Egypt

Egypt was our last international stop on our adventure. It took us a long time to decide that we were going, for some reason we were hesitant to make the commitment to this iconic and historically significant country. It was also the first and only place that we booked our entire trip through a company. It proved to be a wise decision as navigating independently through Egypt would have required more time than we had and we wanted to be able to see as much as possible. We flew into Cairo late in the evening and had an early morning flight the next day to Luxor where we would transition to a boat and then cruise up the Nile. Unfortunately, our bags did not make it to Cairo from Casablanca and therefore did not make it on our next flight to Luxor. As a result, we ended up buying some new threads on the road and decided to go all out cheesy tourist. So, that explains why we are dressed the way we are in some of the pictures. As a result of recent events in Egypt tourism is very depressed. On one of our day tours off the Nile, our tour guide explained that before the revolution, he wouldn't waste his time coming in to work for tour groups of less than ten people. We were the only two on his tour that day. Also, our boat was equipped to carry around 150 passengers and there were, at most, 30 on board. It was sad to see the highly tourism dependent country in such a state, especially since we never felt unsafe while we were there. Yes, there are more armed guards and safety check points than some of the other places we visited but we never once felt in danger. While that state was awful to see for Egypt, it actually made for some really great experiences for the tourists that were there. At some of the major sites we were among maybe 20 other people where pre-revolution there could have been hundreds. Jared also got sick for the first time at the very end of our trip. He missed our last Nile day tour so I was solo for that day.

I'm not even going to try and explain the history of Egypt and of all the places we saw. My blog post doesn't even have the chance to do the facts justice so I'll post the pictures and some descriptions. One of the places we got to visit but were not allowed to photograph is the Valley of Kings. This is the place where Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered which led to the discover of the rest of the King's tombs interred there. The tombs (we were allowed to see) were impressive and we were able to see King Tut's mummy before getting to see his sarcophagi in the National Museum. We did miss out on seeing the famous King Tut's mask and I was a bit disappointed about that but now we have another reason to return to Egypt.

Karnak Temple

Karnak

Hieroglyphs

Karnak

Ram headed sphinxes

Luxor Temple at night

Luxor

 

Queen Hatshepsut's Tomb

Queen Hatshepsut's Tomb

Colossi of Memnon

Edfu Temple

The lush Nile valley

More hieroglyphs

Philae

Philae

 

On the cruise boat

 

The greatest of the Great Pyramids

It's all about perspective

The three great pyramids

Classic

Sphinx and pyramid

Giving the sphinx a smooch

 

From Cairo we flew to Orlando! We finished up our almost year away with Disney World and Universal Studios, of course!