Magical Egypt: a Nile cruise

NILE CRUISE FROM 28/12/98 TO 04/01/99

MOTORSHIP QUEEN ISIS WITH VIAGGI DEL TURCHESE DEPARTURE FROM BOLOGNA AIRPORT AT 13.30, ARRIVAL IN LUXOR AT 19.00 It is so true that you have to write up your trips as soon as you get back, otherwise your memory fades and, despite the photos, it is hard to piece together the stages of the journey (all the more so if you write little or nothing on the photos)!!! What I certainly remember about this cruise are the early morning wake-up calls to get to places early and avoid the crush of tourists. It was a wonderful experience, even though I regret not having studied a little more, before leaving, the fascinating history of this magical land.

ITINERARY: Day 2 LUXOR-EDFU Visit to the Valley of the Kings and Queens, the temple of Queen Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon. Sailing towards Edfu The Valley of the Kings and Queens was a little disappointing, perhaps because the name evoked something sumptuous and instead I found myself amid earth and rocks..... I visited more than one tomb, including that of Nefertari, on payment of an extra ticket, and the very famous one of Tutankhamun; well, you won't believe it, but once I came out I felt unwell and by the evening I had a fever of 38 (perhaps because I took a sneaky photo and the curse struck again??!!) Then we went on to the temple of Queen Hatshepsut, and walking through that valley to reach the temple made me very sad, thinking of how many tourists had been killed years earlier right along that road.

You instinctively looked around at the nearby mountains, your heart full of fear of seeing a sniper appear.....

Day 3 EDFU-ASWAN

Visit to the temple of Horus at Edfu. Sailing to Aswan.

Day 4 ASWAN

Visit to the Aswan dam, the unfinished obelisk and the temple of Philae. Felucca excursion to the botanical island. On the island of Philae, rebuilt 300 m further north of its original site to save its monuments from the waters of Lake Nasser, stand the splendid temple of Isis and the small temple of Hathor; I placed it second for beauty in my personal ranking, so much so that I then decided to do the night excursion called "Sound and Light" as well, and it was truly an emotion to sit among those walls with that play of lights while a voice told the story of this temple. I heartily recommend this show to you.

Day 5 ASWAN

ASWAN is the most important city of Upper Egypt; a great trading centre since antiquity, it is not particularly rich in antiquities but it is always worth visiting the souk, where you can find handicrafts and spices. Here you have the chance to make the excursion to the temple of ABU SIMBEL, 280 km from Aswan; as usual an alarm call at dawn and then you reach it by plane...... to be honest, although I have travelled a lot, I am not especially fond of planes... especially when I am faced with small "contraptions" that, to look at them, seem not to have the strength even to take off..... yet once I arrived on the spot I saw something incredibly beautiful. This temple, again in my personal ranking, is in first place overall. Perhaps because my fellow citizens took an active part between 1961 and 1968 in the rescue campaign.

Just think that this temple was dismantled and moved some tens of metres higher than its original position, otherwise it would have been submerged by the water. They had to cut stone after stone and reassemble it exactly in the same position; they were true artists. It was an immense undertaking but it was truly worth it; here stand the two most famous Nubian temples. The great temple of RAMESSES II dedicated to Amun-Ra, and the small temple of Hathor and NEFERTARI, located about a hundred metres from the previous one. Inside the temples all the drawings still have very vivid colours; red and blue stand out in particular..... it is an expensive excursion but it is a real shame to miss it....

Day 6 ASWAN - KOM OMBO - ESNA VISIT TO THE TEMPLE OF Kom Ombo; we visited this temple in the evening; it is dedicated to 2 deities, SOBEK (with a crocodile's head) and HAROERIS (the god Horus in the form of a falcon). Here I have an unpleasant memory of a man inside the temple who spat at us and cursed us because we had not given him any money..... but you cannot always give to everyone!!! So I left in a hurry.

Day 7 ESNA - LUXOR

Excursion to the temple of Karnak and the temple of Luxor In the temple of Karnak I particularly remember the Great Hypostyle Hall with its huge columns more than 20 m high. And in the temple of Luxor the sphinxes with human heads.

Day 8 LUXOR - SHARM EL SHEIK

and after the early wake-up calls and the long walks, a well-deserved holiday at Naama Bay at the SHARM HOLIDAY RESORT

What more can I say about this trip; I would certainly love to do it again, perhaps studying the history a little before leaving; the guide who accompanies you is also very important, and fortunately ours was a very witty and friendly Egyptian young man, who even enjoyed teasing us and making us look incredibly foolish.

At every place we visited, when you got off the ship there were quite a few children, and since I had brought various hats, little bags, money belts, pens.... from home, I gave them away, making many children happy all along the cruise route. So if you have something at home you don't know what to do with (for example all the gadgets they give you at the travel agency), I have a habit of keeping them and always reserving a little corner for them in my suitcase, because nothing fills you with more joy than giving an unexpected gift. It also happened that one evening, while I was at KOM OMBO, a little girl came up to me and asked me to visit her shop, but I came out without buying anything because there was really very little and I was still shaken by that man's reaction. The little girl followed me and after a while she took my hand and gave me 3 little figurines....

this gesture moved me so much that I cut my wandering short, went back to the ship to look for something to give her, and even though I knew I had almost used everything up, at the bottom of my suitcase I still had a nice little backpack; she was overjoyed and her figurines became my lucky charm....