Egypt Day 8 - CAI => LXR

Itinerary Day 8:  Cairo - Luxor

"After breakfast we will get transfer to Cairo Airport to board our flight to Luxor, Modern Luxor is built on the site of ancient Thebes, the capital during Egypt’s New Kingdom and the period when the pharaohs reached the peak of their strength and empire. We get transferred from Luxor airport to hotel, in the afternoon we visit the lighted temple of Luxor . Overnight in hotel in Luxor."

Journal: 
Ramadan meets us at the hotel and guides us again through the Cairo airport.The process through security and to our domestic Egyptian Air flight is seamless. It's a short flight to Luxor. About an hour with mostly desert vistas out of the right side of the plane as we fly south. The terrains transforms dramatically from brown to green as we approach Luxor and cross the Nile.

On the ground we're met by, Ismael our guide for the Luxor portion of the trip. We check into the Old Luxor Winter Palace, now a Sofitel. This was a recommendation from our Egypt travel guru, Jeff. The staff got the room right the first time, we have view of the Nile looking toward the Valley of the Kings. Sigrid's happy, no need to change rooms.

We didn't have much time to enjoy the view. After dropping the luggage we were off for a sunset / evening tour of the Luxor Temple.

As the sun sets on the Luxor Temple, we get acquainted with our new guide, Ismael just as, undoubtedly, he is sizing up his new clients for the next week.  We're impressed immediately.  Soft spoken, authoritative, he demonstrates a tremendous depth of knowledge on Egyptian history by compressing 3,000 years of Pharaohs into 15 minute lecture - just to provide a little context before entering the Temple.

Most of the tour is under the lights, which may be the best way to see Luxor Temple. the low level lighting makes the carved reliefs and hieroglyphics pop off the walls.  We tour, listen, ask questions, and wonder again at the achievements of the ancient Egyptians. At the the end of the evening we take a stroll down the Avenue of the Sphinxes toward Karnak. But that will be another day. A great start to the Luxor segment of our tour.

Editors Note: I intend to pre-load and schedule automated blog posts with the daily itinerary for our Egypt and Jordan adventure. For those interested, this may be an easy way to follow along. Internet access is always a crapshoot. My hope is that by pre-loading the itinerary it will be easier to add some pics and journal commentary as time and the internet permits. If there are no pics or commentary, you'll just have to wait until we get back.