Egypt a Nile cruise

I was lucky enough to spend 7 days drifting down the Nile with my Father, a woman I have known since I was 5 and she was a new bride and her husband.  We flew to Luxor from London and were picked up by our tour company representative.  Thank heavens I do not know how we would have made it out of the airport to the boat without him.

The Nile cruise boats

The boat was moored along with many others just South of Luxor, we settled into our room and went for dinner.  The food on the boat was about what I had expected, nothing special.  This normally would have been a major problem for me as one of the reasons I enjoy traveling is the food, but this was Egypt the place I had always wanted to go to.

The first day we visited the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens along with many other tourists in many other buses.  This was my first time on guided trip and though I am not sure how many others I will go on, for Egypt it did make things easier as there were so many people and most of the people working both on the boat and all the tourist destinations had only a rudimentary understanding of English and I have no Arabic.

Hatsheput's temple

On the back side of the Valley of the Kings was Hatsheput's Temple massive and Awe inspiring as were all the temples.



We drifted down the Nile to Aswan stopping off in Edfu and Kom Ombo where we were moored right in front of the Temple which was situated on the banks of the Nile for the evening.  The Temple was floodlit and we had dinner on deck under a full moon it was quite Magical.

Kom Ombo Temple

I spent a lot of time on the deck watching the Nile go by, the sun setting and meeting the many interesting people that we were traveling with.  For me this was the best part of being herded together in a group, as I love meeting people and during the week I got to know most of the English speaking
people on the boat.

On Deck drifting down the Nile

The sun setting over the Nile

The thing that surprised me about the temples that we visited was not only the size of them, but that every square inch was covered in carvings.  They were very beautiful and made the most wonderful patterns.

Some of the many many carvings.

The other thing that I found interesting was the tops of the columns each one was different and again were very beautiful and so massive.

Tops of the columns in one of the temples.

Another highlight was going for a sail on a felucca (a traditional Egyptian sail boat)

Felucca's at Aswan

The Felucca Captain

As I mentioned earlier the food was a major non event, with the exception of a soft white cheese that was served with every meal along with pickled lemons and assorted other pickles and olives.  The cheese was very soft and creamy and rather salty.

Egyptian cheese

When I asked the waiter all he knew was that it was Egyptian and made from cows milk, but when pressed he got the chef to come out and he showed me the box that it came in.  It was a type of Feta.

The chef showing me the cheese.

Any way it was the culinary highlight of Egypt for me.