Joy On the Nile

This blog entry was originally posted on September 14, 2024

We are just back from Egypt where we voyaged in the warm embrace of AMA Waterways on their Secrets of Egypt and the Nile itinerary.  My brain is still reeling with the thrill and novelty of all we saw and did on this trip. Or maybe it’s just the jet lag that has my head spinning. The jet lag is real – on Thursday, we left our floating luxury hotel, the AMALilia, at 6:00am to head to the Luxor airport for our flight back to Cairo.  There, we got on an AMA Waterways coach for the drive to the Abdeen palace where we had an exclusive tour and a lovely lunch. Afterwards we settled into our room at the opulent St. Regis until 1:00am Friday when we departed for the Cairo airport for our return flight through Rome.  So, here we are, back home, after what felt like 2 days of travel.   I’ll try to do a brief recap for my future self (and my one or two readers) so I can time travel back to this trip when I read this post again years from now.  Really, I’d like to bottle the feeling of fulfillment and joy I had on this trip so I can sniff it later like a fine perfume, tickling my brain to bring back happy memories.  Was it really that good?  Yes, yes it was.

Of course we saw all of the classic, must-see sites of ancient Egypt in Cairo, Giza, Aswan, Luxor, Esna, Edfu and Qena.   I won’t list them all, but will include some photos with captions. What really allowed us to appreciate what we were seeing was our fantastic Cruise Manager and Egyptologist, Walaa. Walaa was educator, cat-herder and dad to our group of 22 tourists, his habibis.  With his informative and interesting commentary, he managed to blend ancient history with present day life, breathing life into the ancient wonders we gawked at.  When we booked this trip, I wasn’t sure how to make sense of what we would be seeing, because I just didn’t know much about the ancient Egyptian civilization.  Cesar and I listened to all 48 lectures of The History of Ancient Egypt by Bob Brier, The Great Courses.  This primed our brains for the information Walla gave us during the trip and helped tremendously in our apprecation of it all.

I could go on forever.  Now I really regret not carving out the time to do a daily blog post.  But there was very little down time on this trip.  So, yalla, yalla, let’s get on to some photos, ya’ll.  Haha.   Sorry, inside joke, you had to be there.  IYKYK

Arrival & Day 2, Citadel of Cairo and Alabaster Mosque, Egyptian Museum. Also saw King Tutankkhmun’s golden goodies, but no photography was allowed.

Day 3 -Ancient capital Memphis, King Zoser’s Step Pyramid at Sakkara, Lunch at the Mena House Hotel, Giza Pyramids and the Great Sphinx. Plus, a somewhat tight squeeze into the heart of the great pyramid itself. Five of us braved the sweaty, tight crawl into the burial chamber at the heart of the pyramid. There is nothing there, just a barren, dusty dark stone room, but it was worth doing for the adventure.

Day 4 – Bye for now, St. Regis, visit to holy places of Old Cairo, flight to Luxor and embarkation on the AMALilia.

Day 5 – The Valley of the Kings, Temple of Hatshepsut, Colossi of Memnon, scenic cruising on the Nile

Day 6 – Edfu, Temple of Horus

Day 7 – Philae Temple and Nubian Village, High Tea at the Old Cataract Hotel

Day 8 – Abu Simbel, Kom Ombo, Galabeya Party

Day 9 – Karnak Temple, Papyrus Institute (not pictured), Luxor Temple

Day 10 – Temple of Hathor at Qena

Day 11 – Flight from Luxor to Cairo, Abdeen Palace private tour and lunch

Day 12 – Departure. Fantasy land is over, time to go home. Thank you, Walla!