NILE CRUISE

8. September - 11. September 2011

Since I spent three weeks in Egypt, I decided that I had to go south to see the great Egyptian temples. I opted for a four-day, full-board, cruise on the Nile with frequent stops to visit the temples First, I took an overnight train from Cairo south to Luxor. I bought a first class ticket and expected the car to be full of tourists. Well, that wasn't the case. I was the only foreigner and the car was neither clean nor comfortable. Anyways, I slept quite well until the morning. I didn't know where to get out and couldn't read the station signs either. Luckily there was somebody who spoke a little English and told me when to get off.
I was picked up at the train station by someone from the agency that I booked with and by taxi we went to the cruise ship. A three story boat with bar and pool at the roof. It seemed like I was the only person younger than 60 years. There were a few younger people but mostly there were older German couples. After relaxing a while on board, I met the guide for the first excursion to the Luxor and Karnar Temple. Very impressive. Huge columns and colorful paintings - and all this thousands of years old.
The next morning was spend visiting the "Valley of the Kings” - with many tombs of pharaohs. Most of them are long tunnels underground with a burial chamber at the end. In some tombs it is till possible to see the colorful wall paintings. In other tombs there is not much too see.
From there we went further down the river with stops at more temples. It was very impressive but after three days, all looked quite the same. Huge columns, colorful paintings, huge statues.
Check out my pictures at picasa - or just use the slideshow below.
At the end of this trip, I went to visit Abu Simbel. It's difficult to explain but the sight of these huge statues is amazing. And the chambers as well. It's also interesting because, the temple was moved from it's original position to the hill higher up when lake Nasser was build between 1960 and 1970.
From Aswan I took the train back to Cairo for a few more days with my friends and more sightseeing.