Cruising Down the Nile

Mike and Kimberly planned most of the trip, so we have to give them credit for having the great idea of taking a Nile River cruise. It was a great idea because it allowed us to see many amazing temples and tombs that we probably wouldn't have seen if it wasn't for the cruise line planning the excursions. Plus, we were floating on the famous Nile!!! Before reaching the ship, we had to take a night train to Aswan. Nate and I had never taken a night train before, so we were excited for a new experience. However, as we learned the hard way, riding the Swiss trains did not prepare us for the Egyptian train experience.

It is very common to get sick in Egypt, so we were extra careful to not drink the tap water. We even were brushing our teeth with bottled water, but unfortunately, we all became ill at some point on the trip. Nate and Mike had their illness in Cairo and Kimberly had hers on our final day in Egypt. My body, however, had the worst timing. During the middle of the night, while riding the train, I woke up feeling very sick. It was already turning out to be one of the worst night's sleep because the bed was very uncomfortable and because the train was noisy and shaking as if it was going to fall apart, but I soon realized that these were the least of my worries. I tried to fight the urge to throw-up because I hate it more than anything, but I couldn't fight it any longer, so I had to run to the bathroom. To make matters worse, the bathroom was disgusting... I will spare you most of the details, but let's just say that I could see the tracks whizzing by below when I lifted the toilet lid. At the time, I was thinking this is one of the worst nights of my life because my sickness felt like it would never end and I just wanted to get off the train! So if you ever travel to Egypt, take my advice and don't take a night train!

The Cairo Train Station, where you realize you're not in Switzerland or America any more!

Traveling down the Nile was another surreal experience. It is the longest river in the world and goes through TEN countries. It really is an amazing source of life because it is surrounded by desert after desert. Oh yeah, it's also the river that Moses turned to blood!

It took us awhile to find our boat and we were all extremely tired after the sleepless night train, but the ship had already planned an excursion for that afternoon. Nate, Kimberly, and Mike went, but I was still feeling sick, so I stayed on the ship and slept. Nate will take over the commentary from here, since I was in bed when he took the next few pictures.

Hello blog readers, this is Nate. On our first excursion, we primarily focused on the Aswan Dam and the Temple of Isis at Philae. I didn't take any pictures of the Dam, because it's not very picturesque...it's just a really big dam. Actually, there are 2 dams at Aswan. The Low Dam was finished in 1902 and was the world's biggest dam, but soon they built the High Dam which is nearly 2 miles across and contains 18 times the amount of material used in the Great Pyramid and created the world's largest artificial lake. Because of the High Dam, the Temple of Isis would have been completely underwater, so the Temple was moved, stone by stone, to a new higher location and is now surrounded by a beautiful lake.

Wishing that my beautiful wife was with me...

Some cool-looking carvings inside the temple.

On the way back to the boat, I stood on the edge of the Sahara Desert. Maria was a little jealous! Okay, Maria says I have to stop typing now. Bye, thanks for reading!

I'm alive! And I was feeling much better in this picture. I'm standing in front of our cruise ship. It's on a completely different scale than, say, Royal Caribbean, but it was still really nice. Plus, there weren't too many people on the boat, so it felt like our personal ship.

Our first temple of our second day was called Kom Ombo.

I thought this was really interesting. This carving is a line of slaves that are tied together at their necks and their hands. And I find it odd that their faces are missing.
Kimberly, me, and Nate posing on the column ruins

We hopped back on the boat and cruised a little farther down the river. Our second temple of the day was the Temple of Horus at Edfu. Having escaped destruction from the Nile floods, it is the most completely restored Egyptian temple.

In this picture, you can see how high the structure is and how goofy Kimberly and I are... we liked to pose like the carvings. 200 years ago this temple was completely covered by sand and part of the city was actually stood over the temple roof!
Nate was very attentive when our guide spoke. I would get bored and start taking random pictures of Nate. (this is Nate's comment)

The columns at this temple were incredible...

Horus, the falcon we are standing in front of, was one of the most significant deities in the ancient Egyptian religion.

We spent the rest of the afternoon cruising down the Nile, laying out, and swimming in the pool...
The scenery is a lot different than what we're used to... but it was so cool to see wildlife, men & women working, and kids playing...

There were many beautiful sunsets. Sometimes Kimberly and I would go get ready for dinner around the same time as the sun would set, so Nate and Mike would stay to watch it and take pictures. Kimberly and I would tease them that they watched sunsets together. :)

Day 3 of the Nile cruise/tour was my favorite. This day took place in the city of Luxor and the surrounding region. We saw some really neat sights such as these guys, the Colossi of Memnon. They are really old, because back in the day, these were popular with tourists from Greece and Rome!

The Valley of the Kings. All of the famous Pharoahs were buried here including Ramses and Tut. The Valley is really in the middle of the wilderness, several miles from the Nile and Luxor. We were able to walk through several tombs, but they unfortunately didn't allow picture taking.

This was my favorite temple and it was right next to the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut. I had no idea, but I learned that Hatshepsut was a female Pharoah.

It almost looks modern... and the cliffs behind it make it look picture perfect.

Trying to pose like this guy and not laugh...

After exploring the West Bank in the morning, we headed over to the East Bank of Luxor in the afternoon. It was miserably hot, almost unbearable. Our first stop of the afternoon was the Temple of Karnak, which is a huge complex over two square kilometers.

As we were walking through Karnak, our guide casually mentioned that she saw them filming the new Transformers movie just a few pillars away from where Nate is standing in this picture. Since many of the things our Egyption guides told us were a little unbelievable, none of us believed her. When Nate and I returned to Basel, we watched the movie's trailer and were shocked to find out that she was actually telling the truth. So, if you want to see what we saw in Egypt, just go see the movie!
Posing with pillars at the Luxor Temple...

The Luxor Temple lit up at night. This was our last night on the cruise and then we headed to the Red Sea the next morning, but thankfully by plane and not train!