Egypt

We are back from our trip and after visiting 2 continents and being on the go nonstop we need a vacation from our vacation. Egypt and Jordan were awesome! We had so many pictures it was hard to pick but I tried to give just an overview of what it was like there. This one is just Egypt.

We arrived into Cairo 3 hours late and thankfully our guide was there to meet us. He transferred us to hour hotel which was a converted palace that the former king of Egypt had used for hosting dignitaries. Needless to say it was beautiful and our room had a view of the Great Pyramid off the balcony. We spent the first full day there on what turned out to be a private tour. We had an Egyptologist who walked us through the Pyramid area giving us the facts and history of the mighty structures. His name was Muhammad (as was our driver and bodyguard for the drive to Sinai) and was very knowledgeable and friendly. After seeing the Pyramids and the Sphinx we zipped into town to visit the Egyptian museum. Muhammad took us through the museum giving us the history of the most important pieces on display. The museum holds the items found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun, who was unimportant and died very young, but was the only king of Egypt to be found with his tomb intact. The museum was so much better because we had a guide who gave us all the highlights, otherwise it would have been quite overwhelming.

We left Cairo the next day for Dahab which is on the Eastern part of the Red Sea known as the Gulf of Aqaba. The drive in Northern Sinai was flat desert with nothing (really NOTHING) but rock and dirt. As we got further South the landscape became more mountainous and we started coming across Bedouins in their camps or out with their goats and camels. We cut through the mountains on a valley road and came out at the Red Sea which is spectacular. The Red Sea is clear aqua blue water lined with reefs. We settled into our hotel in Dahab and took a 2 hour nap before departing for Mt. Sinai at around midnight. The climb up Mt. Sinai takes about 2.5 hours (after a 2hr drive) and we, along with hundreds of others, watched the sunrise from the top. The trail up is the camel trail where people often rent camels to take them most of the way up (which is exactly what I would do should I ever hike it again!). The hike was exhausting and a little dangerous. It is pitch black and there are camels going up and down the mountain and they stop for no man! We had a Bedouin guide who kept us out of the camels' path fortunately. It was a beautiful sight to see the sun coming up over the desert mountains. We went back down a different way called the "3000 steps to the monastery." It was equally exhausting but took half as long and was significantly less crowded. That afternoon we went snorkeling at a place called the Blue Hole. The sea life was amazing. Unfortunately a lot of the coral in the hole had been killed by people but as you went out it was even more colorful and impressive.

The next day we made a run for the boarder. We drove up to Taba and crossed into Israel (which was not easy) where we drove through the resort town of Eilat and crossed the boarder into Jordan (significantly easier!).

Pyramids and Petra

Tomorrow before the crack of dawn we will start our grand tour of Egypt and Jordan. I have to admit there is an element of fear involved but we will be seeing things that make the Roman ruins look modern. Below is a short itinerary from the website that should give a basic idea of where we're going and what we are going to see. The hotels all look very nice -
Cairo - Oberoi Mena House
Dahab - Le Meridien Hotel
Petra - Petra Marriott
Amman - Amman Marriott

Short Itinerary

Day 1 Arrive in Cairo. Transfer from airport to hotel
Day 2 Cairo - Pyramids, Sphinx & Egyptian Museum tour
Day 3 Drive to the Red Sea at Dahab (option to climb Mt. Sinai)
Day 4 Dahab - Free time (option for snorkeling at the Blue Hole)
Day 5 Cross into Jordan. Wadi Rum jeep safari. Drive to Petra
Day 6 Petra - tour
Day 7 Petra. Drive up the King's Highway to Amman via Kerak, Madaba, Mt. Nebo
Day 8 Amman. Tour to the Dead Sea and Jerash
Day 9 Amman. Free time. Transfer to airport for flight home

We'll have slide shows galore when we get back so be ready!

Happy Anniversary

Two years ago on September 6th we arrived in Dublin to start this phase of our lives. In some ways it has flown by and at the same time it seems like an eternity ago that we packed up our lives and boarded the jet plane. We wanted to travel and travel we have done. This past year took us to Edinburgh, Manchester, Athens, La Rochelle, Bordeaux, Venice, Florence, Prague, Vienna, Bruges, Brussels, Oslo and Bergen. Mix that in with a few (or several) trips back home and you get the picture of what we do here. We're starting this 3rd year with a trip to Egypt and Jordan and then we're hoping to follow it up with a week in Israel and few more short trips to Italy, France and maybe Spain before we hopefully move back home early in the new year.