Abu Simbel, Perfume Shop, and Boardig Riverboat

Our second day in Aswan, we got up the crack of dawn (3:30 AM) and flew to Abu Simbel. There is some good information on Abu Simbel on Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_simbel

The flight in was not so good for Jen, gripping the sick bag the entire time, but after taking a Dramamine, the flight back was just fine. It was completely worth the early wake-up call and uncomfortable flight - what an amazing thing to see!

Abu Simbel

You fly over Lake Nasser, which created the Aswan High Damn which caused many Nubians to be moved and for Abu Simbel to be relocated.

The sunrise over the Lake Nasser:

Views of Abu Simbel - it's so huge I cannot even describe it! You are not allowed to take photos inside but we got many outside:

Nefertari's Temple:

 We flew back from Abu Simbel and got back to our hotel about 9:30 AM. We took a nap and after lunch we transferred to The Sheherazade Riverboat:

Our tour guide gave us an upgraded room - the larges on the boat! It was huge and had two bathrooms:

 J visited the perfume shop the day before, when Jen was sick, so this was a "make up visit" and we bought quite a lot of perfume - but it's real perfume and won't "go bad" like cologne will. It was a fun shopping trip! We have never sniffed so many different scents before!

Turmoil in Egypt - but the picture show goes on

It's really hard to believe that we were just in Egypt. Seeing everything in the news is scary. They're talking about places we just visited. Our thoughts are for the safety of everyone in Egypt. They were truly the nicest people, and we are sad for what is happening right now.


Continuing our "Photo Tour"

Elephantine Island and Nubian Village

Day six of our trip was also known as "Day Sick" because Jen was so sick. When we arrived at the train station in Aswan, J went on with the tour at Jen's insistence, but she went straight to the hotel.

Here is how J spent his day:

Camel ride, dinner, and school in a Nubian Village, where J learned to write his name in Nubian:

Here is where Jen spent her day - really nice hotel and gorgeous views, but just sick, sick, sick - if you have to be sick, though, a 5-star hotel in Aswan with views of the Nile is the place to do it:

 

And More Pictures

At this rate we'll get pictures from the trip posted by 2013!

Alexandria and Train to Aswan

We left  Cairo and drove 3 hours to Alexandria, on the Mediterranean Sea.  On the way we stopped at an Egyptian rest stop and a woman was making and selling bread:

Alexandria still makes use of the electric rail trains that were introduced by the British:

Some of the buildings around Alexandria, some are just destroyed but people live right next door. It is a contrast of rich and poor - the rich on the seaside and the poor in the city:

In Alexandria, we visited the Greek catacombs, the Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, but no pictures were allowed. It's a shame because it was a really cool thing to see, deep under ground. They stretch on for miles, but there are now apartments built over them so the excavation is slow at best, if it will ever happen. We drove by Pompey's Pillar:

 The seaside of Alexandria:

View from our hotel room balcony (we got upgraded to a suite thanks to our wonderful tour leader!):

The "adventurous eight" found a fantastic place for dinner - all of this food (family style) plus bottled water for the equivalent of $2/person! It was fantastic:

Alexandria at night:

After dinner, J and I took a horse-drawn carriage like this one back to our hotel. It was a much longer ride than we anticipated, and harrowing among the insane taxi drivers, but it was definitely an experience I'm glad we had:

On the carriage ride was saw a wedding celebration!

When we woke up the next morning we had a wonderful breakfast and then dipped our toes in the Mediterranean Sea, because people say until you've gotten in the Mediterranean you haven't been in Egypt (the water was entirely too cold to swim in, so our toes would have to do!):

Our second day in Alexandria was spent going to the old Fort. There is nothing left to see of Alexander the Great as all of those ruins are under water now. Our tour leader told us how divers, tourists and archeologists, do dive down to see the ruins. Here are pictures of the fort area, the fisherman, and the cats! The cats are everywhere by the fort:

After the fort, we visited a mosque, which was quite beautiful. We took a few pictures inside, too:

Then on to the Bibliotecha - it was amazing and I encourage you to Google it and learn more - it is the biggest library in the world with millions of books and they are endeavoring to put everything on-line. It houses art and history museums and is just fantastic. I wish we'd had an entire day to explore:

We left Alexandria to drive back to Cairo but there was construction on the entrance to the road to Cairo. Rather than having, say someone to direct traffic, or even a detour sign, everyone was left to their own to figure out how to get on the road. It was insane! We turned around over a median literally 4 times! This was not our van, obviously, but this is what we had to do, and yes that is a pedestrian on the right in the picture trying to cross the freeway:

We made it to the train station, but by this time Jen was not feeling well at all. It was probably something we ate, combined with the horrible cigarette smell in the train cabin, the awful train food, and the motion of the train, but whatever it was, let's just say it was the worst night on a train EVER! This was the last time Jen felt o.k. for the next 24 hours: