Wednesday 28th September

I had a fairly good night's sleep, but was still reeling from the shock of my Aunt's untimely death.  Safe in the knowledge that she would not have wanted us to travel home, we decided to help my parents as much as we could from Luxor and enlisted the help of some very good friends at home.  That worked out very well in this modern day age of technology, and we decided to carry on and enjoy the holiday as much as we could so, as sad as things were, the 'stiff upper lip' of us Brits was the order of the day!!

Again, we spent the day relaxing at the pool and my friend and I walked out to Aboudi's Bookshop near Mcdonalds to buy postcards and stamps.  It's a super shop now compared to the old one, and still with no hassle and it's fixed prices and pleasant staff.  We didn't encounter much hassle at all apart from the usual shouts from the caleshe and taxi drivers then we met an old friend - felucca captain Shakespeare!!!  Well, he tagged onto us, insisting we join him for a cold drink - all at our expense of course!!  We had a good old natter with him at Sinbad's cafe and he also accompanied us to Aboudi's Bookshop, so we then encountered no hassle whatsoever, but it did of course cost us for the drinks and also a tip!!

Because of the negative experience at the El Kababgy the day before, all four of us headed out for a spot of lunch intending to head for Hamees - but again Shakespeare spotted us and joined us and again it cost us the expense of quenching his thirst and another tip (for what, I don't know!!).  Anyway, he was pleased and at least went home with money in his pocket that night!!

Firstly, we went to The Roof but, as their lunches looked just too much for us, we just had a drink and drank in the view as well as the juice!!  Here's a panoramic photo taken with my new camera

On leaving The Roof, we ended up being taken to Sinbad's cafe (almost next door to Hamees) where the same scenario happened again - obviously no stock at the cafe so it was sent out for, but at least the service was quicker and the beer was cold and refreshing - the Kebabgy had sold us the non-alcoholic beer (Birrell) which is OK but not as good as the real stuff!!  By the way, if you don't like cats, don't eat here as there are loads of them about.  I have no problem with cats, so I was happy as Larry - for those of you that like cats, here's a photo - look away now if you don't like cats!!

Unfortunately hubby had a bad experience with one of the t-shirt vendors who presented him with a 'free' t-shirt.  Oh, but wait, maybe it's the wrong size, come with me and I'll make sure.  A few minutes later back comes hubby with NO t-shirt.  The guy had insisted that he should buy a shirt he didn't like, so the vendor was told in no uncertain terms where he could put his t-shirts and didn't get a sale.  Had he handled it better he might actually have made a sale and been happy!!

After another spot of relaxing at the pool I went for a shower leaving hubby and friends at the pool - I stepped out of the shower to find that there was at least an inch of water on the floor and my flip flops were floating!!  Panic stations!!  I paddled out the door and then came the decision who to phone first - hubby or reception.  Realising hubby wouldn't be able to do anything, I phoned reception and explained as best I could about much water on the floor!!!  Then I phoned hubby - he had difficulty answering his new phone - honestly, if anyone had been watching the antics of me trying to get dried and dressed before maintenance arrived and shouting down the phone trying to get hubby to speak into the phone, they would have been in stitches.  In any case, the maintenance man arrived first and after much banging and clattering with a spanner, he opened the drainage thingy and pulled out what I could only describe as a giant furball!!!  Hubby arrived just after the maintenance man did, but all he could do was laugh!!!

Later that day, at sunset, I wandered off downstairs with my new camera in hand to take some pics and, when the lift doors opened in the foyer, guess who was just checking in?  Yes, Suzie M and her mum and Mr and Mrs KV-Explorer!!!  After much hugging and shaking of hands, I never did get those sunset pictures taken!!

Dean's Bistro was the venue for dinner that night then on the way back we popped into a local cafe (Grand Memphis) at the back door of the Winter Palace and had one of the best mugs of coffee ever - that was our nightly stop for the rest of the holiday, and we decided to give this place a try at lunchtimes.

Tuesday 27th September

This was to be a very sad day for me as it turned out, but more of that later.

We basically spent most of the day relaxing at the wonderful pool area of the hotel, enjoying the sunshine in this little oasis in the middle of Luxor!!  Here's a little taste of what the pool area looks like

I have taken loads of photos around the hotel so will also be posting them to Webshots once I get a bit of time to myself, and will probably post more here too as I get through the days!

We went to a local place, El Kababgy, for lunch today which lies on the banks of the Nile, but it was quite poor and nothing like the place it used to be. It appears that because there aren't many tourists around, there are no stocks of food etc., and when they do get someone wanting to eat, they go out and buy the ingredients to make up the order - all of that makes for a very SLOW service.  needless to say, we didn't go back to eat there at all, which is a shame as they would have probably had our custom almost every day for two weeks!!

At night we walked along the back streets of Luxor (El Medina Street) and experienced no hassles whatsoever.  In fact everyone was very friendly and we felt completely safe as we normally do when in Luxor.  We were just a little more apprehensive and vigilant than normal after reading lots of negative comments regarding Luxor after the 'revolution'.  We ended up at the Taste of India in 'Little Britain' and had a decent meal and a couple of drinks before heading back to the hotel for our usual nightcap on the balcony.

Just after arriving back at our room my mobile phone rang and on answering it was my dad to let me know that my aunt Alice had died very suddenly.  That was a pure and utter shock to the system as I had only just seen her on Sunday before we travelled to Luxor.  All I can say is thank goodness I had both my mobile phone and netbook with me on holiday so that I could help my parents arrange things in my absence.  So, to all of you people out there who think it's a bit sad taking netbooks and phones on holiday, I can tell you they were both a Godsend to me.  In my aunt's memory, I'm going to post her photo here.  She would have loved the fact that she was 'on the internet'!!  She was 80 but didn't look that age and certainly didn't act that age - she was more like a 16 year old and lived life to the max!!

Alice Whitehead Robertson MBE 1931 - 2011

Death is nothing at all
I have only slipped away into the next room
I am I and you are you
Whatever we were to each other
That we are still
Call me by my old familiar name
Speak to me in the easy way you always used
Put no difference into your tone
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow
Laugh as we always laughed
At the little jokes we always enjoyed together
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was
Let it be spoken without effort
Without the ghost of a shadow in it
Life means all that it ever meant
It is the same as it ever was
There is absolute unbroken continuity
What is death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind
Because I am out of sight?
I am waiting for you for an interval
Somewhere very near
Just around the corner
All is well.
Nothing is past; nothing is lost
One brief moment and all will be as it was before
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!

Monday 26th September - journey to Luxor

The long awaited day had arrived.  The day we were to travel to my 'second home' - Luxor!!  (There were four of us, my husband and I and our friends)

Being in Scotland, it's a bit of a long journey but this time we had booked with Kuoni who had handled the internal flights as well as the scheduled Egyptair fight from Heathrow and, as a special treat, we had booked into the Servisair lounge for some rest and relaxation prior to the flight.  I wasn't too happy wth Kuoini however when we got to Edinburgh Airport as we weren't able to book our hold luggage straight through for the Luxor flight so had the hassles of picking up baggage when we got to Heathrow, but that was all forgotten once we were eventually in the air and on our way!!

The flight wasn't too bad actually with quite a lot of leg room on the flight and, the encouraging thing was that the flight was quite busy and more tourists arriving is exactly what's needed after the recent troubles.

I'm not quite sure where we were, but here are some photos of some mountains and the sunset on our way to Luxor

 

We arrived in Luxor in the dark, which was a new experience for us, but the heat that hit us when we disembarked was not a new experience, and it was very welcome!!  We already had our Visas but was very surprised when the Kuoni rep directed people to the bank kiosks for their visas, unlike the the other holiday company reps who try to squeeze as much money out of the tourists as possible!  It was then onto the bus and off to the Winter Palace Pavilion.


We had been told that an upgrade to the Old Winter Palace was very likely as the Pavilion had been closed but, on our arrival, the Pavilion had just been re-opened and the anticipated upgrade never happened.  However, we were very pleased (as always) with our Pavilion rooms - here's a wee peek at ours (3009)

It was a lovely refurbished room and was very comfortable.  After a long tiring day travelling, it was just lovely to be back in Luxor to relax.  The men were sent to the supermarket for 'supplies' and I done some unpacking before a little nightcap on the balcony!!

There was one little panic however - I discovered that the adaptors I had brought with me and that I'd been using for years in Luxor, now did not fit the sockets in the newly refurbished rooms!!  Looking around I saw that the TV and fridge were plugged into the new sockets by the use of small adaptors, so I unplugged the TV as we don't really use it anyway, and used the adaptor so I could re-charge my phone.  Here is a photo to try and show the difference - we quickly discovered that these adaptors were being sold in Arkwright's supermarket and were also available on loan from reception

My own adaptor (European two pin) at the top and the new adaptor at the bottom

The adaptors for sale in Arkwrights plug into the new sockets and will take the European two pin as shown, and also the square three pin UK plug and the UK two pin round plug.  It probably takes others as well - here is a photo of the front of the plug so you can see for yourself

I was back in my 'second home' and immediately felt an overwhelming sense of peace!!