Egypt Oct-Nov 2021

Diane comments: Our early morning flight from Cairo on Nov 8 back to Istanbul and then on to Houston was smooth and very comfortable. We arrived back in Houston in the evening just in time for bed and spent the next beautiful fall day with Laura's family relaxing and getting a bit adjusted to being back on home soil! That evening we topped off the end to a memorable trip with an amazing sushi dinner (Gavin works at this local sushi restaurant and raved about the food). We were introduced to wonderful new taste sensations! We took Lyft to the airport and headed home on Nov 10. We took Uber home from the airport - as we turned the corner on our block to the house, Emet was waiting at the end of his driveway, waving, wanting to be the first to welcome us home and get hugs! Devon and Ephraim were on his heels to get welcome home hugs! Also, the curtains in our living room had a little opening where Moose was sitting on a table watching for us!  It was truly a welcome home! ...

We rode the bus south of Cairo to the Sakkara archeological site.  Many years ago, the area was flooded by the Nile and was made fertile by the silt, now growing lush palm forests right on the edge of the Sahara Desert Here we saw a several pyramids, both onsite (including this one that we actually went down into) and this "stepped" pyramid which is the oldest rock construction in the world     There were other pyramids in the distance in all directions, built over 4000 years ago ...our guide said there are about 150 pyramids so far discovered in Egypt, and more are being discovered all the time, they have just been covered up with dirt, sand, and debris over the centuries.Any hill of sand can someday reveal a pyramid.  The Valley of the Kings we visited yesterday is the more famous area, but our guide said Sakkara may become even more famous.  Just today, a new tomb yielded a trove of treasures that he was advised of.  It is largely an issue of funding the...

We flew from Luxor back to Cairo this morning.  Our bus in Cairo was delayed from leaving the airport, awaiting a "security car" to drive with us.    Some mosque scenes driving thru Cairo While we are continually assured we are perfectly safe, we have been accompanied everywhere by a man with a machine gun and then today by the security car.  I have not felt threatened in any way (other than very aggressive vendors in the markets outside every temple) but it's kind of reassuring to have some firepower with us just in case. We checked into the Four Seasons Cairo, "the nicest hotel in Cairo", 19th floor with a Nile view    The hotel gave us a belated anniversary greeting We had a rare afternoon off, so I used the time to catch up on this blog...the internet on board the ship was so bad that I had fallen behind.  We had to get a COVID PCR test so we could re-enter the US in a couple days, so they came to our rooms to do that (and stuck those swabs WA...

Some of our group (Jerry, Steve and Sarah Howell, and "Doc" (sight-impaired)) got up around at 4am to take hot air balloon rides and watch sunrise  over the Valley of the Kings west of Luxor, Egypt.  That was too early for us, so the rest of us traveled by boat to the west bank of the Nile and went by bus to the Valley of the Kings.  This was a place I was supposed to visit in March 2020 as part of my cruise with Jerry from India to Italy but cancelled due to COVID.   For 500 years from about 1600BC to 1100BC (1000 years after the building of the pyramids), the pharaohs and nobles of Egypt had tombs instead of pyramids built for themselves as they passed from mortal life to eternal life.  Tomb robberies occurred even in ancient times, so the isolated nature of this desert valley on the west side of the Nile river was selected for hidden underground tombs. Here is a 3D model of the valley and maybe you can see below the terrain how the tomb chambers extended...