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New York

To begin our vacation we flew to New York City. We first saw Phantom of the Opera on Broadway then we went to the top of the Rockefeller Center. The following day we went all over Manhattan. We visited Ground Zero, the Empire State Building, The Statue of Liberty, St. Paul’s Cathedral, FAO Schwartz, Macy's and Central Park, just to name a few.

Chad, Lisa, and the Statue of Liberty?

The Church from the movie National Treasure

F.A.O. Schwartz from the movie Big.

The piano that Tom Hanks does Chopsticks on.

Chad and the "Soup Nazi" from Sienfeld.

Trump Building 1, downtown New York.

The famous cathedral across from Ground Zero.

Cairo

The second afternoon in New York we arrived at JFK and boarded our flight.  After being held on the tarmac for 2 hours, we finally got into our 11 hour flight to Cairo.  We arrived the next day in the afternoon and found our hotel and went to the Market.  We finished off with an evening trip to the Sound and Light show at the Great Pyramids and the Sphinx.  The following day we got up early and toured the old capital of Memphis and sights of Ramses II.  We went out to Sakkara, home of the first pyramid - the Step Pyramid of Zoser.  Then it was off to Giza and the Great Pyramids and Sphinx in the day time.  We got to enter the smaller of the two main pyramids.  We finished off with a Nile dinner cruise, including great entertainment.

Our Egypt Air flight direct from New York to Cairo.

The Khan El Khalili market, downtown Cairo. Wow, it has been in existance since 1400.

Our first meal after getting lost in the market. It was great and only 50 cents each.

The three story belly dance costume mecca.

Lisa is loving this, really.

The boys earning money for the family carrying bread on their heads.

Chad holding a papyrus stalk. They showed us how to cut and soak the plant to make papyrus paper.

Ramses II

Lisa and Chad (and flat Stanley) in ancient Memphis in front of a sphynx of Ramses II.

The first pyramid - Zoser's Step Pyramid.

The temple built by Zoser's step pyramid. In the distance is the bent pyramid and the red pyramid.

The children weaving carpets at a carpet school.

Our lunch.

The Great Pyramid of Khufu in Giza.

Us on the great pyramid.

Chillin' in the Egyptian heat, on a 4000 year old rock.

The second pyramid at Giza of the pharoah Knefrun.

We got to go in to the tomb of the second great pyramid. Very cool.

Chad, Lisa, and flat Stanley at the Sphynx.

Lisa making out with Ramses II.

We visited a perfume shop and got flat Stanley all scented up.

The KFC seems to have a little more entertainment then ours.

Lisa at our Nile dinner cruise.

There were many cruise ships to choose from.

With lots of entertainment.

We even got to participate.

Bellydancer and her mates.

Aswan

The following morning we flew from Cairo to Cairo, a small "snag " landed us back before we finally got off to Aswan.  We arrived a couple hours later then expected, but still had plenty of time to take a Felucca to the west bank.  We then hired camels to take us to St. Simeon's Temple.  Aswan is hotter than Cairo.  The tour of the Temple was great, but sweltering.  Lisa's inner legs were aching for about 3 days.  This is known as Camel crotch.  We ate and enjoyed the evening in the much more aggressive Aswan market.  The following day we booked a Nile cruise on the Nile Saray.  We then went off to the Island of Philae and the Temple of Isis.  Our armed tour guide was great at describing the amazing Temple.  We then traveled to the quarry and saw the unfinished obelisk.  This is interesting, but we don't recommend visiting this at the hottest part of the day.  We baked.  After a restful afternoon, and both being overcome by the Pharaoh's revenge, we spent an hour on a Felucca around the Elephantine island in the moonlight. 

The set of pepper shakers. I don't think they get it.

Our meal at the Aswan Moon.

Cheers.

Our first felluca ride.

Our captain Flat Mohammed.

It's quite interesting just getting on a camel.

St. Simeon's temple in the Sahara desert.

Chad, Lisa, Mike the Camel, and Louie the Camel.

Our guide just chillin' by his ride.

The artwork at the Monestary of St. Simeon was very impressive.

The ole hair tie up and keep you awake trick.

Us in front of the alter of St. Simeon. The Coptic temple was grand.

It was only about 120 when we toured the Monestary.

Us and our guide Mahmoud at one of the look outs for the Monestary overlooking Aswan.

Chad, Lisa, and Flat Stanley overlooking Aswan.

Our next boat ride was to the Temple of Isis.

Lisa at the entry of the magnificent Temple of Isis.

Lisa posing as Isis.

The Nile is dammed with two great dams in Aswan, so Lake Nasr behind us is the largest unnatural lake in the world.

The original location of Isis Temple is now covered by the lake.

They actually removed and rebuilt stone for stone the temple.

The weather, although hot, was wonderful for our entire trip.

Now exiting the great Temple of Isis.

Isis Temple as seen from its original location.

The unfinished obelisk is quite grand in the granite quarry in Aswan.

However, I don't recommend going in the mid afternoon, we were scorched.

However, some can find a nice spot even on the hottest days.

At our next meal we found the match set.

Egypt is also known as one of the dirtiest countries, and it was evident.

Our hotel in Aswan - Hotel Isis.

And the entertainment at the Hotel Isis.

Nile Cruise

After the first night on the cruise ship, we hadn't actually sailed yet.  So we went back into Aswan and toured Elephantine Island.  We we directed to the museum called Anamalia.  Then we met the chief of the Nubian village, Umshi.  He showed us around the village and then directed us to the Museum, which included the garden and the ruins.  The ship sailed at 2:30 and arrived in Kom Ombo around 5:00.  So we toured the Temple of Somet - the Egyptian god with the alligator head.  Once again we were in awe of the grandness and beauty of it.  Sailed to Edfu in the evening and we went into town and shopped the market.  At dinner we met our table companions William and Sabina from Holland and Go from Japan.  The next morning we toured the Temple of Horus in Edfu.  Sailed on from there and went through the Locks on the Nile to arrive in Luxor in the evening.  Go had been in the sun all day and at dinner he was sun burnt all over.  That evening we went with our new found friends to the Luxor Temple.  The night tour was a different perspective of temple viewing for us.  The next morning concluded the cruise.

Our first day of the cruise started out in Aswan on Elephantine Island. This in the Nubian village.

The crodile museum.

The village was quite unique. Pretty, yet poor.

This cute little thing was just trying to help out mom.

Inside the Mosque at the Nubian village.

The crops were right in the middle of the village.

Narrow streets, not built to accomodate vehicle. And there are none.

This house was definitely looking for some good luck.

Umshi met us and led us around town, then to the Nubian museum.

Nubian museum.

The Nileometer showed the height of the river.

The old village/temple at the Nubian museum.

Children playing and washing in the Nile.

A beautiful Nubian house.

The Temple of Sacret in Kom Ombo. Our first stop on our cruise.

All temples still showed signs of the granduer even after 300 or 4000 years.

The ancient Egyptians mummified animals as well, including alligators.

Chad, Lisa, and Stanley at the temple in Kom Ombo.

Cruise ships lined the small towns between Aswan and Luxor.

We had a suprise waiting in our cruise ship room.

The ships docked next to one another, sometimes five ships deep.

The Temple of Horus in Edfu.

Many columns and pillars lined most of the temples.

If you ask the right questions and have a little tip, you can see a little extra. Like the roof of the temple.

However the climb up may not be so easy.

The temple is lined with horse carriages. Luckily they provide some shade for the horses.

The locks on the Nile do take some time to navigate.

Some, however, can't wait for the locks process to be finished before moving on.

Flat Stanley taking it easy on the cruise ship.

Chad chillin' too.

Our cruise table companions. William and Sabina form Holland and Go from Japan. (He got a little sun.)

We visited the Temple of Luxor at night a welcome change of perspective.

The row of sphynx's reportedly went from the Luxor temple all the way to Karnac.

Each sphynx very detailed.

The temple was very grand in the nights ligt.

Even the detail of Ramses II's wife next to him was amazing.

The lotus flower adorned the top of most pillars in the temples we visited.

Luxor

Following our cruise we stayed two days in Luxor, also known as Thebes with our new friends William and Sabina.  Luxor is most notable known as the home of the Valley of the Kings, which of course is where King Tut's tomb is.  We hired a taxi for the two days and got to know him pretty good.  He invited us to his home and fed us dinner.  We visited many of the temples.  The most awesome where the Temple of Hatshepsut and Karnack.  Along with Valley of the Kings where the underground tombs of the Pharaohs are, there is also Valley of the Queens where their wives and children where tombed.  All of this was, of course, breathtaking and by the end of the second day we were on sight seeing overload.  So we all went and had a very American meal. 

The entrance to Karnack is the other end of the row of sphynx that linked it to the Luxor Temple.

The sphynx here has a ram head, though.

We really got to become part of the scenery.

I think they may have copied the space needle.

The most awe inspiring of all the temple features was the 134 columns in the center fo the Karnack Temple. Truly amazing, indescribable.

We found that the very hot afternoon was the perfect time to relax.

The sunsets in Luxor were by far the most beautiful in Egypt.

Hany invited us to eat with him. The food was excellent. His family was also very friendly.

These two gaurd the entrance to the west bank of Luxor. Home of the Valley of the Kings.

Hatshepsut was the only female pharaoh in the history of Egypt. The temple behind us was her funerary temple.

Each column was lined with a statue of her. Many where defaced by her nephew when he became Pharaoh.

This 3D model of the Valley of the Kings showed the depth and degree of each tomb that has been found.

No pictures are aloud in the tomb, but this poster shows what they walked into when they uncovered King Tut.

At the Valley of the Queens, it is said the Tomb of Nefertari is the greatest of all tombs. You apparently need to make an expensive appointment to enter it. We didn't.

However, for a small fee, we could take pictures inside the tombs at valley of the Queens.

The drawings in the tombs are extremely impressive. Very vivid, vibrant, and detailed.

The attention to detail is incredible.

William and Chad even tried to uncover a tomb. When in Rome...

Yet another amazing, colorful tomb drawing.

The Little Garden treated us very nicely.

There really is a McDonalds everywhere.

Finally, we had to break down and have a good old American style dinner.

William tried to get his mouth around his triple burger.

Afterwords William takes in a musical shoe shine boy.

One thing was very apparent - the Egyptians don't pay attention to the no honking signs.

Sharm el-Sheik, Cairo, and Home.

Late the second night in Luxor we flew to Sharm el-Sheik.  This town is on the tip of the Sinai Peninsula and is the touristy, vacationy, resorty town of Egypt.  The prices are double, the beaches are beautiful, and the taxis have some sort of system.  We enjoyed our one day here snorkeling and relaxing.&n