Back to reality

Well, we're off the boat! The cruise was fantastic. The food was awesome, the service was perfect, the scenery was beautiful, and the ammenties were MOST appreciated. The organized tours departing from the ship each day were a nice change compared to our independent organization. We were transported to many temples and sites on guided tours. Evenings on the upper pool deck while watching the nile and desert mountains pass by was a treat.

The first day on the ship the schedule was rearranged to accomodate the hot weather (~40C). This resulted in us doing absolutely nothing but lounging on the deck, swimming in the pool, and taking tea during the sunset over the desert mountains. This was an incredible change from our fast paced, VERY hot, independent method of our trip's beginning. We started each of the following days VERY early in the morning at between 6am and 7am departures to beat the heat. While it was a little rough to receive our wake up calls, we managed to take in a lot of sites before the heat became uncomfortable. It also left us more time to relax on the ship and enjoy its ammenities without feeling guilty. We even took in a bit of satellite TV on the flat screen in our room!

We saw numerous temples between 1000 and 5000 years old. The hyroglphyics and colours on the walls were very well preserved. The size of the temples and obilisks was amazing considering when they were constructed. Enormous sculptures were made from solid single pieces of granite that was transported from 100s of KMs away. We also visited the valley of the kings where King Tut's tomb is. These tombs were carved into the mountain. The valley itself was breathtaking - we have some great pics!

Today we arrived in Luxor where we checked in to our hotel (which, after becoming wise to the heat, we made sure included a nice pool). The pool, and our balcony both overlook the Nile and desert mountains. We're very excited to go swimming this afternoon (its 3pm now).

Tomorrow at 8am we join a convoy that crosses the eastern desert to Hurghada on the Red Sea. The trip is ~3.5hrs. We're staying in a "budget" beach resort with its own private beach and are considering a 4x4 jeep trip into the desert, or a snorkeling tour of the sea. Regardless, we'll just be happy to beat the heat in the sea. We have no ambitious site seeing plans - just relaxation.

From Hurghada, we fly to Cairo on Wednesday night, and depart from Cairo to Istanbul on Thursday morning.

We'll write next as soon as we get a chance. Thanks for checking up! We hope all is well back home!