London and Egypt Jan-Feb 2019

St Margaret's Chapel - Westminster Abbey

Map Room - Churchill's War Rooms

Our first destination was London, so we got a hotel in the Paddington Square area. From here it was easy to get to all the sights in London. We took self-guided tours of Westminster Abby and St Paul’s Cathedral. I visited the Natural History Museum while Pat explored the Victoria and Albert Museum. At the British Library we saw the Magna Carta, then we toured Churchill’s War Rooms. We wanted to see some plays, but the popular ones were booked up. I thought this was supposed to be the off season. We did see Agatha Christie’s Mousetrap and a Comedy About a Bank Robbery. Both were very good. After four nights in London we were off to Egypt.

St George Church

When we landed in Cairo, we had a choice for the following day; take a 3 hr bus ride to Alexandria to tour the city and return or a free day to do as we pleased. While we would have loved to see Alexandria, a long day on the bus followed by a 3 am wake-up the next day was too much. So, we hired a cab and toured Old Cairo. This area is the center of the Coptic religion. The majority of Egyptian Christians belong to the Coptic Orthodox Church, the dominant religion in Egypt before Islam. We visited St George and St Bernadette’s Churches and the Coptic Museum.

Luxor Temple

Avenue of Sphinxes

The next day was the first day of our Trafalgar 9 day Best of Egypt Tour. Our small group consisted of two other couples and two women traveling on their own. All were Americans. Our tour guide was a local who had extensive knowledge of ancient Egyptian history and spoke excellent English. Up before dawn, we got the 6:30 AM flight to Luxor where our Nile cruise would start. But first we toured Karnak: Temple of Amon. It remains the largest religious structure ever built, expanded to cover 200 acres. Not surprisingly, we were the first to arrive. It was quite crowded by the time we left. After lunch on the boat, we toured Luxor Temple and saw the Avenue of Sphinxes. The next day we took a bus to the Valley of the Kings. Egypt’s Pharaohs from 1500-1000 BC were buried here. Sixty-three tombs have been found. We toured four tombs including Tutankhamen’s. We also toured two more temples and then we cruised to Edfu.

Ramses IV tomb

Ramses III Tomb

Our Nile Cruise Ship

Vendors in boat tied to our ship 

As we cruised up the Nile River, small boats will pull along side us, tie to our boat and proceed to sell their goods to the cruiser. If you show the least bit of interest in their goods, they will throw the item, with pinpoint accuracy, as far as four decks up, for you to review. If you want the item, place money in their container and throw it back, if not, drop the item into the boat below. Everywhere you went in Egypt, vendors were close by, trying to sell their goods. Most souvenir items could be bought with “just a dollar”. Of course, all the cheap stuff comes from China. We did have the “opportunity” to buy locally made products such as Egyptian Cotton, essential oils, alabaster products, and art on Papyrus. Yes, they take credit cards. To say the sales staff was persistent would be an understatement. I think they eat Timeshare salespeople for breakfast.

Carriage Ride to Edfu

Edfu Temple

At Edfu, a horse drawn carriage took us to the Edfu Temple. We waited there for the others in our group to arrive in their carriage. When one couple didn’t show up, our thoughts went to kidnapping. Finally, they did show up, they just had a very slow horse. Actually, we felt very safe on Egypt (and Israel and Jordan), there were soldiers and police everywhere. We didn’t see anyone with a gun that shouldn’t have one. They seemed happy to see Americans. Their tourism is about a third of what it was before the Arab Spring. My advice-GO NOW!

Sobek - Crocodile God

We cruised up to Kom-Ombo, toured the Temple of Sobek. Sobek was the Crocodile God. We visited the Crocodile Museum, a museum full of mummified crocs! The Nubians used to worship Sobek and now keep crocodiles at their house, alive or stuffed, as a talisman against the evil eye. 

Felucca

Our cruise ended at the Aswan High dam. We took a short trip in a felucca, an Egyptian sailboat. A motorboat took us to Kitchener’s Island and Botanical Garden. A local guide took us to his Nubian Village. The guide spoke perfect King’s English along with the British accent. He had never traveled outside of Egypt, but admitted he learned English by watched a lot of British TV.

Abu Simbel -Temple of Ramses II

From Aswan we flew further south to Abu Simbel. This temple was carved out of a mountain between 1244-1224 BC, during the reign of Ramses II. Over time it was forgotten and partially buried under sand. It was rediscovered in 1813 by a Swiss scholar, and later excavated. The building of the Aswan High Dam would have submerged this Temple under Lake Nasser. Between 1964-1968 a UNESCO project coordinated the dismantling of the temple and moving it to higher ground. It is amazing how well the new temple resembles the original one.

Mosque of Mohammad Ali (not the boxer)

Pyramid of Cheops

From here we flew back to Cairo and toured several mosques, one had the tomb of the last Shah of Iran. That evening we took a van out to the Great Pyramids of Giza. The van broke down on the way out, and we were rescued by another of the tour company’s buses.  They say it only rains three days in Egypt, and today was one of those days. Rain and lightning greeted us as we approached the outdoor theater. By the time the Light and Sound Show started, the rain had stopped, but the wind had picked up and was now blowing sand directly into our face. It’s hard to watch a show when you are being sandblasted in the face! Under these conditions, we could hardly enjoy the show, and couldn’t wait until we could get back on the bus. Pat was sick for the next four weeks. She was diagnosed with pneumonia when she returned home.

Great Sphinx

The day after the sand storm, we returned to the Great Pyramids on rainy day #2 and climbed up to the Throne Room inside the Pyramid of Cheops. Pat climbed into a second pyramid, but one back-breaking tunnel passage was enough for me. Later we would see Djoser’s Step Pyramid, the oldest colossal stone building in Egypt, built in the 27^th century BC! On our last night in Egypt we took a dinner cruise on the Nile with the rest of our group. This was an excellent trip, thanks to our guide who brought ancient Egyptian history to life.

Djoser's Step Pyramid