Christmas day in Egypt - December 25, 2010

Christmas morning found us on the train bound for Cairo.  Yes Santa was able to land on the roof of the moving train, much to the kids relief.

Christmas breakfast was cake and juice.

Below are some foggy morning shots out the train window.

The rest of the day was taking it easy in our hotel room, and giving Wayne the chance to get his strength back.  Tomorrow we are heading to Jordan to start he second part of our adventures.

Luxor - December 24, 2010

Today was our last day in Luxor.  Wayne was feeling a bit better today so came with us to Karnack Temple; what a neat place.  There were many good examples of carvings, paintings and statutes still left, considering it had a major flood through it (Picture of Wayne pointing to the flood line).

There were many pillars, which we learnt held up the stone roof.  They were all evenly spaced with cross pieces and then at one time a cover stone on top.  They had also built sections that would let in the light and air (2nd picture below).

Samantha is pointing to another example of their calander.  The kids are in front of a famous scarab beetle statue.  It is believed that if you walk around it 7 times you will have good luck.

Later that afternoon we went on a felucca (traditional sailboat) cruise. Unfortunately there was no wind.  So the kids were put to work while the adults sat and enjoyed the ride (Wayne stayed back at the hotel to recoup).  The kids had great fun rowing the felucca with their planks of wood.  The neat thing about the feluccas are that they have a square sail and they are not allowed to put a motor on it.  So we had a bit of a tow at the start and then it was all kid power :)

If you could look past all the garbage on the shore and in the water, it was really quite pretty.

Once back at our hotel we had a bit of time before we all met for our last supper together as a tour group.  In that time we decided to go for a quick look around Luxor temple.  It was very cool to see at night.  This is where there is one obelisk and the other one is in the center of the Place de la Concorde in Paris (we have pictures of it from our trip last summer).  It is cool to say we have seen both; on two continents.  The sphinxes were at one time on both sides of the road and extended all the way from Luxor temple to Karnack temple.

Once done our walk about the temple we met for supper and got to see some belly dancing, which was neat.  After supper we collected our luggage and headed off to the train station.  We had a little Christmas gift exchange amongst the kids at the train station, which was a lot of fun.  Once on the train Samantha hung up her drawing of a Christmas tree she had brought from Abu Dhabi so that Santa could find us as we click-clacked our way along the slowly meandering Nile.

Valley of the Kings - December 23, 2010

The morning didn't start out so great.  We were checking out of the boat and into a hotel but Wayne was brutally sick.  We left him in the lobby of the hotel waiting for a room while we headed off for our donkey ride through farmers' fields and a village on our way to the Valley of the Kings.  The kids and I had an amazing time (Wayne not so much).  Patrick and Samantha were very excited about riding a donkey by themselves.

It turned out that the Valley of the Kings was another "no photo's please" zone.  We learned that the reason the valley was chosen was that there was a natural mountain that looked like a pyramid, so they wanted to be buried in the valley beneath it.  They were buried on the west bank of the Nile because that represented "death and afterlife" (the setting of the sun; as opposed to the rising sun on the east bank that represents birth and life). 

We were able to get into three tombs.  It was very neat to walk down the corridors and see the carvings and paintings and know that they were thousands of years old.  We found out that the tombs were started when they first became King (just like the pyramids).  The tombs were first carved out, plastered, pictures outlined, carved and then painted.  If the King happened to die before it was finished they tried to get the painting done at least but sometimes that wasn't even finished.  We saw one tomb where everything had been finished and another where they stopped mid way in their work (all at different stages - some walls had just line drawings / outlines, some had carvings and some just pictures painted).

Next stop was the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut (or known by the kids "Hotchickensoup").  She was important because she was the only female ruler.  She had to have been one smart cookie to rule for so long.  She had the people believing that she was the daughter of a "god" (the only reason she was accepted as ruler) and so she had this temple built to worship that god.

 Some of the paintings that were left were absolutly amazing!

 On our way back to the hotel we stopped at the "Colossi of Memnon"; two massive stautes that guarded the Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III.

 A few country scenes on our way back to the hotel.

Once back at the hotel the kids spent the rest of the afternoon swimming.  The pool was very neat because it was actually embedded in a barge floating on the Nile.  Over all a great day (except for Wayne).

Balloon ride over Valley of the Kings - Decemeber 22,2010

Wayne had a Christmas surprise for the whole family; a hot air balloon ride over the Valley of the Kings! We were up early this morning to catch our motor boat heading for the west side of the Nile. 

When we arrived it was just starting to get light out and there were loads of balloons already in the air.  Ours was green and yellow and we were able to watch it being laid out and filled with air.  Of course Patrick was right in there trying to figure everything out.

Samantha was hoping we would be in the pretty rainbow-coloured one (there were no pink ones).  Then it was time to clamber into the basket and go over an emergency landing postion drill and we were off.

What an amazing ride!  We all had fun just enjoying the view and experience (even Wayne).

Here are some of the views we had of the Valley of the Kings.  It was hazy but still pretty amazing.

The operator had such control of the balloon that we were able to skim the tops of the sugar cane and of course all the kids had to try and grab it.  What a smooth ride and landing. 

On our way back to the boat we passed many farms (sugar cane mostly).

This afternoon was a free day so we headed to the Luxar muesum.  Once again we were not allowed to take photos but there were a lot of really neat exhibitions very nicely displayed.  We even saw the Mummy that was in the Niagara Falls Museum and then returned to Egypt after many years(http://www.egyptianmuseum.com/article18_return_GlobeMail.htm). 

The afternoon was spent wandering around and hanging out on the boat.  In the evening we went to the local souk and did some souvenir shopping / bartering.  It was good that we had such an amazing day today because as it turned out Wayne would be sick for the next two days :(

Kom Ombo & Edfu Temples - December 21, 2010

Our first morning on the boat.  What a beautiful sunrise.  There was some really nice secenery along the Nile.  We didn't have much time between breakfast and our first stop at Temple Kom Ombo.  This was a neat temple because it was dedicated to two gods: Haroeris (falcon god) and Sobek (crocodile god).  These gods were present in many of the carvings on the temple.  The falcon god (middle picture) is seen with a man's body and a falcon head whereas the crocodile god (last picture) is similar with a man's body but with a croc's head.  There were some carvings that still have the orginal paint intact.

The temple was very cool to explore.  We saw the foundation of some walls still intact and could see how they joined the peices of stone - they made dove tailing and put peices of wood in them to keep them together (left photo).  The last picture in the set shows heiroglyphs of some of the tools used in medical practices and to mummify the bodies.

There were many themes carved into the walls of the temple (and other temples we saw later also).  One was of the King being supported by the Queen and the gods (first picture), and how the King was purified by the gods - pouring the key of life over him (last picture).

We were even able to see a calander that had been carved into one of the walls.  They made ticks for the days of the month and showed which months had celebrations.  Our tour guide is explaining this to us in the last picture but there was so much information I have forgotten most of it.

This temple also had a Nileometer, which was a way to figure out the taxes for the area.  If the water came up high in the meter it meant that the crops would do well and therefore higher taxes were required. If the Nile didn't flood very high there were lower taxes.  Of course with the dam in Aswan now the Nile doesn't flood anymore.

Here are some more cool carvings.  I like the one in the bottom right - it looks like a smiley face!

Our last picture at Temple Kom Ombo before heading back to the boat for a cruise to the next temple.

Out guide (Ahmed) was waiting for us before we got back on the Liberty.  When we got back in our room to drop off our stuff, we found a very cool dude waiting for us! :)

We spent our time on the top deck watching the countryside and visiting with our new friends (Colin and Meridith - Aussies living in the south of France).  It was actually quite chilly up there.  We saw a couple of fishermen using oars that were just square planks of wood.  We also saw a working waterwheel being worked with oxen to irrigate the crops.

We docked again and headed to the next temple by calesh (horse drawn buggy).  Samantha got to drive us there - I think she is suppose to be watching the road though!  David also got to drive to temple Edfu.

The temple of Edfu is special in many ways.  It was buried under sand for over two thousnads years so is very well preserved, it was also the site (accourding to ancient myth) that Horus (falcon god) fought a fierce battle with Seth (his uncle) for killing his father (Osiris).  Horus had to fight Seth in three different forms: hippopotumus, dog and crocodile.

This temple also contains a model of Horus's sacred barque (boat found in first picture).  We all had a great time exploring the numerous chambers and looking at the heiroglyphics.

When it was time to head back to the boat Patrick got to drive us home.

We spent more time chillaxing and watching the scenery go by.  Wayne introduced Ahmed to "beer o'clock" (not that he partook but he did enjoy the pharse and the visit).  While the grown ups watched the sun set the kids were busy swimming.

They found it very cold so managed to block the drain in the shower stall and played in there.  Little did we know that not only were they getting wet but so was the captain beneath us.  I guess the water had leaked through the tiles and was giving the captain a little shower below.  We all got a very good chuckle out of that! :)  Well that concludes our last night of sailing down the Nile.  We would arrive in Luxor tomorrow morning.