Aswan

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Untitled This morning we were supposed to be at the Aswan train station at 8am, so most of us got up fairly early so we'd be ready to get off. Of course, we didn't get there until 9am (it's Egypt). We had breakfast on the train - four different kinds of bread. Once we got off the train, we got on the bus and went to see the Aswan High Dam and the unfinished obelisk. After our morning sightseeing, we went and checked into our rooms on the boat for our Nile cruise about 11:30am. The boat and the rooms were nice - especially after the overnight train!!!!!! The best part was that we finally got to shower (no showers on the train)! Lunch was at 1pm and then we met in the boat's lobby at 2:30pm for our feluccca ride across the Nile to the Botanical Gardens on Lord Kitchener's Island. The gardens were very pretty. There were all kinds of flowers and tons of different kinds of palm trees. There were several school groups scattered around. There were stray cats everywhere - they were very tame and kept coming up to us. We had a little while to wander around the gardens before going back to the felucca for our ride back to the cruise boat. On the way back, we saw the Old Cataract Hotel. Later, we went to visit a papyrus institute to see how papyrus paper is made and then we went to the Aswan Spice Market for some shopping. I didn't buy anything at the market - I was too overwhelmed. We got back to the boat for dinner at 8pm and then bellydancing and a whirling dervish show at 9pm in the disco. After that, it was time for bed.

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