October 20 - Thursday

The bus leaves at 3:15AM with a box breakfast for our flight to Luxor where we will be meeting our Nile cruise boat. Some guy grabbed our bags and took them to the bus for us - 200 Egyptian pounds (~$2).

Historically Luxor is Thebes on the Nile. Capital of Upper Egypt during the New Kingdom.

Along the banks of the river are many ancient statues. Sort of a grand passageway. This is the access to the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens.

As we were driving along Muhammad suggested we could take a liquor store break and a pharmacy break. We jumped off the bus and risked our lives crossing the street. Down an alley with several shops to the liquor store. It was rather sparsely stocked. It looked like they had some high class  items like Chevis Regal and others. I opted for the safe bet and got some Egyptian vodka and a bottle of Egyptian wine - 2000 Egyptian pounds (~$20). Back to the bus...

Tourism is a big deal here. BTW the reason there was a liquor store is because this area is about 50% Coptic Christian and they are allowed to drink. Moslems are forbidden to drink alcohol.

We are here to visit the Karnak Temple. It's a massive complex. It looks like a lot of it has been restored.

Diana is sick. She skipped out of the Karnak Temple tour and sat on the bus.

This may be where I bought my hat. I'd forgotten my fisherman's hat from Mel Cotton's. As I got off the bus I saw a hat sales guy. I grabbed a hat. He said 50 pounds (~$5) and I said OK. It fit but was a bit limp.

This place is too big. Too much to see. Deb took well over 100 pictures. Things are blending together. Massive columns , hieroglyphics, obelisks... Note the graffiti.
Extras

A drive through Luxor. Finally onto the ship. We had to pass through three other boats to get to ours. The sad thing is there are about 600 Nile cruise boats and only about 30 are in operation. The rest are sitting and rotting. No tourists.

The luggage had been delivered. We had lunch and realized that this is a German ship and the food was going to appeal to Germans and Americans plus some local things added too.

We checked out the ship and settled in. It looks good. We tried the wine - yuck. Extra picture.

Diana has had a cold for a couple days and seems to be getting worse. Deb gave her some cold medicine - Dayquil.