are here. Tonight we had the black and white night where we all dressed in black and white. I'm not sure why, but we did. Last night was our big Egyptian night where we wore galebayas and the men wore Egyptian outfits as well. It was a big to-do and it was amazing how many different dresses and attires were there. We all had group photos made and individual photos made and we will include one when we can. It was fun and hopefully Jim's outfit can make a good shepherds outfit for a Christmas pagent at church and maybe mine can be used at the Girl Scout world day sometime or else it will make a good Halloween costume! Ha. Yesterday we also went to Philae to see the Temple there. We rode a boat over there to the island that was fun too. This was one that had to be moved when they build the high dam. It is in a beautiful location on an island all by itself. We had to go through the usual hoard of vendors to get to the boats which we are getting very tired of-they are unlike any we have ever experienced. We haggle pretty well in China and in South America but here, these do not haggle fair!! It is absolutely unreal. We'd pay three times the price just not to have to haggle! More on that the next time! Write and let us know how things are back in the good old USA!

Nile River Cruise

We are in an internet cafe along the Nile by our boat in Aswan. I will try to recap the last two days. They have been busy ones! We got up early-an I do mean early!! Our wake up call was at 2:30AM and we had to be on board the bus by 3:45 and our plane took off at 6 AM from Cairo. Security twice and lines and buses to get to gates both ways just wore us out as if we were not worn out from the short night already. We stopped by the Aswan dam on the way into Aswan after landing and getting on our buses as our rooms would not be ready yet on the ship. It is a big dam. What else can you say about a dam....we've seen quite a few now and they are not among our most favorite tourists sites but we've been there done that now. We got to the ship and it is really nice. Rooms were not ready but they had welcome drinks and snacks and it was nice to be onboard. We got into our rooms soon after and then had lunch and began to settle in. The rooms are really nice and we have a sliding glass door on the river side that has great views and we can open it an enjoy the breeze or take photos and have chairs by it and all-a mini balcony sort of in the room. We went on a felucca ride around Elephantine Island and that was great fun. We can see very interesting ruins from our room on the boat and we rode closer to them in the felucca. Last night we had nubian dancers on board after dinner with lots of drums but we gave out before the show was over.

This morning was a "late " morning-our wake up call was not til 4AM!! We had breakfast and left for our plane ride to Abu Simbel. It was so interesting and really amazing place and truly unbelievable that they could move this site when they built the dam and how wonderful they could preserve it. It would have been terrible to lose so much history by having it buried under the water. We shared a seat on the plane ride back with an Alabama fan from Montgomery and actually had a pleasant ride. Her name was Karen Campbell. It made the plane ride pass really quickly. We got back in time for lunch and it is a beautiful and finally warm day here. Tonight after dinner we are going walking in the spice market. They have all sorts of things besides spices and we have to get Jim something to wear to the Egyptian night dinner onboard tomorrow night. I got my galabya (sp)the other day in Alexandria. It sounds like it will be a fun evening.
Don't know when we will update again but I'm sure we will find an internet cafe along the way again. Emily, Flat Emily is enjoying her time with us and we are making sure she has some great adventures! We miss you and Delaney and Dalton so much and everyone else too!

More random photos

Spiritual Cairo

Today we took a tour of Spiritual Cairo. We started off visiting one of the oldest mosques in Cairos. We took off our shoes and sat inside while Hisham told us a lot about Islam. We had a chance to walk around when he finished. Then we went to the early coptic Christian church where supposely Mary and Joseph brought Jesus when they were hiding in Egypt. Whether it is true or not, it is an awesome thing to ponder. Then we went to the Hanging Church and toured that one before walking down the streetto the early Jewish synagogue. This synagogue is where they said they found the basket that Moses was hidden in. Again, whether it is true or not, it reminds us that we are in the land where so much of the early history of our faith took place. From there we went to the famous market. I am editing this post later as I was very sleepy when I first wrote it and Jim read it and laughed and told me that it looked like I fell asleep while I was writing it! Sort of reminded me of some of those journals in Ecuador last summer! It was a very interesting tour. The markets are not as much fun as the ones in Ecuador, to me. There is more hassling by the shopkeepers. But by the time we left, I was seeing a few things that were catching my eye so maybe as the week goes on, I will find a few things. It was fun to wander and look anyway. It is just wild to have them yell-how can I take your money? I suspect they can take it all sorts of ways! lol

We have to get up very very early tomorrow and we are not even the first flight out! Our wake up call is for 2:30 AM and breakfast is already being served then. We leave at 3:15 and our flight is at 6AM. We fly straight to Aswan and I think we are among the fortunate ones as some have one stop in Luxor on the way. We all get there by about 8:30 and will drive and see the great dam they built. Dams are not that thrilling to us but guess if you are there, you have to see them! So we have packed our bags, which have to be out at 2:45 AM and plan to get to bed very early. We are looking forward to the cruise on the Nile and will keep a journal on the computer that we can blog about when we get back to the hotel next Friday and hopefully some along the way at internet cafes along the way.

Til we find one-signing off for now!

Explanation of the photos

I'm not good at labeling the photos. The one of me in the big shoes was made yesterday at the museum where they have the ship they have unearthed that the king was sailed down to eternity on when he died. They have reconstructed it but to go in the museum, we had to put on these shoes and we got a kick out of it. Flat Emily didn't have to wear them though since she sneaked into the museum in my purse! I wanted to put a picture in of one of our security guards and the rest, I think are photos of our trip today.

Alexandria

Well today was Alexandria, as in Alexander the Great. It was a pleasant relief from Cairo in that it was sunny, for one thing, warmer, and on the mediterranean and cleaner. We took a short bus ride to the train station and boarded the train for a first class train ride of 2 1/2 hours and it was delightful. Those of you who know me, know that I do LOVE train rides! This was one of the nicest we have had. The seats were big and comfortable and it was just delightful. I looked out along the Nile delta (probably more like the irrigation canals but let's just take a little poetic license here! ) and looked for the bulrushes where Moses might have been left... and it was easy to even see some places where life didn't seem that different. There were very few farm machines and almost everything was being done by hand and the ladies in their headdresses were carrying the baskets on their heads and all. It was a very interesting picture of life along the Nile. I tried to take photos and they were good for us, but probably to most people they were a little blurry....but they will remind us of what it was we were seeing and trying to capture.

We all managed to get off at the right stop (no doors that wouldn't open like on our Italy trip!) and we followed our guards with the guns to the buses for the tour. We are getting used to this and it really is an interesting way to travel! The sound of sirens and blue lights flashing doesn't make our heads turn as much as it did the first day! (By the way-forgot to tell you that yesterday our bus was hit by a car! None of us even felt it but the bus driver stopped the bus on the middle of the 4 lane highway in middle of Cairo and got off with the guards and checked the bus-the lady in the red car had driven on off! It knocked off a plastic light and scratched up the side of the bus -oh well. A little excitement for the day) The first place we visited was the roman theatre ruins which were really pretty intact. It was not as big and impressive as some we have visited but are the best in Egypt and was very neat at the same time. They are excavating and have found villas and bathtubs and other things as they are uncovering things as they go. Then we went to the new Alexandria library that they have built. We had a guided tour there but Jim and I opted out of that after about 5 minutes as it is very beautiful and modern and you could see it by looking from where we were and we didn't want to stand and listen to that! So we went and looked at the views of the Mediterranean and went and got a snack a the cafe and enjoyed ourselves for that time! Then we drove to hotel next to the king's palace for lunch. It was surrounded by beautiful gardens and was really lovely. We had a view overlooking the water and really enjoyed that. Then we went for a stop on the gardens and walked down to the gardens and the beach. The last stop was at the spot wherelighthouse that was one of the original seven wonders of the ancient world once stood. Now there is a fortress there and mainly there is a large horde of vendors! lol.

It was a long drive back to the hotel -like 4 hours. It was a fun day but compared to the pyramids....well, nothing that exciting!!

Some interesting things about the trip in general. First of all, there are basically 3 groups of us together. That has happened before for riverboat trips. We will all be on the riverboat down the Nile together starting on Friday. But usually when that happens, they divide us into 3 groups, we each have a program director and we stay totally in our groups to do all tours and we rarely mingle. Not so on this trip. We are color coded and we are the red group and our PD is named Hisham, but for our flights, we intermingle and all 3 buses travel together-imagine restroom stops....lunch stops, etc. And it has in general been much more chaotic we have felt. We are in the Z tower while the buses always leave from the G towers and all the info is posted in the G tower. All the rooms seem to the be same except for location and view and we have one of the parking lot. Another Inner Circle couple looks over the trash cans. While some of the first timers are looking over the gardens. That seems a bit out of the ordinary. Hisham is nice and efficient but doesn't have much sense of humor. Mohammed on the other hand, seems to give his group more detailed info. This is all based on the first 3 days so who knows, it may change but so far he is not on the upper list of our PD favorites nor is he down there with our very worst. It is all subject to change. lol. I've had to pretty well take care of myself with the garlic and onion thing but so far I have so that is ok. They do use it a lot in the foods. The meals have been buffet which has been hard to manage so I have eaten lightly so far which is fine. I have not gone hungry.

All in all, it is great fun and we like the group-we are just having a bit more trouble in learning names and all because of the large group mentality. I think it will actually be easier on the ship but then the trip will be half over!

It is late so I will close. Thanks for the comments! Those and emails are fun to read!

Read the other posts first as I'm doing several

Here is Jim climbing on the first pyramid. He is doing so well even if it does hurt him. Egypt is very different from any country we have visited. Our guide is Hisham. He wrote our names on the back of our name tags in Arabic. The food has been a challenge so far. We had a home hosted meal last night that was wonderful. The lady was the Xerox rep for that part of Cairo and it was a huge apt and very elegant. Her daughter was home from US college -she is doing her junior year abroad in Minnesota at a college there so it was fun to talk to her. She had several things I could eat and the conversation was very stimulating. We left at 7:30 AM this morning and we will be leaving at 8AM tomorrow. we have some VERY early mornings coming up for early morning flights. We gather-like 1-2 AM wake up calls! We will worry about that later! The hotel is nice. Our room is pretty ordinary -nothing extra for being an inner circle this time. We have armed security every where we go. We have police escorts for the buses and we see machine guns and all but we feel VERY safe. It is odd.

It has been much cooler than we had expected but think it is supposed to warm up. But so far, we have worn the sweaters and warmest things we have. Hope to update from now til we get on the cruise with photos and then when we get back from the cruise, the photos from the cruise I can put on before we fly home. Read the next post as it is actually the first one.

Hello from Cairo!!

Well, well. We finally figured out how to do this! It is costing us a small fortune but we finally found a card we can buy that we can use along til we leave as long as we are here at the Marriott so here we go.
Ok Let's get started! I am going to start with today and backtrack because today was so awesome! Now I have to preface this with the reminder that we saw Ayers Rock in Australia in the rain, we saw the Great Wall of China in the rain, we saw Iguassu Falls in Brazil in the rain, are we noticing a pattern here???? Yes, we saw the pyramids in Egypt in the rain! And do you know how often it rains in the desert in Egypt??? It actually didn't rain much at all and it only misted and only in the afternoon but it was foggy and cold and certainly was not the kind of picture perfect day you envision when you think of seeing the pyramids. But you know what? It didn't matter! Just like the other places, it is an awesome experience to stand in front of them ,climb one and even go inside one and realize you are in the presence of something so old and great. It was truly a humbling and wonderful experience. We started off by going to the first one and we could climb on it and that was fun. Then we drove the short distance to the back of it where the second one was one we could go in. It was built by the first pharoah's on and was actually smaller but higher. It was hard to go inside as we had to bend at the waist and do very steeply up and down but it was also great fun! Jim has done so well on the trip and we made it to the burial chamber. I think we were the only ones on the tour to do it, which surprised us. Then we went to see the burial boat which they have rebuilt and built a building to protect. Flat Emily has enjoyed the adventure with us today. We have several good pictures of her in these locations. After this, we went to what was supposed to be a wonderful panoramic lookout of the pyramids, but with our wonderful fog, we could see one faintly in the distance! But joy oh joy, this is where we got to take the camel ride! And I do mean ride! Now, in Australia, Jim and I rode the camel together and in Morocco, Flat Aubie and I sat on the camel and posed for the picture. But in Egypt, Flat Emily and I RODE the camel!! In fact, the camel decided to dance with me which did not thrill me in the least! Let me tell you, if you think I was awkward dancing at my son's wedding, you should have seen me dancing with the camel! The camel owner assured me I would be fine but I was not so sure. He did calm down and another lady in our group and I did survive the ride but neither of us are in favor of many more camel rides!

Too bad Jim didn't have the camera ready when the camel and I did our dance!

From there we went to see the Sphinx. Oh goodness. what a sight that was. After the Egyptian museum yesterday where we saw so many artifacts from these tombs and learned all about the pyramids even if I can't remember the names, it was so impressive. I now know what a desert really looks like too. You see the River Nile and the valley around it is so fertile and green and then all at once you are away from it and it is just sand and nothing-ness and of course, the ever present vendors. Let's talk about the vendors. Every country has their own way of trying to get to us. We had different approaches at each side of the pyramids even! It was funny and then it got not too funny. they were selling the hats that they wear on the camels and little paper weight pyramids-$1 each. Then when we got to the second stop, they were not going to charge us because we were "friends" and started putting them on us because they "liked us" and then the price went up and it was so funny trying to get away from them. Jim got decked out in one of those and we had had to leave the cameras on the bus because you can't take photos in the pyramid so I missed the shot of the trip! oh well. Who knows, maybe they will get him again!

So we ate lunch at a nice hotel and it was a huge buffet that the dessert was better than the food. Then we went on to tour one of the famous step pyramids. I'm sorry-very tired and the name escapes me right now-I will correct it when I get the papers in front of me. To use this card, I have to use the computer in the business center! In the distance there are pyramids all around and there are just no telling how many are still out there that have not been found.
We stopped at a carpet weaving factory on the way home and it reminded me of the one in China-had the silkworms and all. But in this one, they were teaching children to weave the carpets. The children were so cute and it was all very nice until one little boy started asking for money-then it ceased to be a pleasant experience and reality set in and reminded us we were dealing with child labor. The prices were high and none of us wanted to support the industry really.

I am going to send this and go back and update more on the first two days even though it will put this farther down the page.

Very Quickly

We can only blog very quickly to say we arrived safely after an adventurous trip over with the snow in Atlanta. We are here in Cairo and will try to blog when we can but it is $30 a day to use the internet! wow. We will wait til we have photos and something to write about. Hotel is awesome and all is very interesting so far. Madge and Jim

Another Great Adventure!

We are leaving Saturday for another great adventure! This time we are going to Egypt! We are flying from Atlanta to New York and from New York to Cairo. We will have internet in Cairo so we should be able to blog there for sure. For the second week, we will be on a river cruise on the Nile and we don't have internet access on the ship. I don't know if we will have places along the way where we can access the blog along, but we will bring you up to date when we get back to Cairo at the end if we are not able to. Meanwhile, we look forward to having you along for the journey!