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Tuesday, September 28
Several people had told me that the visit to Abu Simbel was the highlight of their visit to Egypt - so we certainly had to sign up for this optional excursion. It was a half hour flight from Aswan Airport to Abu Simbel. Our seat allocations on the plane were assigned to us in alphabetical order, so many of us, who do not share last names with their spouses, ended up sitting beside strangers - well not really strangers - we're all part of this journey together even if we hadn't met before. I had a delightful companion and we landed at our destination while we were sharing our life stories.
The temples of Ramses II and his beloved wife Nefertari are majestically and magically relocated on higher ground above the waters of Lake Nasser. The technical marvel of moving these monuments is stunning. To avoid the crowds, Peter and I headed immediately to the smaller temple, dedicated to Nefertari. It is quite elegant and has a gentle, feminine touch. By contrast the monumental edifice of Ramses II is strikingly massive and dominates the site with the four massive statues at its entrance. Inside the battle scenes are beautifully rendered with more movement and passion than we had seen before. The statues of Ramses II deified and the three other gods in the sancutary (forgotten their names) are still lit by the sun twice a year just as they were thousands of years ago when they were placed in their original setting. We were not allowed to take photos inside these temples.
As always, the merchants were lined up in their stalls at the exit to the site waiting to sell us more souvenirs. I am getting pretty good at knowing when to say "La shoukran" (no thank you).
Half an hour's flight and we were back in the relaxed comfort of our ship. We immediately set sail for Kom Ombo where we stopped again for some of the passengers who had recently joined our cruise to visit the temple. We chose to stay on board and watch the temple grow golden with the sunset and then glow with the illumination of the lights.
It is a surprise to us each day to find the many ships rafted together at the docks. So often we have to walk through the lobbies of several ships in order to reach the dockside. This unfortunately often means that we have to keep our cabin curtains closed, otherwise we would be looking directly into the cabin of the next ship, just a few feet away. Almost every night this was the situation. When we go on deck in the evenings, we look across the top decks of several ships, lined up beside us.
Several people had told me that the visit to Abu Simbel was the highlight of their visit to Egypt - so we certainly had to sign up for this optional excursion. It was a half hour flight from Aswan Airport to Abu Simbel. Our seat allocations on the plane were assigned to us in alphabetical order, so many of us, who do not share last names with their spouses, ended up sitting beside strangers - well not really strangers - we're all part of this journey together even if we hadn't met before. I had a delightful companion and we landed at our destination while we were sharing our life stories.
The temples of Ramses II and his beloved wife Nefertari are majestically and magically relocated on higher ground above the waters of Lake Nasser. The technical marvel of moving these monuments is stunning. To avoid the crowds, Peter and I headed immediately to the smaller temple, dedicated to Nefertari. It is quite elegant and has a gentle, feminine touch. By contrast the monumental edifice of Ramses II is strikingly massive and dominates the site with the four massive statues at its entrance. Inside the battle scenes are beautifully rendered with more movement and passion than we had seen before. The statues of Ramses II deified and the three other gods in the sancutary (forgotten their names) are still lit by the sun twice a year just as they were thousands of years ago when they were placed in their original setting. We were not allowed to take photos inside these temples.
As always, the merchants were lined up in their stalls at the exit to the site waiting to sell us more souvenirs. I am getting pretty good at knowing when to say "La shoukran" (no thank you).
Half an hour's flight and we were back in the relaxed comfort of our ship. We immediately set sail for Kom Ombo where we stopped again for some of the passengers who had recently joined our cruise to visit the temple. We chose to stay on board and watch the temple grow golden with the sunset and then glow with the illumination of the lights.
It is a surprise to us each day to find the many ships rafted together at the docks. So often we have to walk through the lobbies of several ships in order to reach the dockside. This unfortunately often means that we have to keep our cabin curtains closed, otherwise we would be looking directly into the cabin of the next ship, just a few feet away. Almost every night this was the situation. When we go on deck in the evenings, we look across the top decks of several ships, lined up beside us.
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