EGYPT 2007 DIARY

Arrival - Day 1

As we stepped off the plane at Luxor airport the unrelenting heat of the late afternoon Egyptian sunshine hit us and we felt as if we had come home. The memories of our last visit 3 years previously all came flooding back along with the excitement and anticipation of the two weeks to come.

The usual customs procedures and baggage collection went relatively smoothly and quickly as this time the rep already had our visa ready and we only had to get it stamped. Once he had all his passengers together our travel rep transferred us on to a minibus to take us to our cruise boat. After dropping another couple off at their hotel, which incidentally was the one in which we would be spending our second week, we continued on to meet our boat. We were both hoping that we would be on the same boat as our last trip "The Nile Oddessey" and as we pulled up to our berth we were elated to see the "Oddessey" moored up in the same place as 3 years ago. As we walked up the gangplank we really were home.

We settled into our cabin and freshened up then went up on to the deck to see if anything had changed. Everything was how we had left it three years ago. Even a lot of the crew were familiar. The Nile Oddessey is one of the smaller cruise boats built in the older style with wooden décor, it makes me think of the type of boat used in the 1940's - Agatha Christie style, (although the boat was actually launched in 2002). It has 2 passenger cabin decks and carries about 200 passengers. Not as ostentatious as some but very homely. We had a wander around the upper deck to take in the sights of the mountains of the Valley of the Kings across on the West bank. After a short rest sitting under the shade on the sun deck with a refreshing drink, we returned to our cabin to get changed for dinner.

We were alerted to dinner by the jingle of the dinner bell (another reminiscence of the old days) and we wandered along the corridor to the dining room and were shown to our table. We had the table to ourselves for dinner, which was absolutely superb, just as we remembered from last time. After dinner we had a couple of beers and watched the sun set over the river whilst chatting to a few people then we went to bed to refresh ourselves ready for the hectic itinerary to come.

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