Nile Cruising…

 Be prepared to come back needing a holiday! You really need to pace yourself as it is action all the way…We landed in Luxor, Egypt and transferred to our ship. We had splashed out on a junior cabin to get the extra space and it was well worth it as it also had great views. You could really just stay on board all week and enjoy the scenery but as you’ve gone all that way, you might as well see some of the sights while you are there.  On the Tuesday, we visited the West Bank and the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens and the magnificent Colossi of Memnon. In the afternoon we sailed through the Esna lock.

We skipped the Kom Ombo tour on the Wednesday and chose instead to recharge our batteries on deck. I would definitely advise going on the Aswan Tour, the Dam was very picturesque but nothing compared to the Unfinished Obelisk, a structure abandoned after a crack appeared in the stone after only 3 sides were complete. The Obelisk still stands as it was abandoned all those years ago, even with the discarded tools still laid around. Then we moved on to the Philae Temple, until Unesco moved it stone by stone from Philae Island to Agilika Island, it was in danger of becoming completely submersed underwater. The sound and light show at the end of the day was an amazing site as light flooded the walls and surrounding water.We were up early on the Friday morning to witness the amazing sunrise as we passed through the Sahara, then decided not to go on the Abu Simbel trip as it was a little long. The following day we disembarked on East Bank of the Nile to explore Luxor and the Karnak Temple, both truly fascinating, however we headed back to the boat before the Karnak light show as we had seen one earlier in the week.Sunday saw us back in Luxor with time to shop for souvenirs, we however decided to take a day trip to Cairo by air to visit the pyramids and we were so pleased we did, as exhausted as we were the sights were truly amazing. Our final morning was spent in a hot air balloon seeing the wonderful Nile from above. We headed back to Luxor after that and unfortunately home. We wished we had booked a twin centre and given ourselves a nice relaxing week on a beach somewhere after such a hectic cruise and we would certainly recommend anyone to do that if considering a Nile cruise. We loved it but it was tiring.Mr and Mrs HibbitsonRenfrewshire.Tags: Egypt, holidays, Luxor, Nile.