Garnett's Down Under: Nile Cruise Day 1

The flight to Luxor was 5:30am but in true Garnett style we left the house at midnight and waited in the airport. Maddy read a whole book and Geoff and I snoozed until 4am when we wandered through the gates and started on our journey. We arrived in Luxor at 6:30 am and were picked up by Ibram (our guide)and Mohamed (the driver) who delivered us to the ship where we left our baggage in our cabin (329). At 9am Mohamed collected Geoff and me, while Maddy slept in the cabin, we went to McDonalds for breakfast (egg Mac muffins) where we could sit and see Luxor Temple across the road.

Next stop - Luxor Museum. Much better than the Egyptian Museum, there were labels and excellent lighting, a specific route to follow and guides to help. It took us an hour to go round and then we went for a short walk along the side of the Nile. As we walked a very persistent carriage driver asked us for the second time if we wanted a ride, we fobbed him off and cut through a shopping arcade only to meet him at the other side, at which point we gave in and had a short tour of Luxor via carriage. We drove down the back streets and through the street market and to a papyrus shop where we were shown how papyrus is made and purchased a few pictures ourselves. From here we travelled back to the museum and then back to the boat for lunch.

Lunch was excellent, there was a salad bar a hot meal buffet and a dessert buffet – eat until you drop. After lunch we caught up on sleep and sat on deck until dinner at 8pm. This was an a la carte meal and not as good if you didn’t like what was on offer. There were 3 other people at the table 2 from Cairo and their friend from Taiwan, as we chatted it emerged that one of them was from Hull (his accent did give him away) and not only that but he knew Steve! So I phoned and they caught up.

Back in the cabin we read, played on the laptop (Maddy) and then slept.