Faluca in foreground and Movenpick Hotel Elephantine Island, Aswan - Nile River |
Our tour guide dutifully met us around midnight at Aswan Airport and delivered us to our Hotel pictured right.
Next day, after a late checkout including a swim, we were again dutifully delivered to the MS Moon Goddess ready for our four day cruise on the Nile.
The ship is one of over 250 cruise ships and our guide told us it is in the top 15! Our cabin was one of two guest suites and there are 47 standard cabins also. We had received a welcome letter to "esteemed guests" - we felt very special on this 5 star upgrade which continued on into Cairo.
After a sumptious lunch we were taken sailing on a faluca as depicted. We returned to the ship to join again our table guests and some other Aussies on the tour. Dee and Im from Townsville were to be our constant and very friendly companions for meals for the rest of the cruise.
Temple of Philae - Sunroom |
Temple of Philae |
Edfu Temple |
Our group for these trips off the cruise boat comprised 4 American couples and a delightful family of 3 from Leicestershire including 12 yr old Joe.
In the evening we had dinner on the sundeck an Egyptian bbq followed by Galabaya night which means fancy dress Egyptian style.
Glenys with Samya (from Egypt) and Dee from Townsville all dressed up for Galabaya |
Its hard to describe how incredible all of these sites are - massive, impressive, monumental, ornate and huge numbers of tourists and their buses moving efficiently throughout all the sites amid high security.
It gets better and better as one moves from one tomb to another and from one temple to another. For example Karnak was built over a period of some 1700 years and occupies over 60 acres. At one point 132 30 metre high granite columns stand close to each other to form the superstructure of the roofed area of just one temple.
Karnak Temple - one of the many |
Evening approaches at Luxor Temple |
I'm jealous - moving our Hoppers Crossing office just doesn't have the same ring to it as Luxor....
ReplyDeletePeter H