The Aegean 1 sailed overnight again, the sea was calm as before and we were
lulled to sleep by the waves. We woke this morning to find we had docked in
Safaga, Egypt. Breakfast, then out to board a
coach, it's a three hour drive to the Valley of the Kings. The countryside here is flat, palm trees are growing everywhere and most houses
don't have roofs, some don't even have fronts.
The guide asks if we want to order any T shirts with names hand
embroidered on in hieroglyphics {cartouche} We ordered some for the boys, ourselves and our sisters. Andrew
also ordered a bracelet for
me in silver with his name in hieroglyphics in gold. They will all be ready this evening.
When we reached the Nile we crossed over on the ferry and Andrew haggled for
a lovely djellabah in white Egyptian cotton with dark blue and gold embroidery,
it has an overcoat to match, it's so pretty. On the other side we boarded yet
another coach {Tat Travel}.
The Valley of the Kings is a wild and desolate place. We went into Tut
Ankh Amoun's tomb first. Wonderful paintings on the walls and lots of hieroglyphics,
the colours are amazingly well preserved and all in lovely pastel shades. The tombs are empty of course as the contents are in the Cairo museum.
Next was the tomb of Rameses II, the only one that had contained a musical
instrument - a harp. Rameses II tomb is large and the paintings and hieroglyphics
are beautiful and more ornate than Tut's. I have a lovely book on Egypt which contains pictures
of these. The tomb of Rameses III was next, but it
was so dark that we couldn't see anything. All the tombs are similar, the sizes
are different depending on how long the pharaoh lived and how much time they had
to prepare it.
A mini cruise across and down the Nile followed, where we saw an
incredible wooden boat being built. We moored at the Isis hotel in Luxor where
we were booked for lunch This hotel was built by one of the pharaoh's cousin's as
a palace for a French princess, it's a beautiful old building. We had a buffet lunch then boarded the coach for a
tour of Luxor. We
stopped at an incredibly lovely modern looking building - Sekhamet's Temple. The
Colossi of Mennon another stunning place, then on to some temples and buildings
carved out of the hills, presently being excavated and not identified yet. The
magnificent statues of Rameses II was next, they are huge and stand a
little apart as if they are pillars at the entrance to a city. Andrew has taken
some wonderful photo's of all of these.
We had another ferry ride down the Nile to Karnak where the ram-headed sphinx
line the avenue to the temples and ruins. Andrew's sunglasses were stolen here. There are avenues lined with statues of
pharaohs too, it's a vast and magnificent place. We
lost our guide but a couple of Bedouin gentlemen offered to show us around,
we accepted their offer and saw a good deal more of the area than the others on
the official guided tour. We were taken up to the top of the buildings with amazing views
over Karnak, the others walked around in the ruins instead.
I agreed to a young girl having her photo taken with me,
she was fascinated by my hair and white skin. All of a sudden I was surrounded
by about 30 people all touching my arms, face and hair, all wanting a photo with
me. Andrew was laughing and recording us, a guard came and moved them away from
me and told me to stay away from the locals! We went for a coffee then headed
back to the coach, which was surrounded by a herd of little goats. We have a
five hour drive back from here. The guide gave us our T shirts and my bracelet,
which is gorgeous. We were wiped out and cranky by the time we got back, a
buffet supper was served, then we went straight to bed. The ship had already
weighed anchor while we ate.
