Category: Uncategorized

Andy and I now had a little bit of time in the morning due to our cancelled train – so we decided to walk to Halle Gate. It was built in the late 1300s – and later restored. It served as a medieval gate to the city.

We then found a place that was open at 9:30 AM for breakfast, which was surprisingly a big challenge. It was extremely simple – after we finished, we headed to the train station.

It always surprises me how easy it is to get on a train in Europe. I’m used to the airport and having to get there 2ish hours early, but you’re good to coast in between 30 minutes… or just a few minutes before departure!

After a quick train ride we were back in Paris. Jon and Yvonne had already checked into the Airbnb so we just had to meet them there. We got into the taxi queue – and had barely pulled out of the lot when the driver asked where we were going. (Normal question, right?!) And he told us that our destination was preset and going to cost 75 euro – he suggested using Uber. (10 euro!)

Next thing we know, we (and our luggage) are getting out of the taxi. I requested my Uber – and it was cancelled. And then I requested again, cancelled again! So not sure what others experience are with Uber in Europe – but it did NOT work for us in Paris.

At this point, we started to look at busses. However, this was our first real time to Paris. We couldn’t figure it out -and now I really need to pee. We decided to hoof it – with our luggage. I mean, after all – it was only a 20 minute walk at noon on a Saturday in Paris. 😂 The sidewalks were packed! After a very heated walk, on cobblestone roads and sidewalks (with luggage) dodging the locals, we finally made it! Sweaty and exhausted, we were able to make it to our AirBnb, a very cute place, but from the outside looked like an old store front, but inside super cute!

We had thought about heading to Versailles – but after our train cancellation and the hewe weren’t up for another train ride.

We decided to head for lunch – and after decided to go to the Louvre. We weren’t in for a full day – and honestly, it closed at 6 pm. However, the Louvre is massive and you could get lost in it (which we definitely did).

It was so exciting to see the glass pyramids from outside. You just knew you were in for something special!

So many beautiful sculptures, paintings, and just looking around at the architecture! The Louvre’s building was formally a fortress and was a royal residence until one of the King Louis’ moved the court to Versailles. Throughout French history, the different monarchs added on to the structure and it was in the 18th century that the idea of turning it into a museum was born.

A few of the items we were looking to see were the sculptures – Winged Victory and Venus de Milo; and of course we had to see the Mona Lisa. I’m not sure that I have any original thoughts about the Mona Lisa – other than what you’ve probably already heard. Yes, she’s smaller than she looks.

We also got to see a lot of other interesting paintings, that we weren’t exactly looking for when we originally set out. There was some cool stone art from Iran – Yvonne and I really liked the blue stone. We also walked through some extravagant galleries that had some amazing paintings.

We could have spent a whole day in there, but alas, it was time for the museum to close. Time flies when you’re having fun!

From there we walked to Place de la Concorde (through the Tuileries Garden) – which was also very beautiful and gave us our first proper view of the Eiffel Tower. This is one of the major squares in Paris. A nod at our last trip – there is a giant Obelisk located there (a gift from Egypt).

We had a dinner reservation at one of Jon and Yvonne’s favorite restaurants – Creperie Contemporaine. They have a great deal where you get a galette (a savory crepe), a dessert crepe, and a drink for 24 euro. I didn’t expect to be so full, but I couldn’t finish either of my food items!

We were also surprised at how late the sun goes down here! We are used to that in Minnesota, but we were surprised that even at 9:40PM it was dusk! It was time to head to bed, exhausted but excited to head to Champagne in the morning! We double checked our tickets, and had an early wake up call to walk to the train station.

Up next:
-Wine tasting in Epernay

This was our road trip day. Andy and I love to take road trips in the USA, but haven’t had the chance to do a multi country route in Europe! Today was our day! We picked up our car rental – and were on our way around 8:00 AM.

Google maps wasn’t updated with all of the road construction – so we got turned around a few times. We finally made it out of town and we had a feeling it was smooth sailing from there.

And we were mostly right, until we got to Luxembourg City. Where we realized the two parking lots we had looked up were full. There was a second museum I had planned on stopping at if we had time – it was further outside of the city center. We took a gamble, got there and immediately found parking. There had been a very interesting fort that looked cool in pictures, so we had decided to stop there (and not go into the museum).

Once we walked up we realized that it was free! Just our luck! We took a few pictures outside and walked around inside. We quickly realized that most of the plaques were not in English – and I’m a nerd about reading EVERYTHING in a museum. This expedited our time at this museum. When we were walking out, we took a chance at asking the worker about calling us a taxi.

She kept insisting that the tram station was nearby. We really didn’t want to pay for train tickets – we didn’t know the schedule – and we were tight on time. It looked like rain again – so Andy had run back to the car to grab the umbrella. After I started researching I realized that in the City of Luxembourg ALL public transportation was free. Brilliant! No wonder why this woman was looking at us like we were crazy – why pay for something that is free?! And as it turns out, extremely convenient.

We made it to the downtown area – and landed on a restaurant that was nearby the House of Underwear. As luck would have it, the skies opened up again – and thankfully we were inside the restaurant this time. After finishing up lunch we started our walk to the Museum of Luxembourg City. We knew we really only had 40 minutes (which is not enough time) – so we hurried over. However, I noticed on the map that there was a Cathedral Notre-Dame.

Mass was not in session so we quickly stopped to admire the stained glass and the nave and continued on our way.

The Museum of Luxembourg City would have been great to stick around for longer, but again – we were power walking through the different floors. It only cost 6 euro, so we didn’t feel that bad for power walking through it.

We had a tasting reservation 30 minutes outside of the city at Caves St. Martin. They specialize in sparkling wine (yay!) and primarily white wines. The tasting room and cave are a stones throw away from Germany – just across the Moselle river. We had booked the prestige tour – and we made it just in time. It wasn’t supposed to be a private tour, but we were the only two that showed up.

We got to learn more about how this facility makes their wine – and honestly, we learned a lot. At the end, we got popped out into the tasting room where we could indulge. I had forgotten that they had included an “appetizer” which turned out to be a rather large charcuterie board for each of us. (Wish we hadn’t had such a big lunch!)

Our tour guide left – she had another group. However, the gal working in the tasting room was amazing. She had moved to Luxembourg last year to study viticulture. She was trying to head to New Zealand next but was figuring out a plan for her visa. She shared with us that Luxembourg has the cheapest alcohol, gas, coffee, and cigarettes in the region. They don’t tax these goods as much – so a bottle of amazing sparkling wine came to about 8 euro.

Andy had to talk me out of buying a case there. This was only our first winery of the trip after all!

After leaving Caves St. Martin we headed to Germany – we got to drive through the countryside of Germany for about an hour before entering Belgium again. We were heading through another storm (so much rain on this trip!) and caused for some slow conditions.

We were heading to Valkenburg in the Netherlands. And our sleepiness was catching up to us, we decided that we would cross the border into the Netherlands and head back to our Airbnb in Brussels. We had looked up a few things to do there – which we will save for another trip in the future.

We had a hard time finding a gas station that would accept our credit card – I think we finally found one on the 3rd or 4th time. Still not sure why it was an issue, but at this point we were exhausted. We made it back to Brussels around 8 PM – right around 12 hours of being on the road! (With lots of fun mixed in!)

We headed back to our Airbnb and started organizing and packing up our suitcases. As we were heading back to Paris the next morning.

As I was laying down to fall asleep I realized I had missed an email earlier in the evening due to the gas station debacle. Our 8:43 AM train was cancelled. I quickly hopped on to look for the next earliest train – and glad that I did, because other travelers were in the same boat and many of the trains were selling out.

The type of ticket we had bought entitled us to a free exchange – but of course, by the time I read the email the Call Center was closed. I booked an 11:13 AM train – and we are still hoping that they reimburse us for the new tickets. (128 euros more than our previous tickets!)

The trip has already had some ups and downs – hoping that the rest truly is smooth sailing!

Up Next:
-Halle Gate
-Train to Paris
-Meet up with Jon and Yvonne
-Paris activities – TBD!

Once we landed in Paris, we knew that we had a tight timeline to catch the RER B (Blue Line) to the Paris Nord train station. We got through Customs pretty quickly – it was really hot and humid in the airport. And from there we quickly ran to pick up our bags and get on the train. Honestly, we thought two hours was enough time – but I would recommend if you are traveling to Paris Nord train station from CDG to allow three hours to get through customs and on the train. That way you aren’t running and breaking into a sweat. 🥵

When we got to Paris Nord it was really unclear on where we were supposed to go. We were looking for monitors, but overall – not a great experience. I should have done more research ahead of time, but we eventually found our train platform. Once we boarded our Thalys train we felt like we could finally relax. It would be an hour and 45 minute train ride at this point to Brussels. You gotta love high speed trains!

We couldn’t check into our Airbnb – so we checked our baggage into luggage lockers. Now that we were in Brussels we decided that it was time to have lunch. Right outside of the Brussels Midi station there are a bunch of cafes. We could see that a storm was brewing – so we based our choice off of which patio had the best umbrellas. It ended up not mattering much, because the skies opened up shortly after we placed our order and we were rushing inside.

The food was okay – and the service wasn’t stellar. However, I want to be fair. They had to move their entire patio indoors in a matter of a minute. So, they will remain nameless. 😉

I had gotten a manicure done a few days before we flew out, but by the time we had landed in Paris it had turned brown. It was a fashion emergency – and honestly, just looked disgusting. I found a nail salon that accepted walk ins and prayed that they would help my case. Even if they could just help me remove the gel.

The salon owner said she could take me – so I ended up switching out the color. Andy didn’t want to participate – so he fell asleep in a chair while he waited. I will say, this owner was extremely fast and efficient. Walked out of there feeling like a new woman!

It was time to check into our Airbnb – the last minute one that I had booked about 12-14 hours earlier. The owner met us there and gave us a quick tour before departing. We freshened up and headed directly to the Grand Place. This is a centra square in Brussels – and it is very extravagant with large elaborate buildings. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.

I had done a ton of reading ahead of time of different restaurants to visit – yes, time for more food. I had read about Mojave Tavern – which served traditional Belgian food. I had the cheese croquettes and Andy had shrimp croquettes. They were delicious, but very rich. I couldn’t even finish mine!

We ate small meals because we knew that we wanted to get a Belgian waffle. We were excited to go to Maison Dandoy – I had seen a lot of good reviews for them. That was technically our dessert – and it didn’t disappoint. Any waffle I’ve had in America could not hold up to this Belgian waffle! So crisp and delicious!

Now that we were refreshed and well-fed we decided to do our own walking tour. We were on the hunt for the Manneken-Pis. The peeing boy – I knew we were close when we rounded a corner to a bunch of people giggling and holding up their phones for pictures. This little boy is from 1388! Supposedly, I’m not sure that anyone is around to ask… this was how many people of Brussels received water. In the late 1600s, the governor gave him his first outfit… and he has hundreds since then!

The storm had cleared and we had a very beautiful night for walking – we also cruised past the Mont de Arts – a public garden. We were dead on our feet and turned back to our Airbnb where we got a restful night’s sleep.

Up Next:

-Road trip to: Luxembourg, Germany, and the Netherlands
-Museum of Luxembourg City
-Fort Thungen
-Wine tasting @ Caves St. Martin
-Valkenburg, Netherlands

We left San Diego on Wednesday morning at 7:30 AM. There are no non-stop flights from San Diego to Paris, so of course we connected in Detroit. I know what you’re thinking – who connects in Detroit?!

We did! I guess Delta has a pretty big hub there. We sprung for the Delta lounge so Andy could work for a few hours before our flight to Paris. The one thing that we really liked about the Detroit airport was there was an intra-terminal tram to get you between gates more quickly.

I was handling our first big issue of the trip, spoiler alert – there was another big one coming… When I had booked our Airbnb in Brussels – I found a cute apartment close to the train station and the car rental office. Our host hadn’t responded to any of my messages – which was pretty unusual. We’ve used Airbnb so many times that I’ve lost count, and I can’t say I’ve had this happen before.

I tend to be a bit paranoid when it comes to booking things, and unfortunately, I typically assume the worst. (I usually come up with a Plan B and Plan C ahead of time). I felt like I was likely just making something out of nothing. But the night before we flew out I couldn’t sleep. Our host hadn’t responded to let us know check instructions or anything.

I checked as soon as I woke up – and there was still nothing. So I immediately opened a case with Airbnb while we finished getting ready and packed. Once at the airport I called Airbnb. They said they would try to get a hold of him, but then I hopped on the plane.

Roughly 4 hours later, we landed and I had 4 voicemails from Airbnb. And a few messages in the app. One from the brother of our host – I guess our host had gotten sick and was just released from the hospital. They had to cancel our reservation.

At this point, we were landing in Paris within 10 hours and then hopping on a train to Brussels.

Once we got to the lounge the Airbnb representative called me back. They were refunding me what I paid – and 10% (which is a bit cheap if you ask me!). What they didn’t take into consideration was that I booked this back in OCTOBER – and it was 1/3 of the price of other Airbnbs in the area. I finally got someone competent who helped me get at least 30% additional to help me find a suitable Airbnb.

The new Airbnb was in the same location – and I think a bit of an upgrade. However, we did pay about $100 more to book the place.

I could finally relax as we boarded the plane to Paris. Nothing like a last minute booking to send you into a spiral.

Also, as a side note. We were definitely spoiled after flying Qatar Airways. Delta was nice and all, but Qatar still holds the #1 spot in my opinion!

Up Next:

-Landing in Paris
-Travel to Brussels (train)
-Grand Place
-Dinner and second dinner
-Manneken Pis

After visiting the Coptic neighborhoods, we made our way to the Cairo market. It really is more of a grand bazaar. At this point, we were all very hungry and it had been a very long day of travel.

Our tour guide dropped us off at a cafe, this was on the outskirts of the market. However, that did not stop the hasslers from hassling us while we were trying to eat. They kept coming in to the restaurant, and it became obvious they had some type of agreement with the managers there.

I ended up finally purchasing a style of scarf that I had been eyeing for most of the trip. Figured it was our last full day, so why not!?

It would be easy to get lost within the Bazaar. I think there was a brief moment of where I was leading, and I think Andy had already sensed that I was going to get us lost. (I don’t blame him!) Thankfully, he pointed out my mistake before we got too far into the maze.

It was pretty funny to hear some of the lines the shop owners would throw out, “Shakira, Shakira!” or “Welcome to Alaska!” Very clever – “I only want your money!” “How many camels?” All sorts of quips and pick up lines that left us all laughing – or Googling what they meant later. 😂

Chelsea and Michael had to head to the airport that night – and were going to try to get a refund for the hotel. We offered our room for them to use to freshen up before heading to the airport. This worked out well because we needed to wait for our arranged Covid-19 test from the tour company.

They had advised us it could take an hour to an hour and half for them to make it to our room. We ended up messaging our original tour guide, Michael to see if he could find out when they were coming. As we had wanted to go to the rooftop bar to look around. They came shortly after and we were on our way to the rooftop.

Once we got up there, we quickly realized how loud it was. The hoste let us know that they were going to have a DJ that night. Not exactly the relaxing evening we were all hoping for, so we headed down to the lobby bar instead. There really wasn’t anything great within walking distance to our hotel, and to be honest, after all of the hassle during the bazaar we thought it would be easier to just stay put.

Chelsea and Michael headed to the airport and we turned in for the evening.

I’m obviously writing this from the United States, but in the next blog I’ll discuss our last day and our travel back to the USA!

Now that we are home and back into the swing of normal life – I’ve had a hard time finding time to finish up the last leg of our Egypt trip.

After our last night in Luxor, we were all heading to the airport. Michael had warned us that the officials at the Luxor airport were “moody” and that he would try to stick with us as much as possible. However, he had a flight to catch himself.

We quickly found out that Michael was right. We had brought a small portable USB fan – in case it was hot and if the hotel didn’t have AC. Even though we were checking this bag, before we even made it to the counter they ran our bags through security. The agent asked me what “machine” was in the bag – after some digging and limited language we were able to realize it was the fan. He let me keep it – just needed to see it. At this point, Andy made it through the first round of security safely.

We checked our luggage at the counter and then moved through what most Americans would consider the normal security portion. This time – I came out unscathed. However, once I was on the other side I realized that Andy was animatedly working with the agent over something in his backpack. It wasn’t until we were reunited on the other side that he told me they took his spiral remover of stopper crock. Uh, what? They took our travel corkscrew! 😂

It was a rather uneventful flight from there – very short flight from Luxor to Cairo. Once we landed in Cairo and retrieved our bags we were split into different busses. Individuals from all of the tour busses were split into those going to the Saladin Citadel and those that were going to the market and back to the hotel. We would still get to see the market, but would go to the Citadel first.

This was a new tour guide – our friends Chelsea and Michael (not to be confused with tour guide Michael!) had him for the whole trip. His day job is as a professor – and he does one week a month as a tour guide. You can definitely see his passion in his work.

We approached the Citadel and were immediately told to take off our shoes. We were heading to the Alabaster Mosque first. At the time, we didn’t know this. And we were standing in our socks (from some people barefoot) outside the mosque. They also let us know that women needed to have their head covered – either by a scarf or a hat. Honestly, I think this was the first time we had been told that.

And I mean WHOA. The second we walked into the mosque – I was in shock. I don’t know why we were waiting outside. It was STUNNING inside. One of the highlights of the trip for me. I’ll let you be the judge of that.

This is the Alabaster Mosque, but is also the Mosque of Muhammad Ali. This was built in the 1800s. All of the Saladin Citadel is perched on a high point above Cairo. You can even see the Giza Plateau (the pyramids!) from there!

There was a lot to learn at the Saladin Citadel. Honestly, our new tour guide was hard for me to pay attention to. 😩🙈

After this, we went to the Coptic neighborhood. Cairo has an interesting religious history – this was the old Christian neighborhood. I don’t want to pretend to be an expert of any sort – on any religion. However, it was fun to get to see so many old buildings.

It is called the Hanging Church because it was built on the southern gate of the Roman Fortress. From the 7th century to the 13th century, the Hanging Church served as the residence of the Coptic Patriarch.

I don’t think I can do the story Justine, I would recommend looking up its history to learn more about “moving a mountain.” Where we went next was quite, well interesting for those following the Christian faith. Or – if you know some of the stories from the Bible. We entered the area where the Holy Family fled from King Herod.

The Cavern Church is a beautiful church and a lot of history. This cave is believed to be where the Holy Family took shelter – and the well that they drank from.

The Holy Family is believed to have spent roughly 3.5 years fleeing from Herod in Egypt. Look up more details, I know I’m not doing it justice.

Keeping in mind that the church we are walking in was built in 5th century AD. We were back on the main floor.

There was a conflict that took place during 1967 in the Holy Land- members of the church noticed that there was blood flowing from the middle of the second pillar. They called for St. Cyril VI to tell him what happened. He came and prayed and put his finger on the blood which stopped immediately.

You can still see blood on the column.

I feel like I can’t do this blog post justice, so please if you are interested look up each of these places. The history has so much to say.

The Valley of the Kings is where most of the Pharaohs from the 18th, 19th, and 20th dynasties were buried. There are 62 known tombs in the valley – and based on what we saw and learned in Egypt, I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that there were more!

Valley of the Kings is part of the ancient city – Thebes. UNESCO registered the area as a world heritage site. (UNESCO had also designated Luxor, Karnak, and Valley of the Queens were included as well).

Back in the day, there were a lot of grave robbers. So the plan was to conceal the tombs in a random valley – and create a tunnel system to confuse the robbers. The tombs were filled with items that would help the king in the next world – so there were lots of goodies in each of the tombs.

All of the walls were decorated with different gods and documenting the king’s journey through the underworld. Most of the tombs had been cleared out or robbed, all except for the most famous one. You know who!

King Tutankhamun (Tut!) Unfortunately, you have to pay extra to see it. However, if you saw our pictures from the Egyptian museum – you actually already got to see a lot of his things! His tomb had been covered by rocks, which helped preserve it from discovery until 1922!

Our tour included three tombs – which I think only took us about an hour. We visited Ramses IX first.

Next, we went to Rameses III.

The last tomb we entered was the Rameses I. The last one was definitely the steepest and the smallest. However, I think it was the most colorful.

And that was the end! We were on our way back to our hotel at this point – just one more picture looking back at the valley.

As we were walking out, we had decided to pick up a few souvenirs from the market. As Andy was reaching out to pay one man for our guide book, another man put a fake scarab in his hand. He was suggesting that Andy had to pay for it – and of course, Andy, thinking on his feet noticed the man had long sleeves. He quickly put the scarab in the man’s sleeve and walked away without any hassle as the Egyptians like to say. Moral of the story: never have an open hand in the market. 😂

We had checked out of Chateau Laffayette and made our way to Iberotel hotel, which was right on the river. Luxor was by far our favorite (and cleanest!) city that we stopped in.

This was our last night in Luxor before catching a short flight back to Cairo.

Upcoming Activities:
-Flight to Cairo
-Saladin Citadel

On the sixth day of our trip, we set out for the Temple of Hatshepsut (it is also known as the Holy of Holies). This temple is special because it honoring a real badass, a queen! Queen Hatshepsut is one of the more important female rulers in Egyptian history. She led the country through some prosperous times.

All of this was completed as a mortuary temple for her – which is very common in Egypt for the Pharaohs. Hatshepsut had been married to her half brother, Thutmose II. Whemn he died, she was appointed as regent for her stepson and nephew, Thutmose III. Michael shared that a “beautiful story” was written for her – a mythical story that would make it possible to take the throne.

In the seventh year of regency, she made an unprecedented move for power and declared herself to be the ruler, calling herself “King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Maatkara and the Daughter of Re.” Obviously her stepson/nephew had some bad blood. Once she died, he spent most of his time erasing all memories of her. He destroyed so much of the temple in an attempt to erase her time as ruler. And an even bigger deal in Egyptian culture is erasing her cartouches from different temples. (A cartouche is a symbol with the name written in hieroglyphics). Her tomb and mummy weren’t discovered until 2007!

This location had so much to offer. It’s so hard to pick just a few pictures, sorry in advance. I love the fact that so many were well preserved with color!

Upcoming Activities:
-Valley of the Kings

We are now entering the Nile, the longest river in the world. It goes on for Niles and Niles and Niles, and if you don’t believe me, then you’re in…DENIAL!

After we finished up the Edfu Temple we started the 3-hour ish cruise towards Luxor. It was quite the spectacle once we arrived at the lock near Esna. I was sleep deprived and was trying to take a nap – and woke up to a bunch of shouting and honking. We figured we had reached the lock.

Once we were on the sundeck we saw a variety of Egyptians throwing packages onto the deck – and hoping tourists liked what they saw. If the tourists did, they would throw money back in the package and pay them. There was a lot of throwing back and forth and I’m not sure if anyone actually purchased anything. Regardless, it was a chaotic and funny scene!

Once we docked, we took off for Karnak Temple. And I know what you’re thinking – and YES! We went to a lot of temples! I don’t think we broke our record from Thailand, but it felt pretty close. Karnak Temple area reminded me so much of the Roman Forum in Italy. It was so vast and spread out. There was a lot to look at and Michael had warned us to be careful to not get lost.

The Karnak Temple dates back from around 2055 BC to around 100 AD. Being the largest building for religious purposes ever to be constructed – it was an ongoing project by different dynasties over the ages.

So much of the Temple is still actively being restored. As this is a work in progress, you can see some colors start to pop out in the pillars and other structures.

While Michael gave us free time, we were walking through the different columns and a man approached us. We didn’t understand what he said to us – but he was gesturing for us to follow him. We realized we were in a pretty secluded spot in the complex – and it just felt like a bad idea. Unfortunately, he followed us for a while until we got back to a more crowded area.

Others in our group told us that they had something similar – and the man took them to look at a black scarab. We don’t think it was the same guy, but thankfully the tour group’s (armed) security guard went with them. Who knows, weird things happen wherever you go. It’s best to just follow your intuition and mine was telling me – run!

After Karnak Temple, we head over to the Temple of Luxor. Another cool experience as we got there at sunset. Watching the columns light up was magical.

We returned to the ship and were able to celebrate our anniversary together and with some of our new friends. Another adventure filled day came to a close!

We started the morning off with a death on the ship. My hair straightener didn’t make it – we thought we did everything right with our adapter, but it bit the dust! Thankfully, no one else was harmed in its untimely demise.

We were docked in Edfu from the previous night – and we woke up to another horse and carriage ride. We realized that four wheels are better than two wheels when it comes to carriages. It was a brisk morning, but we were excited to get back on the horse.

Our driver spoke enough English to know that we wanted to go slower. In fact, we made the joke “Slow and steady FINISHES the race.” After our accident on the first full day, we weren’t taking any chances.

The Temple of Edfu is one of the best preserved temples in Egypt. It also stands quite tall in stature as well. This temples is dedicated to Horus, the son of Isis and Osiris. Horus is the falcon God – who you see in so many of the pictures from the trip. He is personally one of my favorites!

Again, there is so much detail in all of the different murals within each temple. Michael tricked us into thinking that one of them was the Wi-Fi symbol – it really does look like it! In reality it was for incense.

The temple was built with the thought of how birds fly – they soar in circle and then when they dive they go straight down. There are two different staircases getting to the upper level – so you see both on either side of the temple.

Our same driver brought us back in the carriage – Michael had encouraged us to save fruit so we could feed the horses. Some of them looked really skinny and malnourished. Thankfully our new friends, Nancy and Tobin had been stockpiling on apples and she gave us one to share with our horse. (Thank you!)

We tipped the driver with some cash and then gave the horse the apple. The driver had to help me cut it, I guess the horse wasn’t able to break into it on its own.

After the Edfu temple we were going to cruise to Luxor, which I’ll post in another blog because we saw quite a bit there as well!

Upcoming Activities:

-Travel to Luxor
-Temple of Luxor
-Karnak Temple

After we returned back from Abu Simbel we met up with others from our group and headed on to another optional tour – the Island of Philae. The island was known as the Pearl of Egypt. This was another temple that was moved due to the rising waters of the Nile after the High Dam of Aswan was built.

The temple had many Greek and Roman impacts on the island. The true gem of the island was that it was a temple built to worship the Goddess Isis. It’s crazy to imagine them having to move another large temple due to the water. However, UNESCO stepped in to help protect this treasure.

Michael pointed out quite a few different styles that were placed here over the years. Including Christianity as well.

The complex is very grand – and of course, very detailed.

Honestly, there is a lot to unpack with the mythology behind the place. Definitely worth a read, but I’m not going to do it justice here.

Returning by boat, we made our way back to Aswan. From here, we moved on to a spice shop. We were treated to a variety of nuts, tea, and got to smell a bunch of different spices.

Once we finished shopping, we returned to the boat for a very late lunch. (Around 2:30 pm). After eating and freshening up – we went to Kom Ombo. It was also interesting because there isn’t enough space to dock and the cruise ships have to coordinate lining them up so passengers have to walk through the different lobbies to get to shore. I’ll post a video later of this – one of our new friends from the trip had taken a video while we were getting off the boat.

The fun thing about these next two temples is we got there as the sun was setting – and got to see all of the columns lit up.

All of the temples are a bit different, but they have a lot of similarities. You get to see a variety of different gods and goddesses – and all of the hieroglyphics tell stories.

A fun change of pace was when we went to The Crocodile Museum. This is directly next to the temple – and was a very quick pit stop. Also, this was within walking distance of our cruise ship.

What went on to be the longest day ever – we returned to our ship and it was the “party” night. They had arranged for a happy hour, dinner, and an Egyptian party. We were exhausted from another early day, but we rallied for part of it. We went to the happy hour and dinner and went to bed shortly after.

Upcoming Activities:

-Ride in a traditional horse and carriage ride (yikes!)
-Temple of Edfu
-Cruise to Luxor
-Karnak Temple

We had an early morning wake up call (2:00 am) to head to Abu Simbel.

This was an optional excursion – and a few people had opted out due to the early morning. It took about 3 hours each way to get there, not for the faint of heart. Two temples were carved into a cliff along the Nile. If you have seen images of Petra in Jordan – it looks similar at first glance.

These temples were provisioned by King Ramses II to be built. The interesting detail with these temples was not only were they created, but they actually had to be moved to a new location due to rising waters from the new Aswan High Dam. Between 1963 and 1968 a team dug away the top of the cliff and completely disassembled both temples, reconstructing them on high ground more than 200 feet above their previous site. Keeping them safe from rising water.

There are four 66 foot tall statues on either side of the main entrance to the temple. On two days of the year (February 22 and October 22), the rays of the morning sun penetrate the whole length of the temple and illuminate the shrine in its innermost sanctuary.

Nearby the main temple is a smaller one, dedicated to Nefertari that is adorned with 35-foot statues of the king and queen. This is relatively uncommon to have a queen made in similar size to the king – they attribute that to the love he had for her. I guess she was his favorite wife! (He had many wives and even more children – supposedly 200!)

We figured that most people would go to the main temple after our guide explained some of the history – so we headed over to the smaller temple. Neferari’s temple – let’s go girls! It was stunning.

We had killed enough time and then headed over to the main temple. Although the smaller temple was amazing, the main temple had so many unique features.

For the sake of not making this post too long – I’ll break up the second part of our trip in a separate post! Our time in Aswan/Kom Ombo was short – but made for a very long day.

Other activities:

• Island of Philae
• Kom Ombo
• Temples of Haroeris and Sobek
• Nilometer
• Crocodile Mummy Museum