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In the Valley of Kings and Queens
How silly of me, I was too busy ranting about the Egyptian people that I forgot to talk about the best part of getting to Egypt- the weather. From the moment I had arrived the weather had been amazing! If I was to make a comparison to American weather, I would say a nice sunny spring day. It does get cooler at night, but nothing too bad. Right, so now that's taken care of, I can continue with my stay in Luxor. 
The easiest way to describe Luxor is to take Cairo and then go to the polar opposite of end of the spectrum. Luxor is so much more quiet, pretty (at least the main tourist roads), and easy going. One can tell it's a tourism area just based off of the lines of cruise ships parked on the shore. But anyways, upon my arrival in Luxor Central Station I was picked up and brought straight to my hotel. This was already going better than my arrival in Cairo. After I got settled into my room, it was already time for my first tour to Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple. Different from my one on one tours in Cairo, I was not a fan of these group tours. Nothing against the guide because he had really interesting information, but the fact that I had follow the group and not go off and look at what I wanted (unless I wanted to get lost) was disheartening to me. After about 2 hours walking around the largest temple in the world, we left for Luxor Temple. Arriving in the late afternoon, the sun was going down and the temple lights were lit, illuminating the giant pillars and statues against the darkening cloudless sky. It was very picturesque if you didn't get that from my poetic description. These temples were cool, but nothing compared to what we were going to be seeing the next day. 
The day started with a bang as we walked around the Valley of the Queens. Not what I expected, a lot of the tombs were random holes in the side of hills while others were colorful multi-roomed tombs. After a short walk around, as many of the tombs are off limits to visitors, we continued on the Valley of the Kings. However, before we reached this landmark, what's a Egyptian tour without trying to rip us off? On the way, we stopped at an alabaster workshop to show us how to tell the real stuff from the fake goods sold on the streets. The only problem is these salesmen were just as pushy and persistent as the ones on the street. Not to mention the prices of their goods were absurdly expensive if not bargained down.
I'm pretty sure no one bought anything. Although we were only able to go down into 3 tombs and the most famous ones (Ramses II and Tutenkamen) were not available, it was still unbelievable how well the artwork and colors have been preserved over the years. There are sections that give such a vivid picture, one gains an insight into what entire tombs must have looked like back when they were created. There are, if my knowledge is correct, approx. 64 tombs known and every single one is gorgeous in their own way. The most impressive fact however, is that egyptologists believe there are more tombs to be discovered. After Paul and I had seen our 3 tombs, we rejoined the group and headed over to a temple of which I forget the name (in my defense it was very long, but it was of a women ruler). Built into the side of a cliff/mountain/whatever you want to call it, it was quite the sight. That's really all I have to say about that. 
After this, we left for the last stop of the day, two giant statues which stand at what use to be a temple, but got destroyed. Not really all that exciting, Paul and I took a couple pictures and then got back in the van to return to the hotel. Our third day started off with a hard choice. Paul and I could either take a hot air balloon ride over Luxor or take a fellucca ride down the Nile to a place called Banana Island. As bad as I wanted to go up in a hot air balloon, I just didn't trust Egyptian technology and equipment enough to put myself in their hands. Knowing that the Egyptians had sailed felluccas since ancient times, I had a feeling very little could go wrong. Not to mention it was much cheaper. 
Needless to say, it was awesome. I was sailing across the Nile as the ancient Egyptians had done thousands of years ago! After a peaceful ride over to Banana Island, we got off and got a tour of the banana and sugarcane fields for which the island is famous for. Living up to their Egyptian hospitality, I was given a batch of bananas and a stick of sugarcane almost as tall as me. 
They were both delicious. As we sailed back to the mainland, the sun was setting on what was probably one of the most relaxing days we'd had on our Excellent Adventure. Dare I say it? Paul and I were on our last day travelling! With nothing planned for the day we took this opportunity to go outside the touristy areas and get a real feel of Egyptian life style. It was as we expected. It wasn't the most glamorous place in the world, that's for sure. However, the markets and food/spice stalls were amazing. Everything looked so fresh and the smell, there were so many fragrances hitting me at once, I couldn't tell them apart. Naturally after walking through such a place, we got hungry. Luckily, it didn't take long for us to a koshari stall. After some koshari, we explored some of the less touristy bazaars and then returned to our room to start packing for our early flight back to Cairo. And here ends the journey. We caught our flight to Cairo and from Cairo we returned to London. Once in London, Paul and I stayed in Oxford for 2 nights before catching our flight back to the USA. Now, if your thinking to yourself, "wow this ended abruptly," we are right there with you! It caught Paul and I off guard as well. Our time in Egypt went by so fast, and we still missed so much. No problem though, we'll go back someday. Just not for awhile.
How silly of me, I was too busy ranting about the Egyptian people that I forgot to talk about the best part of getting to Egypt- the weather. From the moment I had arrived the weather had been amazing! If I was to make a comparison to American weather, I would say a nice sunny spring day. It does get cooler at night, but nothing too bad. Right, so now that's taken care of, I can continue with my stay in Luxor. 
The easiest way to describe Luxor is to take Cairo and then go to the polar opposite of end of the spectrum. Luxor is so much more quiet, pretty (at least the main tourist roads), and easy going. One can tell it's a tourism area just based off of the lines of cruise ships parked on the shore. But anyways, upon my arrival in Luxor Central Station I was picked up and brought straight to my hotel. This was already going better than my arrival in Cairo. After I got settled into my room, it was already time for my first tour to Karnak Temple and Luxor Temple. Different from my one on one tours in Cairo, I was not a fan of these group tours. Nothing against the guide because he had really interesting information, but the fact that I had follow the group and not go off and look at what I wanted (unless I wanted to get lost) was disheartening to me. After about 2 hours walking around the largest temple in the world, we left for Luxor Temple. Arriving in the late afternoon, the sun was going down and the temple lights were lit, illuminating the giant pillars and statues against the darkening cloudless sky. It was very picturesque if you didn't get that from my poetic description. These temples were cool, but nothing compared to what we were going to be seeing the next day. 
I'm pretty sure no one bought anything. Although we were only able to go down into 3 tombs and the most famous ones (Ramses II and Tutenkamen) were not available, it was still unbelievable how well the artwork and colors have been preserved over the years. There are sections that give such a vivid picture, one gains an insight into what entire tombs must have looked like back when they were created. There are, if my knowledge is correct, approx. 64 tombs known and every single one is gorgeous in their own way. The most impressive fact however, is that egyptologists believe there are more tombs to be discovered. After Paul and I had seen our 3 tombs, we rejoined the group and headed over to a temple of which I forget the name (in my defense it was very long, but it was of a women ruler). Built into the side of a cliff/mountain/whatever you want to call it, it was quite the sight. That's really all I have to say about that. 
They were both delicious. As we sailed back to the mainland, the sun was setting on what was probably one of the most relaxing days we'd had on our Excellent Adventure. Dare I say it? Paul and I were on our last day travelling! With nothing planned for the day we took this opportunity to go outside the touristy areas and get a real feel of Egyptian life style. It was as we expected. It wasn't the most glamorous place in the world, that's for sure. However, the markets and food/spice stalls were amazing. Everything looked so fresh and the smell, there were so many fragrances hitting me at once, I couldn't tell them apart. Naturally after walking through such a place, we got hungry. Luckily, it didn't take long for us to a koshari stall. After some koshari, we explored some of the less touristy bazaars and then returned to our room to start packing for our early flight back to Cairo. And here ends the journey. We caught our flight to Cairo and from Cairo we returned to London. Once in London, Paul and I stayed in Oxford for 2 nights before catching our flight back to the USA. Now, if your thinking to yourself, "wow this ended abruptly," we are right there with you! It caught Paul and I off guard as well. Our time in Egypt went by so fast, and we still missed so much. No problem though, we'll go back someday. Just not for awhile.
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