Last Day of the Cruise

December 21st
We were packed up and ready for our last tour of the cruise - to the temples of Karnak and Luxor and we were not disappointed. One could imagine the grandeur of the procession from one temple down the sphinx-lined promenade to the other temple. Now only two churches stand in the way of restoring the parade route - and Evangelical Presbyterian Church and a large Coptic Cathedral. We enjoyed our last day with the friends we had made on the four day cruise and we said many goodbyes before leaving the ship and moving on to the West Bank of Luxor to the Desert Paradise Lodge in Gourna, a small village across the river from the city of Luxor.
We were amazed at the place - an oasis of calm and beauty in the desert. We had 2 spacious rooms with modern bathroom and kitchenette that opened on to a beautiful garden area and small swimming pool. The Egyptian meals were fresh and delicious and our hosts gracious and helpful. We highly recommend this place!
Farida, the owner's "right hand" even went with us by boat to the East Bank of Luxor to the local souk to find the shop where we could buy particularly beautiful wall hangings like those that graced the walls of the lodge. The local artist has retired, but this shop had a good supply of various sizes and colors. After the ritual negotiations (that netted us an extra rug to seal the deal) we settled on a small woven scene of a village on the Theban hills - much like the view we saw from our hot air balloon the next morning.

Comments

Riding the Bus often

From 201010 Saudi scenes It is ironic that this land of cheap gasoline has so much group transport -- buses. From 201010 Saudi scenes Our housing compound has a Toyota-Coaster bus that takes some to/from school (we usually go earlier and return later, on a similar bus that the school provides). Driver Yahya takes residents on the 90-minute trip down to the Big City shopping every Thursday morning. The above picture shows our group one Thursday, usually going to Ikea or the new Lulu's Hypermarket , or the Dhahran Mall. Coleman rides a different bus every day to and from school -- usually 100 minutes there, 80 minutes back. His bus is evidently an old tourist bus, usually comfortable but a bit dusty. The air-conditioning usually works too well. I've ridden it with him several times, to attend business meetings at the district office. From 201010 Saudi scenes There he is, at 5:45am every morning, at the start of the bus run. Fortunately only about 20 stu...

EUA: tanto estrago em tão pouco tempo

As part of my effort to learn about Portugal, both the country and the language, I'm subscribing to the centrist newspaper, O Publico . There are plenty of newspapers: conservative tabloids, and socialist and communist-sponsored daily papers; I find O Publico to be most sober, with consistently interesting columnists and opinion pieces, in addition to some local (Porto) news, with just enough sporting news to keep me chatting with the taxi driver. Today's opinion piece sums up, I think, European pundits' view of the U.S. government. As the title puts it: so much damage in so little time. I shudder at the rank incompetence and corrupt behavior, demonstrating a cynical attitude toward public service, showing indeed that the cruelty is the point. What scandal, what damage will be the tipping point to collapse this government? And what will it take to recover from the damage? Who will be able to trust the US government again, ever? Only ni...

Yikes! Russian Chocolate!

The other day we chanced upon a Slavic grocery store. We went inside, marveled at all the products from various eastern european countries, from Czechia to Poland to Yugoslavia to Russia to Kazakhstan. I grabbed a chocolate bar... and now I realize that it's Russian, imported via Germany. The ingredients list is written in Russian, Kyrgyz, and Uzbek; and a separate ingredients sticker pasted over it in German. No Portuguese or Spanish or English. Hmm. How did it get here? And what sort of sanctions are imposed on Russian confectioners? The chocolate itself is just okay, nothing special.

Thomas journals

Search This Blog