Wednesday, November 08, 2006

greetings from Luxor!!

It is hot and lovely here. I did a bad packing job for heat, although I am working with it. My choices make more sense for Cairo and Jordan, but so it goes. We arrived in Luxor yesterday after getting up at 3 AM to make the plane and went to the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens and then to Karnak and Luxor Temples and to the Karnak light and sound show. Needless to say, by 10 PM we were all practically dead, and I nearly fell asleep at one point sitting on a rock in Karnak while the guide told us about it! He was very interesting and knowledgeable, so I learned a lot. We went into three tombs, all of which were lovely. The first was Thutmose III who had walls very much like the ones in the Quest for Immortality exhibit if you remember that. We had to climb up a very steep stair case and then down an even steeper one to get in and it was STIFLING hot inside, but still fabulous enough to make it all worth it. Plus, when we came out, Luxor's 70+ felt cool and nice. :-). We then went into the tombs of two of the Ramses (there were a lot of Ramses Pharaohs) which were also both wonderful and neither as much work either. We did not go into King Tut's because most everything is not there now as it is the US for the big exhibit.

The cruise leaves Luxor today so we are looking forward to some lazy time on the boat as we do not get to Edfu until tomorrow.

Cairo was as I remembered it but more so in every way. Huge, crazy drivers, dirty--oh my, so dirty!--fascinating, cheaper (unless your are buying gold, and then it is more expensive because gold is high right now) and so fun. We did just a modicum of shopping on Saturday and I have much more to do. We started with all the things that needed time to accomplish like jewelery and tailors and so on. I swear my father comes here more for the tailor (who is ridiculously cheap) than anything else.