One of the joys of this cruise for me has been seeing all the small children shouting and waving as we have passed by. Many of them will not have seen that many foreign people in their life time because of the recent security worries, so to see our pale faces floating down the river on a boat must be quite a spectacle for them. Back in Cairo, we were asked by youngsters on many occasions if we would mind having our photo taken with them on their mobile phones, a bit daunting at first and you immediately think they are after your money but it’s totally not the case, if you stop and consider the younger ones will not have come into contact with many foreign people in their life time it all sort of makes sense. Tourism seems to be on the increase here again so eventually the novelty will probably die off but for now it’s quite heart warming to get the attention and then see the happiness it generates.
So back to today, after passing through the swing bridge we tied up until around 4:00. We then started our journey to Luxor, I know it was around 4:00 because Mosque’s had all started their first daily call to prayer. I am saying nothing more on the subject!
After managing to drop back off to sleep I eventually came around at 6:30 and finished yesterday’s post.
The rest of the morning after breakfast was spent up on the top deck in the sun making the most of our last section of the cruise. Once we reach Luxor the boat will not move until we get off, it will continue on up to Aswan which is something we would like to come back and do another time.
The rest of the group disembarked at Karnak and we continued on to tie up just outside the Winter Palace Hotel. They were doing the temple tours today while we will be doing it on Monday morning.
Our afternoon consisted of a short walk and a Caleche ride round the town. I know we paid over the odds but it was rather fun and didn’t break the bank.
We have 36 Spanish passengers joining us today so it will be very interesting to see how it feels with more people onboard.
Tomorrow we have a much earlier start time of 6:30 for our tour to the West bank. It’s going to be a long day.