Once again the trains were delayed, which meant we got into Alexandria four hours late. We settled into our room, which had ocean views, and then quickly headed out to the Roman/Egyptian Catacombs before it closed. The Romans who settled in Egypt built these, but still used an Egyptian influence with decoration to fit in with the locals. It was very impressive to see, and the carvings were interesting. Basically the Egyptian gods grew muscles Roman style. Below the Egyptian scenes was then a similar scene in the Roman style. There were over 170 tombs down there, so it was very [View Full Entry]

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05-04-08 This morning it was another early rise to join the convoy to Luxor. We all decided to get an early start to get plenty of time in Luxor, so with three hours of bus behind us, we arrived in Luxor at 11am. Not having to leave for our next tours until 4pm, we took advantage of our hotel having a pool and relaxed up there for a while. The tours for the day were of the East Bank of Luxor. Our tour guide for our two days in Luxor was Shama, and she was great. We first went to Karnak [View Full Entry]

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03-04-08 Today started with a trip to the Nubian Museum. This was a well-planned museum (in Egypt, that is something special) that had plenty of models that explained the moving of the temples. It was pretty interesting over all. By late morning we were on the felucca and sailing north on the Nile, which is actually down stream. This was very relaxing and plenty of games were played, including the introduction of Backgammon. At night we docked and set up a campfire where singing, dancing and drumming took place. We also got to try apple and grape sheesha. 04-04-08 The next [View Full Entry]

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Today we arose at 3am to get the convoy to Abu Simbel. This was a bus ride that took three hours. ON the way we got to see the sun rise over the Toshka Desert. This was a pretty amazing sight over the sand and mounds that look much like small pyramids. However, the most amazing sight was still to come. Upon rounding the mountain at Abu Simbel, the sight of the Great Temple of Ramses II was amazing! It was a lot bigger then I imagined and quite breath taking. Our guide for the day was very helpful in explaining [View Full Entry]

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The train ride went on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on… A train that was meant to arrive in Aswan at 10am at the latest, we arrived at 5pm! This was the longest train ride of my life, but I managed to hold on for the toilet the whole time, because you don’t even want to know how bad they were. Whatever you are thinking now, multiply that by about 10. Apparently the [View Full Entry]

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Today it was an early rise to visit the pyramids. We left at 8:30 on our own air-conditioned bus, with tour guide. This was definitely the way to travel, as opposed to the horrible smoggy piece of shit taxi we had last time. It was already quite hot when we got there, but no more then you would expect in the desert. Ahhh, loving the heat! Our first call of order was the Great Pyramid. Very impressive. You can opt to go inside this one, but we decided to go into the Second Pyramid, as it was a shorter trip down, [View Full Entry]

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28/03/08 Today Megan and I finally arrived in Cairo at 1:20am, with pretty much no sleep the for the second night in a row. After queueing for ages to finally get through the passport check, we had to wait for Sam's (Megan's boyfriend) flight to land. When he arrived, we were then on our way to our hotel. We were thankful we had a transfer that night, as there was a bit of know-how involved in getting to our hotel. And so followed our first taste of Cairo traffic. Of course seat beats are just not worn in Egypt, and some [View Full Entry]

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This morning we were meant to rise at Five am. The alarm went off, but guess who went back to sleep...ME! Unfortunately Megan did exactly the same thing, but did manage to wake before me. The race was then on to finish packing our bags (I lightened my load) and heading out the door to get to Stanstead Airport. In the end, we couldn't have timed it better! Phew! It was then on to Cologne, Germany... Cologne was very nice. Megan and I were very impressed when the train driver stop from departing to let us on. Where in the world [View Full Entry]

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March. What a busy month. Good Friday marked a going away BBQ for Craig. We all went around to his house, and there we learnt the best drinking game, Horse Races. Stay alert people. This one will be coming out when we are all back home. Saturday work finished up, and it was time to shut down the Kings Road. This meant we had to pack up the whole store and send it back to the warehouse. IT was a loot of fun, and boy were we quick at clearing it out and getting out of there! It was then to [View Full Entry]

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I may be in a different country, but the birthday cakes continue. Or in James’ case, as he is not a big fan of cake, birthday “creation”. So rocky road Mt Everest it was! Since my last blog, we have been to Dublin! Not what I was expecting, but it was very good. The first thing to surprise me about the place was the size. Dublin is not very big and it is easy to walk anywhere there. Once equipped with a free tourist map, you can just work your away around to everything. James and I arrived on Friday afternoon, [View Full Entry]

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