Rod and Patty’s Scandinavian adventure

Boarding in Detroit
Still looking good after all night flight to Amsterdam, waiting 3 hours for our connecting flight to Copenhagen.
Arrival in Copenhagen and
even out bags made it!!!
Lunch in Copenhagen! A nice open face fish sandwich on pumpernickel bread, accompanied with a danish IPA beer
Danish hotdogs are very popular
No comment needed….🤓
LEGOs originated in Denmark
Bikes everywhere
City lights at night
For dinner…. burger, beer, and fries. Patty had cheese and crackers, and wine!

Lots of different modes of travel…

We tried many and observed a few. Our air travel was on newer airplanes, and big buses were newer and comfortable (40 passenger buses for 9 tourists). Then it was on to some old world and third world modes of transport!

Camels!! Oh my! I don’t know how they traveled across the Sahara desert on these things!
Hot air balloons, peaceful, serene and seeing the world from a different point of view. It was our third hot air balloon ride. If you’ve never ridden in one I’d recommend it.
In the back of a pick up truck. We rode in these to get to a city/village. Not that comfortable or quiet, OK for a short ride.
View from our truck, the rest of our group is in the truck behind us
Tuk tuks, mainly Chinese motorcycle front end with a home made rear end, fairly comfortable.
View from inside the tuk tuk
How the traffic flow works in these rural cities, we never saw an accident!!!
Horse drawn carriage was a nice ride on smooth city streets. We rode them to a temple in Edfu.
Our ride back to the boat during one of the “call to prayer” announcements on the city wide PA system.
Water travel was always nice. Water taxis were used several times to access sites just across the river. This is in Luxor, where a bus ride in traffic would have taken much longer.
This water taxi was used to access a families farm on an island in the Nile.
This is the tugboat that pulled our Dahayeba down the Nile 99 percent of the time. We used it as our water taxi a few times.’
A mode of travel we did not use. I think I would have over loaded the poor donkey!

More people…..

One of our armed security guards. They traveled with us on the bus and followed us around while we took our walks. I think he was there to protect us…… or, maybe to keep us from doing something we weren’t supposed to do. He reminded me of Jack Reacher, big and silent and I don’t think you wanted to cross him, he carried a BIG pistol.
An Egyptian priest and two nuns in a a predominantly Muslim country
Two ladies waiting for their ride
Kids in a village. Kids are the same everywhere.
Want a puppy?
Cell phones make the world smaller!
Mohammed taught me to make crates from palm fronds!
Shoe shine guy near our hotel in Cairo.
This guy is walking in the middle of the street in rush hour traffic!!

People of Egypt

People were generally friendly and didn’t mind their pictures being taken. Life away from the bid city of Cairo had lots of traditional dress and conservative behavior but still friendly….

One of many water taxi drivers
Tourists having a drink in their hotel room. We could see the Giza pyramids in the distance…. we toasted to our health and ability to travel the world once again!
Old world meets new world!
We spent an afternoon on an island in the Nile with a rural farming family. They were friendly and enjoyable to visit with. The oldest daughter is going to high school and wants to be a doctor, the parents are very supportive in her plans.
Patty lost one of her hearing aids while walking around a temple. With the help of a security guard and his ability to follow Patty back where we came from they found this family who had found it on the ground!!!!
We bought roasted nuts from this street vendor, she was happy to let us take her picture.
We had a home hosted meal with a family in Aswan. The grandpa is a retired operating engineer from the High Dam and in retirement he has a nice art studio and is a self taught artist. Rod had a great time talking to him. The son is 29 and works as an IT computer guy, 4 days a week , 12 hours a day. During his 3 days off he does contract computer work, hard working young man. The grandma is still teaching at a local college. Mom, is a stay at home mom for their 2 year old son.
A couple of locals at the Giza pyramids
Local ladies walking home from the market
Local man irons all day using mouth to spray water!!! He’s 71 years old!!
This gentleman sews all day!
I think this guy is retired!
Rod got a lesson in palm frond crate making. Mohammed works from after breakfast until sunset!
Hands and feet work together!
Our group with Mohammed. He is 67 years old and says he regrets not getting an education but made sure his children got educated. He wants a better life for his children, just like all of us do!

We got home safe and healthy!

Thanks to our trip leader, Maher, we got home safe and healthy. Masks were a bit of a nuisance and hand sanitizer use about 20 times a day was a pain in the rear. The protocol kept us COVID free. A side benefit, we normally come home with a cold, no colds for either one of us!

Now that we’re home I’ll finish the trip blog with a few more posts. The Egyptian wifi signals were not very good for making blog posts.

Camels……. Maher summed it up, “Camels, we rode them, fed them, and ate them!”

We Rode them
Patty fed them
And we ate them. We had the butcher grind some up so that we could have camel burgers back on the boat! Not my favorite Egyptian cuisine!
Our friend, Sheila, cooking the camel burgers

A camel burger for lunch!!! Not my favorite, mainly because of the spices that were added.

Visiting Luxor Temple and the Temples of Karnak

Luxor Temple entrance. In 1950 the silt and sand from over a thousand years had the dirt that you walked on up to the shoulders of the statues of the kings that are in the picture.
The columns of Luxor are the tallest we saw. The engineering marvel is that they are all exactly the same height, circumference, and the capitals (decorative tops of the column are all identical)….. an amazing feat, considering the lack of technology.
Avenue of the Sphinxes, still a work in progressive. It connects the Temple of Luxor and the Temples of Karnak
Temples of Karnak, the crowds began as the Egyptians had a school break. Lots of families visiting. Similar to our more popular national parks.
Reconstruction continues
Impressive columns and carving in Karnak Temples
Karnak
Rams headed Sphinx in Karnak
Painstaking careful restoration and cleaning of the columns brings out the original colors of the carvings.
The Karnak temples have some of the color restored. At the rate they are going this project will last many many decades!!

Camel ride to the ruins of Saint Simeon Monastery

It was built in 7th century, rebuilt in the tenth century. Then it was destroyed in 1173 by Saladin. He feared that it might serve as a refuge for Christian Nubians.

Lawerence of Arabia extras. Roger and Rod
Sheila and Patty are ready for the uphill ride to the Monastery
Lawerence of Arabia heads out on his quest
Patty expertly mounts the camel
Monastery ruins
A good dismount and glad the ride wasn’t longer!

On the road again…. bus ride fro Abu Simbel to Aswan

3 hour Bus ride from Abu Simbel to Aswan so we can get on our river boat, or dahabeya. We will be spending 5 nights cruising the Nile river on a small boat that holds 16 passengers(we only have 9 tourists on the boat). This allows us to stop in very shallow water on banks of the river where the bigger river boats can’t stop. We will travel from Aswan to Luxor on the Dahabeya.

Our bus stopped on the Tropic of Cancer (30 degrees north latitude) on the way to Aswan. This was to stretch our legs and walk barefoot in the Sahara desert.
Our bare feet in the River Nile
Our Dahabeya
A view of our boat. The crew put up the front sail and we rode around in the tugboat to get a better perspective of how our boat looks on the river.
Sunset on the Nile