Monday 27th December 2004

Travel from Gatwick by Monarch airlines to Luxor
Transfer to a coach which takes us to the side of the Nile where the ship is waiting.
This is the Viking Premiere, which has 58 cabins - ours was on the bottom deck. Looking out of the porthole the water level was about 6 inches below. This put it at about 2 feet above the level of our floor!
The ships all line up against each other from the bank, ie there is a ship tied to the bank then another ship tied to it etc. At one point we saw a stack of 10 ships all tied to each other.

Tuesday 28th December 2004

Up at 04:45 local time. With the 2 hour time difference our bodies think this is 02.45!
Travel to Valley of the Queens
Temple of Hatshepsut
Valley of the Kings
Stopped briefly at the Colossi of Memnon
Back to the ship (at lunchtime) which by now had travelled to the lock at Esna

Wednesday 29th December 2004

Overnight the boat had passed thru the lock at Esna and had docked at Edfu.
Visited temple at Edfu
Stopped at Kom Ombo to see the Ptolemic Temple
Galabiya party on the boat
Docked at Aswan for 2 nights

Thursday 30th December 2004

Visited the granite quarries and saw the Unfinished Obelisk - a lot of fuss about something that was broken !
Looked at the Aswan High Dam having passed over a lower Bridge Dam
Temple of Philae on Philae Island
Went on a Felucca sailboat down the Nile

Friday 31st December 2004

Morning coffee in the Catarract Hotel in Aswan
Visited a Nubian Village where nearly everone had satellite TV, a begging bowl in one hand and a mobile phone in the other.
New Years Eve Party - better food than the usual chicken or beef.
Nubian Dancers were brought on board, and then a Belly Dancer who dragged someone out of the audience who turned out to be better than the real Belly Dancer

Saturday 1st January 2005

All day sailing to Luxor - didn't quite make it. Took hours to get thru the lock. Arrived in Luxor in the middle of the night

Sunday 2nd January 2005

Visited Luxor Temple
Temple of Karnak
Papyrus museum
Perfume shop
Afternoon tea at Winter Palace
Dinner at the Winter Palace Hotel

Monday 3rd January 2005

Tour of Luxor by Caleche (horse and cart) - round lots of back streets
Lunch in a Nile-side restaurant (very cheap - £28 for 4 inc wine)
Local ferry across the Nile (20p return - tourist rate)
Better boat back! (50p each to get back)
Left the ship at 16.30 and arrived home at about 1am the next day.