The Snow Arrives!!!

Prague
So the school holiday arrived, I rushed home to get sorted before a very early morning the next day. Brain, another teacher, and I had planned and amazing Christmas markets tour that began with Prague, a day in Vienna then a few days in Budapest. We were both pretty excited to be heading off the next day until Damien got a text message from Easy jet. As it was snowing, and nothing works in London when it is snowing, our 6am flight from Luton was cancelled. We took this in our stride and rebooked for a later flight from Stansted. Ever optimistic, I packed my bag whilst watching the heaviest snow I have ever seen fall outside my window. We checked the flight status online one last time, it was still scheduled. Brian and I headed off to Liverpool St Station where we caught the Stansted Express. This turned out to be a longer wait than we anticipated and we were glad we had allowed extra time to get to the airport due to the weather. We should have taken this as a warning for what was to come but we were still both feeling optimistic about our trip as we froze on the platform watching the snow melt from the stationary trains.

Finally, after a couple of confusing announcements and platform changes, we were on our way. The train was quite full but it was nice to be out of the cold. We admired the winter landscape of frozen lakes, white fields and families building snowmen from the warmth of the carriage. Then the train had arrived at the airport, had just checked the flight status again on Brian’s I phone and were reassured by the website claiming our flight was still scheduled. This relief was short lived as we discovered soon after that our flight, along with all Easy jet flights had actually been cancelled! It is a strange thing to look at the website which states the flight is scheduled alongside the information screen which told us otherwise. By this point we were both a little annoyed as there were no Easy jet staff in site, in fact the airport terminal looked deserted of staff. There were hundreds of people milling around trying to work out what to do next but not anyone to give information. Brian and I did what any disappointed person would do, we headed for the nearest bar.

Whilst this was a good idea at the time, we were both feeling irritated, disappointed and hungry it may not have been the best idea in retrospect. We did have an ok time but when we got back to the train platform a couple of hours later there was mayhem! All the people who had come out to the airport for cancelled flights, along with all the people who had their flights grounded at Stansted which was the last London airport to close, were trying to get back into central London. What made matters worse was the fact that the trains were not working very well due to the weather, remember nothing works in London when it snows. We spent the next couple of hours chatting to strangers on the platform whilst we waited for a train. We met a German girl who had been trying to get home for three days and a family from Florida who had a connecting flight from a different airport. We didn’t feel so bad about missing our holiday considering we intended to be in London for Christmas anyway. After a couple of hours on the freezing platform, and again with confusing announcements directing people to other platforms, we finally made it onto a very crowded train. We were relieved again to be out of the cold but soon became frustrated as the train broke down twice! We did finally make it back to London and are still waiting for a reply to Brian’s very stern letter about the lack of staff and organisation at the Stansted train platforms.

Meanwhile, Damien being Damien decided he wasn’t going to waste a day off by waiting for me to leave on my holiday. He headed out into the country to go walking in the blizzard! I was very relieved when he arrived home in one piece and very jealous that he had a lovely day out when mine was quite frankly lousy.


Damien Walk, Pluckley

Despite the weather and Christine leaving for Prague today, I got myself moving. The night before I had checked out a really handy hiking England website and decided on my plan of attack. After breakfast, saying bye to Christine, visiting the internet cafe to print the walking instructions and catching the train to London Bridge, I was ready to take the train out of London, a bit later than I had planned. The guy at the ticket window warned unless travel was essential he advised against it, they weren’t certain the trains would run all day due to the snow. But some times you just need to ‘take a gamble on the weather’ so I bought a ticket, jumped on the first train and hoped for the best.
Well I am happy to say that today has changed my opinion on English people, somewhat. Maybe it was my mood, or maybe it was the individuals I met, but today I met the nicest English people I have ever met!

As the train rolled out of London Town, the snow continued to fall, if anything it got heavier and heavier. Unusually, for the first part of the journey I had a carriage to myself, which was nice, I enjoyed my coffee and read the printout of the walk I had bought with me.
The train ride was only supposed to take an hour but took well over this, due to the weather. In uncharacteristic fashion, this did not annoy me! After about an hour the train pulled into Tonbridge, a place I had never heard of, but was quite busy. I had finished my reading and the next part of the journey took another hour, but again this did not upset me. After Tonbridge I got chatting to someone who had just got on the train. Turns out she had been in London for the week with exams, then had a work party somewhere near Tonbridge the night before and was gradually making her way home to Canterbury. She was lovely and we chatted most of the way until finally the train arrived at Pluckley, and I made my way off the train.

The snow is so pretty, especially from the warmth and comfort of the train. As I stepped off the train it was blizzard like (or as close to a blizzard as you will find in England). I started my 4 hour hike, knowing I only had about 4.5 hours of daylight left. The first part was hard going, because of the snow. The instructions talk about gravel roads and crossing fields, which is made difficult by snow covered ground and 10-15m visability. At point 3 of my 45 point hiking guide I very nearly turned around, having no idea where I was or which direction I was supposed to be headed (standing in a field, not seeing a fence in any direction). It was at this point that I was cold too, I had all the right gear, thermals, snow socks and ski jacket, but after being on the warm train the first 30-40 minutes was cold.
I kept going, for a while I had didn’t know where I was but figured I was going in the right ‘general’ direction. After skipping a few points, I made my way back onto the hiking guide instructions which was re assuring, and about 30 minutes later the snow calmed down and eventually stopped. This meant I was able to see and walk faster, warming me up so I was no longer cold.

For the next 3 hours I enjoyed walking through fields, paddocks small towns and small country roads. There was orchids that the walk went through, views over snow covered valleys and forrest with snow covered trees. The small towns were lovely, small churches and not much else. Part of my plan was to turn the walk into a bit of a pub crawl, but this didn’t eventuate. The first pub ‘The Swan’ I skipped and kept walking, as I had left a bit late I wanted to get at least a bit of the way into the walk, then the pub about ¾ of the way through I got to a bit late. Instead I grabbed some cans of beer and kept walking. Just down the track I found a seat with a great view of the valley and fields all covered in snow. I sat ate a banana, bag of chips, drank my beers and enjoyed the winter sunset, at 4pm!
From this point I had to head down in to the valley and back up the otherside. This was made difficult by a slight wrong turn, then back tracking I found myself in the middle of the fog which dropped into the valley quite quickly after sunset. So I was back where I started, in the middle of a field with no visability. I continued through the fog, and made it to the other side of the valley, from here the walk was along country roads back to the train. For the first time since I got of the train, I actually saw other people. As I walked I chatted to a couple of guys, both out walking their dogs, heading in the same direction. My last stop was going to be the local pub in Pluckley, ‘Dering Arms’, but would you believe, on a Saturday afternoon it was closed! Instead I headed back to the train station and waited on the platform, hoping the trains were still running!
I had to wait about half an hour, but the trains were running which was good. Instead of running all the way back to London, the train was terminating at Tonbridge, about half way. At Tonbridge there was a train on a different platform about to head to London, but instead I decided to have a wonder around town.

It was nice yet the same as every other town in some ways. For a start it was covered in snow and ice, had a small river running through the town. There was an old castle and cathedral which I walked around before finding a small pub on a side street. I got a seat by the open fire, a pint of Guinness and dried out for an hour or so. Sadly the pub didn’t do food, so I still didn’t get to eat.
I headed back to the train station, past the high st shops and chain restaurants. The staff at the station had no idea. There was no information on the screens, and the guy in the information booth would look at his screen every time someone asked him something, only to reply ‘I’m not sure when the next train will be’ or he would say things like ‘we just need to wait for a train to arrive and ask the driver where he is going!’.
After waiting about half hour I headed back over to the ‘information’ guy. The girl in front of me asked about London, so I didn’t have to, he still had no idea. We got chatting, her name was Rachel and she was lovely. A school teacher at Tunbridge Wells, a nearby town, she was trying to get to London to see her sister for dinner. She had driven to the station, and was about to head out to the car to drive to London instead of wait for the train. She had offered me a lift which was very generous. Moments later two trains rolled into the station, and we were advised to take one of them to another small town, which would then have a connecting train to London. I didn’t know any different, so hesitantly, we got onboard, not knowing if there would actually be a connecting train or not.
Luckily there were connecting trains and we did end up back in London reasonably quickly. Rachel had invited me to dinner, since I hadn’t eaten still, but I thought I should get home and out of my wet clothes. We said goodbye and headed off from Victoria Station.

I had had a long and enjoyable day, the snow was so nice and being out of London is always great. I had met some great people and for once, delays with trains had not even annoyed me! Sadly as Christine had the camera to take to Prague, I did not get any photos of the countryside covered in snow.

A Busy Lead up to Christmas!

We have both been very busy with work the last couple of weeks. Damien’s job has been very time demanding so he isn’t getting home until 8pm some nights. This means we are both pretty tired but the show must go on and we have to make the most of our now limited time in London. In an effort to get out and about a bit more, Damien has started booking things left right and centre. There has also been some Christmas parties to keep us busy, Thursday night was the Axcis Christmas party, Friday night was Damien’s work party and then Saturday was an early morning for our Bath and Stonehenge tour.

This weekend we had a day trip to Bath and Stonehenge. We had already had a weekend in Bath and visited Stonehenge for my birthday earlier in the year but Damien won a magazine competition so it didn’t cost us a cent. We were up early after a long week and headed to Kensington, where we were getting picked up. It was then 2hours on the bus straight down to Stonehenge. It was cool to see it again, but still it’s hard to be overly impressed by Stonehenge, it really is just a few rocks in a paddock!
An hour later we arrived in Bath, for a very brief guided tour, basically the bus driving around town with us straining our necks to look out the windows. Once off the bus we headed to the Roman Baths, which we didn’t visit on our last trip. This was really nice, part museum, part roman ruins and part roman baths. Sadly we weren’t allowed to go swimming!
The rest of the afternoon was spent wandering around the Christmas Markets which were scattered all over town. Bath is a really nice city, lovely old buildings, but once again way too busy! The markets were good, we didn’t buy much more than food and drinks but the stalls did have nicer things than the London Christmas Markets, handmade wooden carvings and decorations etc. Sadly all too soon it was time to join the heard back on the bus and head back to London, about a 3 hour trip.
We arrived home at about 7pm, to a pleasant surprise. The 4 Spanish girls we have been living with were organising a big Spanish feast as a farewell dinner. They have been studying in London for a semester. They wouldn’t even let us help with the cooking, which drove Christine mad! Later that night we enjoyed a great feed of Spanish Tortilla, cured meats and salads. Thanks girls, we would love to come and visit in Barcelona some day!

Henley Walk

We received an email from one of the girls we met on our sail Croatia tour to come for a walk in the country side and jumped at the chance of doing something cool without having to organise it. Petria has apparently organised a few walks during her time in London but this was the first one since the Croatia trip. We met at Paddington station then caught the train out to Hanley on Thames. This area was beautiful! The walk began along a river where we watched the rowers training, apparently there is a huge regatta there during summer. We couldn’t understand how anyone would willingly climb into a row boat as it was bloody cold. Everyone was wearing thermals and Damien had decided it was cold enough to wear his snow jacket.

It was cold, very cold! There was frost on the grass and puddles had frozen over. We walked over a loch, through sheep paddocks, cow paddocks, along muddy tracks and through sparse forests. Finally after 5 miles, we reached our half way lunch stop, The Stag and Huntsman. The food here was really good, so good in fact that we couldn’t even bear to look at the dessert menu after finishing our main. This was a good thing too as after lunch the path began to climb.


We continued up hills through forests carpeted with autumn leaves. Through meadows, where the grass was still frosty even though it was getting quite late in the day. Eventually, as the sun was beginning to set, say around 4pm, we arrived back in town ready to catch the train back to Paddington. We were all very tired and cold so a hot chocolate was well deserved. It was a great day and it was lovely to meet some of Petria’s friends. We hope to do it again soon. Sunday I was having trouble sleeping so I got up early to avoid waking Damien and so I could ring mum. It sounds like everyone is falling apart at home. She is very restricted at the moment after an arthroscopy on her knee whilst Andrew is in a moon boot after breaking his foot in Cairns. Once Damien appeared we made plans to head to the Tate Modern to see the new installation in the turbine hall.
The sky was blue so we walked through Hyde Park. It looks so different every week at the moment with all the leaves falling. The grass is still green but otherwise it has become quite stark. It is always nice seeing all the people using the space to walk their dogs or exercise. From Hyde park corner we caught the bus to Waterloo then walked along Southbank towards to Tate. We stopped for lunch at the Real Greek (another chain) then headed into the gallery.

The current installation in the turbine hall is by a Chinese artist Ai Weiwei who worked with people from the traditional porcelain making region to create hundreds of thousands of porcelain sunflower seeds. Each piece was made in a mould, fired, hand painted, re-fired and then polished. When the installation first opened people were actually able to walk through and interact with the art work but this was stopped due to fears that the ceramic dust would cause health problems. I think that fencing the work off has sucked some of the life out of it as it is now very static, but it is still pretty cool. After the turbine hall we headed had a look around some of the permanent collections then decided it was time to go home. We crossed the Thames on the millennium bridge and just about froze! I think winter has come a little bit early. As I write this it is snowing outside. I think I’ll head to Hyde Park a bit later to see if there is enough snow to make a snow angel.

Oxford and Harry!

Pay Day is always exciting but so much more so when you have been living off tinned soup and discounted bags of potatoes. It is amazing how cheaply you can live in London when you have too, but it is so much nicer to buy things like olives and fresh bread.

This week was our second wedding anniversary. It is hard to believe that we have been married for two years now. The time has flown, but I guess we should have expected as much considering that a year and a half of our marriage has been spent abroad.

As it was a special occasion and we finally had some cash we decided to have a day in the university town, Oxford. It was a slow start to the day so we didn’t make it to Oxford until around 1pm. Our first stop was to the undercover market where we visited a cafe for a coffee. Once we had defrosted, we rugged up again and headed to Christchurch College primarily to see the Great Hall which features in the first couple of Harry Potter movies. The hall itself is very nice, way over crowded with tourists, but fun to be in the middle of Hogwarts! The grounds of the college were beautifully manicured and the building very ornate. Wandering down the street we dropped into a couple of the other colleges, smaller, but just as nice and no crowds. Our last stop was the bridge of sighs, which is a replica of the big bridge in Venice. We had planned to do a bit more but it was getting cold and dark. The whole town is full of historical buildings including some very cool pubs. As it was so cold we probably spent more time in the pubs than exploring. To escape the cold we headed down some little lane ways to the Turf Tavern. It was busy, but we managed to get a table pretty quickly. It was an old, low ceilinged pub that used to host fencing duels in the 1700’s. We ate a massive share platter and tried the local stout which wasn’t half bad. Ready to move on the friendly staff told us about The Bear, another nice old pub. We were impressed, it was small, two rooms each seating 10-15 people, we got a seat by the open fire. The walls had collections ties from army officers, politicians and academics that had visited over the years (strange but interesting). Not done yet we went for a bit more of a wander, visited a contemporary sculpture gallery that happened to be open late on a Saturday and then found the Eagle and Child pub (baby and bird as the locals know it). This was another nice looking pub, bigger but also had that ‘British chain pub’ feel about it. After another pint we headed back through town to the bus terminal.
Oxford is a very nice town, nice old buildings, gardens and cobbled lanes. We ran short of daylight (damn UK sunset at 4pm), and never made it down to the river, which is also meant to be nice.
Sunday is pancake day and it is always hard to get moving, especially when you know how cold it is going to be outside. The weather reports have been saying there has been snow all over the UK and we should expect it in London soon. We had had grand notions of going for a walk through the park, but only managed to go to the supermarket to buy cheap Baileys and cereal.
By the time we got moving it was almost time to head to Westfield to see ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’. The movie was great for those who haven’t seen it yet. It was very dark and actually made me jump in one part, we are both looking forward to the next instalment, whenever that may be. We particularly liked the scenes in London, as these are places we see quite regularly. We walked home but stopped off at the Churchill Arms for dinner. This is a very cool old pub with a Thai restaurant at the back. We found a table ordered Thai and admired the collection of Chamber Pots hanging from the ceiling. It has been a pretty good couple of days.

Our wedding anniversary fell on the Monday which made the weekend feel longer. I met Damien in town after he finished work and we headed to Jamie Oliver’s Italian restaurant. We had a drink in a pub beforehand then headed to the restaurant only to discover there was a wait. You can only book tables for 6 people or more so everyone else has to walk in and get a buzzer. We headed back to the pub to wait half an hour or so, but happily it was only a 10 minute wait, not even long enough to finish our drink. The food was lovely and the service was great. I could happily recommend it to anyone who comes to London for a few days.

Full Time Work!

For the first time in a while, Monday morning I was up, putting on my suit and heading off to work. Not so much excited, just happy to have some work lined up. I’m working at Lebara Mobile for 3 months, they are a small telecommunications company offering cheaper call rates than the bigger companies. The week went well, a bit slow and lots of IT problems, their IT department is useless, takes 3-4 days to get simple things fixed like access to printers and a phone!
Other than work the week was very quiet. Were both just settling into being stuck in London again, not a nice thought after our summer of travel. The Dean Court Hotel is dirtier than it has ever been, and some of our good friends have left to go home to Australia or find nicer places to live in London. It was a week of birthdays back home with Nan, Leia and Mums birthdays all this week, we made some phone calls which was nice, but will also be nice to be home this time next year!
We had another quiet weekend, Friday night after work I met Christine at the British Museum. This is open late on Friday nights. We had a bit of a look around, it was nice, no school kids and many of the tourists leaving as it was dinner time.
November in the UK has a big rugby union tournament. This involved 8-10 of the best nations in the world playing off, meaning once again there was some quality sport on the TV. There was also the final race of the F1 season, but sadly Webber, after a great season couldn’t get the points in the final race and finished 3rd overall for the year.

Back in London for Winter

We arrived back around lunch time on the Monday. I did my Obsessive Compulsive cleaning of our room and located all our winter clothes as Damien went to the Laundry Matt. We got settled in ready to head back to work on Tuesday. I have been requested back at a school that I worked earlier in the year and Damien has picked up a couple of days as a Teacher’s Assistant. Hopefully our bank account will begin to look healthier after all our travelling. We don’t have any more travel booked until we can fund it.
Despite being offered teaching work for Thursday and Friday, Damien declined these to start looking for a more permanent accounting role. This paid off. His agency ran 3 roles past him on Wednesday evening and Thursday, an interview on Thursday evening and by Friday afternoon he was offered 3 months as a Project Accountant role, starting Monday!

Friday morning Damien visited the British Museum. This was good and not too busy, given it was a weekday, although plenty of school kids. It was very interesting looking through the Egyptian collection less than a week since being in Egypt. The main item in the gallery is the Rosetta Stone, which is the stone that enabled the ancient Egyptian language to be translated. The stone itself has the same thing written in 3 languages, ancient Egyptian, another form of Egyptian and Greek. The rest of the gallery had all sorts of stones, statues and coffins. The museum also offers free half hour guided tours of particular areas of the gallery. I joined one of these that discussed some of the Ancient Greek collection. This was quite interesting discussing different pots, plates and statues. The museum also has a lot of works from the Parthenon in Greece, that are displayed around the walls of a big gallery. Maybe we will have to visit Greece!
Friday night was Guy Forks night. This was one of first weekends we had in London last year. We have been living in London for a year! Sadly this year the bon fire night was a very cold and wet night, so we never ventured out. Saturday was a more sunny day. We went for a walk in Hyde Park, enjoying the colourful Autumn. We continued walking through Mayfair and over to Regent St. This weekend is the London to Brighton Vintage Car Rally. Regent street is closed so that the cars could be displayed, all of the cars are over 100 years old.
Sunday morning Damien got up early and headed to Hyde Park for the rally which started at 7am. It was cold but fun to see the old cars driving into the London traffic. Some were breaking down 200m after the start line. The afternoon was spent relaxing watching the rugby and F1 on TV.

Egypt - Part 3

Day 9: Cairo - Dahab
Leave Cairo in the morning in an air-conditioned coach for a scenic ride from the Nile delta through the Sinai Peninsula to the seaside city of Dahab. Transfer to your hotel. Spend your day relaxing on the shores of the Red Sea, overnight at your hotel in Dahab.
We arrived mid morning at our hotel which looked quite nice, couches in the tiled foyer, big pool with bar, right by the beach. There was a problem with the booking unfortunately, not enough rooms available. We ended up getting rooms, but Pete had to stay in a different hotel.
We had a nap in the room, a nap by the pool and a swim. The rooms at the hotel were not the nicest, ours had electrical problems, but we had a room and the pool was nice. The other problem was that the hotel was about 10km from town. We headed into town for dinner and met Pete and Christina. The 6 of us ate at Funny Mummy, a chilled out restaurant on the beach, no chairs, just cushions and rugs. It was cheap and had cats running around the restaurant, but the best bit was the water spray bottles to spray the strays!
Day 10: Dahab
This is a free day to be spent as you feel. Dahab is a relaxing small resort town. In Dahab there are many options available, snorkeling, swimming, sun-tanning, and scuba diving. Christine had been talking about it a few times in different places around the world. And since we had 5 days we figured, what the hell. Christine went Scuba Diving. We were a bit nervous about the mouth piece and her dodgy jaw, but it was fine. She loved it, she was a natural, according to Christine! After the Great Barrier Reef, the Red Sea is meant to be one of the best snorkelling and scuba areas in the world. She saw coral, fish, sea horses and played with Nemo (clown fish), sadly no turtles! Now she wants to get her dive licence. Shelly and Christina also did the diving, but were starting the 3 day dive certificate. This left Damien and Brett to sleep, swim, drink beer and be lazy by the pool the whole day...nice!
When the girls returned and got ready it was back into town for a look around and dinner in the same restaurant as the night before. Town is very laid back, lots of restaurants, shops and sheesha places along the beach.
Day 11: Dahab
This is another day free to be spent as you see fit. With snorkeling, swimming, sun-tanning, scuba diving and good food and drink available you will find much to do; or nothing to do but enjoy the sun, overnight at your hotel in Dahab.
Again Shelly went scuba diving, Christina has dropped out of the course. The other 5 of us hired snorkels and fins and headed to the ‘famous’ blue hole. This is a coral reef with a deep hole in the middle filled with fish and tourists. We had to get a 4x4 jeep to drive us there as there is no road, it was that or a camel. We had a guide, but he spent more time worrying about the other tourists, who couldn’t swim, than guiding us! The snorkelling was good, heaps and heaps of fish.

Day 12: Dahab - St Catherine - Sinai
Today you will be taken to the historic Mount Sinai, a place sacred to 3 religions. This evening we climb the mountain to its peak.
Shelly managed to finish the 3 day dive course in 2 days, so we headed back to the blue hole with Shelly and without the guide! We spent the day in and out of the water, spending the rest of the time in the coffee shops and lying in the sun. Was good to get back into the water, its hard to get sick of chasing fish, but still no turtles! It was then an early dinner at the hotel by the pool and then to bed to get some sleep before a big hike!

Day 13: St Catherine - Dahab
In the early morning you will see a sunrise over the mountains of the Sinai Peninsula that you will remember forever. After a brisk trip down the mountain you will enter one of the oldest functioning monasteries in the world, Saint Catherine's Monastery. Inside this monastery contains the famed location of the burning bush that spoke to Moses. Then enter an air-conditioned coach for the trip back to Dahab.
One of the reasons we chose this tour is because it had a night hike to the top of Mt Sinai the highest mountain in Egypt. Leaving the hotel at 2am we were at the base of the mountain by about 3.30pm. We then had 2-3 hours walking up. There was the option of taking a camel some of the way. This was a pain as it meant we were dodging the camels much of the way up the hill. The hike was in the dark but it was not too bad as there was a full moon that gave some light.
We were at the top in time for sunrise which was the point of the exercise obviously! It was cold but very nice. Amazing how quick the sun rises after you have hiked in the dark for 3 hours! It really is something that we are glad that we bothered to do. Possibly the nicest part of the walk was the walk down, in the early morning sunshine. Unlike on the way up we could see all around the region. It was baron, rocky an orangey yellow color, amazing in the morning light.
After heading back down the mountain we visited Saint Catherine’s Monastery. This is at the base of the mountain. This is where the burning bush is and Mt Sinai is the mountain that Moses climbed to collect the 10 commandments. Again it was full of busloads of tourists, some of which were quite pushy and rude. Shoulder to shoulder in a monastery is not exactly idyllic.
It was around midday when we got back to the hotel. Seemingly short on time we decided to grab our snorkels and head into town to the ‘lighthouse’ diving area. This was another reef, but in the beach next to town. We sat in a restaurant on lounges, snorkelled, drank Turkish coffee, ate and swam for the afternoon. We then met up with Pete and Christina and the 6 of us had dinner in town, again in a restaurant by the beach.

Day 14: Dahab - Cairo
Today you will be driven back to Cairo in an air-conditioned coach.
We were up and ready for our bus by 8am, which we had asked for an early departure. We were hoping to be in Cairo in time for sunset over the Sphinx and pyramids. Not for the first time, Pete was late to pick us up, our only complaint about Expat Explore is regularly we were told a pick up time only to wait 30min-1hr before actually being picked up. The bus then had to get fuel and stopped for a few other things. We missed sunset.
The drive back was long and felt longer than the way for two reasons, it was day time so much hotter, and we were hoping to be back for sunset. We drove along the Red Sea, then inland through about 6 hours of desert, crossed the Suiez Canal, through about another 2 hours of desert before finally making it back into Cairo.
We still headed down to the Sphinx, to have dinner in the Pizza Hut, which has a view of the light show on the Pyramids and Sphinx. Well that was the plan anyway, the hotel put the 4 of us, (Brett and Shelly) us in a cab and told the driver where to go. Unfortunately something was lost in translation and he took us to the wrong Pizza Hut, so we told him, ‘No Pizza Hut Sphinx’. He then drove, and drove and drove. We had no idea where we were or where we were going. We knew the place we wanted to go was about 5min from the hotel, but this guy drove us for an hour. Eventually he pulled over, out front of another Pizza Hut. We all jumped out, relieved to be out of the car. We went into the Pizza Hut and spoke to one of the staff who spoke English. Apparently we had been dropped at ‘Sphinx Square’ about an hour out of Cairo! Pizza Hut then let us use the phone to call the hotel, so we could get Pete on the phone to clear things up. Pete had the drivers number, so got him to come back for us. The driver then drove at 150km/h along busy Cairo freeways, to get us to the right Pizza Hut, didn’t take that long! It was like something out of a computer game, sitting in this cab flying down the highway!
The cab fare was pre organised with the hotel, based on the 5 minute journey it should have been. We tipped him a bit extra but after nearly 2 hours in the car we paid about $10 Finally in the right place we had a classy dinner and watched the light show from the Pizza Hut rooftop. Thank god for the guy in the Pizza Hut that spoke English and let us use the phone, life saver!
After dinner we walked back to the hotel!
Day 15: Cairo
Enjoy breakfast in the hotel and then you will say goodbye to all your new friends.
We were up early again, this time to catch Brett and Shelly, who have become quite good friends of ours over the past 2 weeks. They were heading to the airport and on to London this morning. We spent the rest of the day with Pete, the tour guide. The tour is over but we told us he would take us to see his apartment, which is half built. He had some things to sort out with builders etc but was also showing a few of his friends the place. It is different in Egypt, the developer builds the building, but that is it, just a brick structure. The owner then has to organise doors, windows, gas, water, electricity, fittings etc... It explains a lot, while driving around Cairo you notice a lot of buildings that look half built, or half ruined. Pete’s place looks like it is going to be really nice, not far from the Pyramids, it still has a bit to be done but it is spacious, and we saw the tiles that he has just bought to put through out.
After this we said good bye to Pete and Christina, we had to take another cab into the centre of Cairo, as the hotel was fully booked. The company was supposed to organise our extra nights, but must have forgot. Our new hotel, for our last two nights wasn’t as nice, but was centrally located in the middle of Cairo, so not a bad result.
Our last day in Egypt we spent wandering around Cairo. It was a really good day. Travelling at our own pace and away from some of the tourists. We walked from the hotel, in search of a post box. The hotel had given us directions that led us down a street which had lots of local markets, selling everything from books, board games, clothing and fish. Absorbing everything around us, we missed the mail box. We asked some more people who pointed us back the way we came. We even met a friendly German lady who was living in the area. After wandering past them 2 or 3 times, we finally found the overflowing mailboxes. When you know where they are, their kind of hard to miss! A local guy who was posting hundreds of letters helped us jam our mail in.
We continued walking, we saw some local butchers with full sheep hanging up, camels and sheep in side streets and ended up in a little local coffee shop.
After a coffee break we jumped in a taxi and headed across town to the Old Cairo Bazaar. Christine enjoyed the markets so much the first time that she wanted to head back. We weren’t as successful this time, having already bought a few things we wanted. We tried buying some beer t-shirts, but we couldn’t find the styles and sizes we wanted. We got some scarf’s and some more touristy items! After our shopping we headed back to the hotel for a beer and then out for dinner, one last Egyptian feed, Kufta! which is like lamb sausages.
After a wonderful time in an amazing country, the next morning it was our turn to get a transfer out to the airport for our flight home. As amazing as the Pyramids are we have learnt over the last two weeks, how much more Egypt has to offer!

Egypt - Part 2

Day 6: Felucca Cruise - Luxor
In the morning you will visit Kom Ombo and Edfu Temples. Then you will arrive in Luxor in at afternoon, tour the East Bank of Luxor. Here you will experience the massive Karnak temple and historic Luxor temple, overnight at your hotel.
After watching sunrise on the Nile and breakfast, we were off the felucca and headed to Luxor with a few stops along the way.
First up was temple Kom Ombo. This is another temple on the side of the Nile. This was even busier! One thing I hadn’t mentioned about felucca was our tour group of 11 was split in two, 5 joined a 5 star cruise ship while the rest of us choose the traditional felucca sail boat. Anyway, these cruise ships, which are large and numerous, can actually dock at this temple, meaning all the cruise ship passengers disembark, trample through the temple and then pile back onto their boat.
The temple itself was very good, despite the crowds. One of the highlights was an ancient calendar in hieroglyphics. The temple itself had lots of large columns and many well preserved pictures and writing on the walls. The story was interesting about two gods who lived together but fell out as one was lazy and didn’t do any cleaning, while the other did all the ‘housework’. The temple was then divided into two halves! A good solution to an age old problem! Down the road, just passed a semi trailer full of camels, was our next stop. The Edfu temples. This stop was not so busy, yay, possibly as its off the river, no massive boats with loads of tourists! The main attraction in this temple was a chariot that used to be used to carry the god of the temple to visit a god in a different temple on the other side of Egypt. The inside of the temple was also designed being with a high ceiling at the entrance, which gradually decreased to being a low ceiling at the back where the chariot was lived. This was to allow the god to be able to see out, but not let people be see in at the same time. The temple itself was really quite big to look at from the outside and in very good condition. Before arriving at the hotel our guide took us to a local diner where for about $2 we ate a massive local dish, rice, noodles, veggies and a curry sauce over the top. It didn’t look the best but was very nice, an authentic Egyptian experience! The day ended in Luxor, where we had the afternoon to relax. The hotel had a roof top pool where we met up with the other half of our tour, who had arrived earlier off the cruise ship. The evening was spent in a pitiful ‘Irish bar’ with terrible music and no Guinness! Still not sure what actually made it an ‘Irish bar’.

Day 7: Luxor
After breakfast we tour the West Bank of Luxor. We start the tour with the World famous Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut (Deir El Bahary) and the great Colossi of Memnon, the last remains of Amenophis III’s temple. Then take the overnight first class train back to Cairo.

Today was possibly my favourite day of the tour, surprisingly! Yes I loved chilling out on the Felucca and on the beaches in Dahab. And after seeing so many temples, who would have thought! But Luxor was definitely a highlight, if not the highlight. We did the West and the East bank in one day. Our first stop was a quick photo opportunity with a couple of massive sculptures. Two Egyptian looking guys in a sitting position, randomly in the middle of nowhere. Slightly crumbled but still very impressive. Then it was on to the Valley of the Kings. Sadly no photos here (cameras prohibited), I guess you will all have to see it for yourselves! The valley itself is very dry, dust and hot but Tourism Egypt is all over this, train cars to escort the tourists up to the tombs.
The tombs were incredible. The valley has something like 30 known tombs, still looking for more. Not all are open at the one time, and of the open ones the ticket only allows entry to 3, which is plenty. Our guide was good, telling us which were the better ones to visit, giving us the history and what to look for once we went inside. They were just like tunnels with small chambers. The walls were covered in well preserved paintings, prayers and stories. The preservation of these from thousands of years ago is incredible, much of it is still in color. Thankfully, the main ones have protective glass on the walls, to avoid the stupid tourists that touch or scratch bits off (like we saw one guy do!). Only one of the tombs was discovered before the tomb raiders got to it, Tutankhamen. This tomb is in the valley but we didn’t visit, extra charges, plus apparently it is the smallest of the tombs and was also partially unfinished. Our last stop in the West Bank was the Temple of Hatshepsut. Still hot and dusty, and another tourist train from the main gate to the temple. The temple is 3 levels built into the side of a mountain. The top level had 26 soldier statues along the front of it, each about 3m tall and colored (back in the day). These day only about 6 are intact, remnants of others remain and most of the color is faded. The temple had more paintings and writing on the walls. There were also 2 massive sculptures, the size of the 3 storey temple, on guard out the front. After McDonalds for lunch (our guide likes us to eat western food to avoid getting sick, ironic huh!) we continued on the tourist trail. This time it was the East Bank and the Karnak Temple. This was by far the biggest of the temples we visited, and has the WOW factor that is experienced walking into the Colosseum in Rome. Built over the years by various different rulers, each would add a bit more trying to outdo the previous ruler. The result being open spaces, a parade of sphinx’s, huge stone gateways, massive columns, obelisks, holy lake and temples. There was even a story about one ruler who didn’t like his predecessor. So the obelisk that the predecessor built, he completely buried it in stone blocks so it was no longer visible. Some of these have fallen away and the obelisk is visible sticking out the top of the rubble.
After a long day we walked back to the hotel, on the way Peter (the guide) got us some sugar cane juice, an Egyptian favourite. Then it was off to the horrible Irish Pub for some more horrible western food. Last stop for the day was the train station, for another overnight train ride. This time the 6 of us were in one cabin, meaning we could stretch out, Peter and Christina slept on the floor!
Note - Apologies it has taken so long to get the blog up to date, its been such a busy summer! Sadly it means that a lot of the detail and story’s we have been learnt I can’t remember.

Day 8: Cairo City Tour
After breakfast, a guided visit of the Egyptian Museum, the old city of Cairo where you will see Coptic Cairo, the Hanging Church, the cave church, Islamic Cairo, Saladin Citadel, Mohammed Ali Mosque, the old Cairo bazaar (Khan El Khalili) and El Fishawy Coffee Shop, overnight at your hotel.
It’s a goods thing we were a bit more comfortable on the train. We did get some rest, not a great night sleep, but enough.

Day 8 – Cairo City Tour. Off the train to the hotel, after a quick shower it was back on the bus and back into it!
The Egyptian Museum was the first stop, again no cameras! This was hard work! It was busier than the London Museums, but less spacious. The big tour groups all huddling around door ways and corridors didn’t help. The Museum’s collection is amazing. It was just our state of tiredness, the crowds and the fact that most of the artefacts were not labeled or even stored very well. The highlight was the Tutankhamen collection, which is what was found in his tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Gold everything! Heaps of jewellery, facemasks, furniture and pottery. He was buried in his tomb in 4 coffins of different sizes, all inside each other, each laced with gold. These are laid out separately in the museum. There is also rooms full of mummified animals (people in a separate room, extra charge), statues, jewellery and pottery. But after about an hour and a half we were ready for coffee, so we headed to the cafe to meet Peter and have a hit of Turkish Coffee, another Egyptian favourite!
Aaagh... Coffee. Feeling better, we were off to the Hanging Church. This was a nice old church built over the top of roman ruins. The church also had a miracle occur in there and an image of Mary is burnt into one of the pillars in the church.
After lunch, a bit touristy, but an Egyptian feed, we headed to the Old Cairo Bazaar. This is a big market selling all sorts of touristy goods, sculptures (we bought an Ibis), paintings, scarf’s, clothes and the usual key rings etc... It was very busy and the stall holders would not leave you alone, similar to Asia, gets annoying pretty quickly! Exhausted we returned to the hotel. We were scheduled for a nights sleep followed by a 9hr bus ride in the morning to Dahab. Despite being exhausted we arranged for an earlier bus, leaving at about 3am, giving us an extra day on the beach! We had a few hours sleep, before jumping on the bus for another night of travel.