It's Getting Hotter...

Hi Everyone,

We're in Aswan now, in Southern Egypt, we had thought Cairo was hot but it is way hotter here. When you step outside it's like the heat just consumes you, it's wild. We're really looking forward to the cruise tomorrow where we have a pool...woohoo!!!

Yesterday we spent our last day in Cairo and checked out the Egyptian Museum which was impressive. There are so many artifacts there it's hard to take it all in. We saw King Tut's death mask, throne, sarcophages and more gold than you could imagine. There were many tombs on display as well, we couldn't get over the size of them! Each had detailed designs carved into them and were made from gold, ebony, alabaster as well as others. Too bad no pictures were allowed.

We spent the rest of the day exploring Cairo and had a nice walk by the Nile. We did some shopping and made our way to the train station.

Last night we took the overnight train from Cairo to Aswan, which was about a 14 hour trip. We were in a first class sleeper train and judging by some of the trains we saw the locals getting on we were in the lap of luxury. We stood up to move our bags as a 3rd class train arrived, and a number of locals warned us this wasn't going to be the train we were taking. It was funny that they knew right away that we definitely weren't getting on this train. You couldn't imagine what it looked like, so run down and people everywhere. Our train was interesting, very good service, comfortable beds, surprisingly edible food with a few touches of harsh egyptian reality including an unusual toilet featuring a wooden seat and 'exit' below to the passing tracks...yuck!

This morning we arrived in Aswan, and spent the day catching our breath and up on our sleep. We've been laying low as tomorrow will be spent touring the area with the cruise.

We're unsure of our internet access from the boat so bear with us if we're not in touch for a few days.

Hope all is well at home, and thanks for checking up on us!