Cruising the Nile

In order to get in some sunshine before we came home to the Canberra winter we decided to visit Egypt. We got so bogged down in work and the expense of the UK that we sadly didn't make it to Europe. That will have to be another trip. As compensation we went on a 2 week holiday to Egypt. We spent one week on a river Nile cruise, cruising from Luxor to Aswan and one week lounging around at the Maritim Jolie Ville which is on an island in the middle of the Nile. It all felt very luxurious especially after the cold and snow and hours commuting in England. We flew into Luxor, the old city of Thebes and joined the cruise. It was full of poms and germans on holidays and we shared a table with some great people thankfully no one mentioned the war.

If you haven't been on a cruise before, I can only recommend it to you. It is great value for money. We had an above the water cabin (no way was I going below the waterline) with room service, all meals and tours. It was busy because we took advantage of the guided tours. The tour guides have up to 7 years study to be able to be a guide. There was nothing they didn't know about Egypt, the pharoes, or the history of the tombs and temples that we saw. If it had been up to us to organise the time we would never have seen the wonderful places we visited. I have to admit though, there were times when I wanted to sneak off and just take it in on my own. You know, "on your right you have... and on your left you have.." gets a bit tedious. Some of the people on the cruise had been on it before. One guy had been on it over 40 times. I think once was enough for me. Dare I say after a while its a case of you've seen one tomb you've seen em all.