Back to the beginning of the trip

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Thank goodness we left Cairo today, Friday, 1/28/11. There were to be more protests and no one knows what will happen. We do have the ability to access the internet on the ship but it is being blocked by the government. So far, we’ve had a snow storm and now rioting in Cairo. Maybe this trip wasn’t meant to be! I’ll be writing this as I have time and will post to the blog whenever we get internet access.

Today, Friday, 1/28, started with a 3:15am wake up call and back to the Cairo airport at 4:30am. I got to bed last night about midnight. We flew to Aswan, in southern Egypt, and then waited for the other ½ of the rest of our group to come in on the next flight. Egypt is called Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt based on the height of the land. So, southern Egypt is higher and therefore called Upper Egypt. Rather confusing!

Our first stop was the Aswan High Dam on the Nile River. Not too exciting. I liked Hoover Dam better. Then off to the Temple of Isis on Philea Island. Isis, wife of Osiris, was responsible for bringing her husband back to life after he was killed by his jealous brother Seth. After his reincarnation, Osiris impregnated Isis who gave birth to Horus. Isis is identified as ‘life giver’ and ‘nourisher’; she was a protective force for the Pharaoh in life and death. The temple was moved to this island from another island that is now underwater. How in the world does one move a temple? It’s just amazing all the hieroglyphics. On the water taxi to the island they were selling handmade jewelry. Yes, of course, I bought some. The market vendors are relentless. It felt about 80 degrees outside and was wonderful. It was below zero at home last weekend.

We next went to the ‘Unfinished Obelisk’. This is the stone quarry where all the stone for the temples all over Egypt came from. They were to make a very large Obelisk statue and did something wrong to the stone while trying to extract it and it cracked. That’s one big oops! The quarry is not active and hasn’t been for a long time.

This afternoon we boarded the Queen of Hansa ship for our cruise up the Nile. We had a wonderful lunch buffet. There is nothing unusual with the food so far. The beef is not very good but the fish was delicious. There is one ‘Egyptian dish’. After lunch we cruised up the Nile. I had tea on the sundeck and relaxed for awhile.

Dinner was very good. There was falafel, mousaka and lots of different kinds of salad. The Greek salad was the best. Baklava and other goodies for dessert.

Tonight we stopped at the Kom Ombo Temple. The Ptolemaic Temple of Haroeris and Sobek combines worship to two gods; the crocodile-headed Sobek, protector of the earth, and Haroeris, a hawk-headed manifestation of Horus and god of medicine. There were medical instrument drawings, like forceps, on the walls. We got to the temple about 7:30pm and it was not busy at all. You could see some of the painted colors on the stone. Just amazing!

Listened to CNN about the rioting in Cairo. Thank goodness we are not there until Monday. Hopefully things will settle down. No one knows what will happen. We are just waiting to see.

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