I’m writing this final installment of my 2024 Camino posts from Paris, after getting over my parting gift from Santiago: a bout of food poisoning. Ooh la la.
The end of this Camino was much like its beginning: foggy, rainy, and cold, with low visibility, so the line of pilgrims along the way sported ponchos and other rain gear. However, when we reached Mount Gozo and the outskirts of Santiago were in sight, no one cared about the weather. We made it!
But, I’m getting a little ahead of myself. My last post left off in Ponferrada, where I stayed in a wonderful albergue with great services. Subsequent days took me to Cacabelos, Trabadelo, Las Herrerias, O Cebreriro (a dreadful climb and weather),
Triacastela, Sarria, Portomarin, Airexe, Melide, Arzua, and O Pedrouzo. My lodgings were generally good, but sometimes not that great.
After O Cebreriro, it’s not quite all downhill but it seems that way and once you reach Sarria, where all the tour groups jump in to get the minimum kilometers required for a compostela, momentum and excitement help propel you forward toward the finish.
Each time I met Americans on this hike, and there were many, I carefully brought up the upcoming U.S. elections. I don’t often get to talk to people I don’t already know, from across the U.S., these days so I wanted to do so here and to listen to their views. As it turned out, almost all of them had the same political feelings that I have. I guess going on the Camino may reflect a certain world-view, so sharing those feelings is not that surprising. It was nice, though, to find that Americans from states like Louisiana, Texas, Idaho, and Montana are nicer, more thoughtful, and more progressive than their media stereotypes often suggest.
Camino-inspired wine in CacabelosCustom group Camino patchesRainy morning is Las HerreriasCaldo Gallego – yum!Canine cafe welcome committeeCows on the Camino near AirexeCamino chic: hiking kiltA cleaning company; not a commentary on the European economyYours truly, at the Santiago Cathedral
It continued to rain throughout the weekend after my arrival in Santiago. My New French Wife, Marti, flew in and joined me a few hours after I arrived. We enjoyed our reunion and in the following days dashed around through the rain to various good restaurants for some excellent Galician meals. We went to the official Pilgrim office and I collected my Compostela certificate, a process that is all automated now, somewhat impersonal, and without the hand-lettering of your name and details. It looks like this:
The rain continued to come down throughout our stay in Santiago and it really was pretty miserable at times. What I would have given for some sunshine! Our flight back to Paris went smoothly and now I’m sorting through my gear and decompressing.
As reported earlier, my poor feet took a beating and I’ll probably lose a toenail, but they’re slowly recovering. I’m happy to have survived the physical and mental challenges once again, and I’m enjoying the post-Camino downtime. As before, it’s a bit of a shock shifting gears from speaking Spanish to speaking French.
Looking back over the last seven weeks, I’m a little sorry that the Camino seems a bit too touristy now. At times it seemed that there were just too many pilgrims, and many who saw it as a lark, in my opinion, so some of the specialness of it has gone. Maybe that’s a symptom of a post-pandemic, pent-up demand resulting in generally high tourism levels everywhere, or maybe it’s just the consequence of walking the Camino for a third time. At the moment, I don’t even want to think about doing it again, but I know that in six months or so the rose-color hindsight will take effect and I’ll start imagining my return. We’ll see.
Once again, thanks for coming along on my journey and for your encouragement. Cheers.
Hola! I have just a few weeks left now and it looks like I’m in for some more rain. The remnants of Hurricane Kirk are arriving in northwestern Spain this week. Who knew hurricanes went up the Atlantic, west of Spain?
My new Hoka shoes are working out nicely. They’re very comfortable and are surprisingly “grippy” on rocks and other slippery surfaces. At the end of the day my feet may be tired but they’re no longer bruised and aching. My blisters are healing up.
As I write this, I have 11 days left to Santiago and, along with other pilgrims I’ve spoken to, I’m kind of tired of the daily routine, of the limited palette of food on offer, and of the end-of-the-season fatigue our hosts and their facilities are exhibiting.
That said, I often imagine that just over the next hill I’ll see the Santiago cathedral bell towers, which will mean my trip finale is very close, and that is exciting.
He’s still not sharingGaudi-designed museum in AstorgaThe good stuffTeepee Albergue in El GansoLeave your issues here, at the Cruz de Ferro No idea why U.S. flag is shredded, in AceboProgress is being madeA welcome bathroom surprise, in Cacabelos
I continue to meet interesting pilgrims, such as the fast-moving trio of retired military guys from Canada and a charming couple from Missouri. Some have had to endure falls, sprains, illnesses, and just plain bad luck; which helps put my complaints into perspective.
It’s surprising that so many lodgings here have poor WiFi and Internet service. The WiFi is often unsecured or too weak to reach the rooms or spotty; the Internet is often slow and unreliable. Given that they’re something almost every guest, and certainly every pilgrim, will use, you’d think they’d be a priority instead of a seeming afterthought.
This week will include the fearsome climb to the tiny mountaintop town of O Cebriero and I’m wondering about the wisdom of tackling it after several days of rain have muddied everything up. It may turn into another instance of having to fund the local taxi industry. Sigh.
Nevertheless, progress is being made and the countdown to Santiago is on! Thanks for joining me.
Every Camino has its challenges but this one is quickly making the previous two look easy. In addition to the awful storms the first few days for my passage over the Pyrenees, we’ve recently had morning temperatures as low as 37 F and more lousy weather.
The most recent affront was a 17-Km stretch with no facilities or cafes, where I walked struggling into a 25-mph headwind and horizontal rain for five hours. Ooof, that really sucked. There’s really no fun in being cold, soaked to the bone, with diminished visibility through rain-speckled glasses, wind howling in your poncho hood, and having no recourse but to keep putting one foot in front of the other.
Then there’s the challenge of trying to get your clothes, shoes, etc. dry overnight in a hostel with no laundry facilities, and no heat because “it’s only September”.
I decided I was just done with that, so when there was a repeat of the nasty weather the next day, I slept in and took a taxi to my next destination. Say what?!
Yep, as mentioned earlier, I’m passing over a vast plateau called The Meseta and many pilgrims find it boring, so they skip it by taking the train from Burgos to Leon, or by using some other form of transportation. This is perfectly acceptable to the Camino authorities. Even the John Brierly Camino Guide, the bible of The Way, suggests places where taking a public bus is practical. So, there are lots of ways to do the Camino and last time I walked every inch. This time is a little different.
That said, I’m glad it’s not 95-degrees and I’m not walking drenched in sweat, dying from the heat. The last few days in Leon have been sunny and pleasant, so I’m enjoying my day off here.
Long flat track beside the highwayToo cold to use the rooftop pool in CarrionOur host’s three framed Compostelas in CalzadillaSomeone’s water damaged Pilgrim PassportCross beside the CaminoTorrijas: Spanish “French Toast” – Yum!My new Hoka Mafate Speed 4 shoesLeon’s awesome Cathedral
Did you notice my new shoes above? My trusty old Keen Targhee II hiking boots just continued to trash my feet and my ball-of-foot blister is just not healing. So, in a radical change, I bought a pair of Hoka Mafate Speed 4s. I’d guess 90% of the other pilgrims I see are wearing some kind of trail runners or gym shoes, and at least half of them are wearing Hokas. So, starting tomorrow, I’m giving them a go. I was lucky to find a store here in Leon with a great staff and a wonderful inventory that included size 14s. The Hokas are very lightweight compared to my hiking boots and have outstanding sole cushioning. And the color scheme guarantees I’ll be seen crossing the road. More later on my experience with them.
I got a bit of a shock yesterday at an ”English Pub” where they served me a Guinness by putting a can of it into a dispenser and pulling on a tap handle that emptied it into a glass. No keg, no nitrogen tap. The device kind of looks like a tap if you don’t look too closely. It’s called a Guinness MicroDraught (see picture below). The beer came out looking correct and it tasted fine. I had to laugh, though. Is this the future of draft beer?
The Guinness MicroDraught
In Sahagun, I shared a cafe table with five very wet Italian youngsters. One poor girl’s Pilgrim Passport, shown above, had gotten wet and some of its stamps were smeared. They were covering something like 35 Kms a day and were also looking for accommodations day-by-day, which was not a good approach given the weather. I was able to help them out by suggesting a place for them a few towns ahead; they phoned and were able to reserve some rooms. They were very grateful and bought me a cappuccino, and with a Ciao! they were off down the road.
I’ve officially crossed the halfway point in this Camino, and I have just 18 more days to go until Marti flies in to meet me in Santiago. I’ll continue to let you know how it goes, so thanks for coming along. Cheers.
My Camino continues, as does the cooler weather. This past week has seen stops in Belorado, Villafrance Montes de Oca, Atapuerca, Burgos, Hornillos de Camino, Castrojeriz, and Fromista.
Some places and buildings I remember clearly from previous years, but others take me quite by surprise. And so I get the comfort of familiarity and also the fun of unexpected recognition. I had a day off in Fromista but it’s not something I would willingly repeat. There is nothing to do in town and my accommodations were boring and without the company of fellow pilgrims.
The long and winding CaminoBeethoven Fiesta in BeloradoCamino-side breakfast gas station Progress has been madeBurgos church peeks over rooftopsCoin-operated votive candles!?
The shoe intervention I envisioned in Burgos was not to be; not many stores stock size 14 in Europe. I have tended my blisters with care and stayed off my feet when possible, and they’ve healed some. I’m trying out a pair of Injinji “toe socks”. We’ll have to see what Week 4 brings.
(Frozen) paella and pizza menus
One company has cornered the market on cheap paella and pizza in cafes and taverns all across Spain. Places that sign up are given glossy menus (shown above), posters, and sidewalk signs. I tried the pizza (very average) and a friend tried the seafood and black squid ink paella (pronounced it “bland”). But the portions are generous and the cost is low, so it’s not a total loss. It’s the ubiquitous presence of these products across Spain that fascinates me. Someone did a great sales and marketing job.
Speaking of food, I’ve broken bread this past week with pilgrims from Australia, Germany, South Korea, Taiwan, and China. And with a retired firefighter from Houston, who despite being a Texan turned out to be be surprisingly liberal. It’s impressive that English is so widely, and well, spoken around the world.
The coming week will see the end of The Meseta, the vast high plateau I’ve been crossing all week, which will take me into the big city of Leon. I’ll have a rest day in a luxury hotel room with a bathtub there! Time for a good, therapeutic soak.
Thanks for joining me on this trek, and for your comments and support. Cheers!
If my first week on the Camino was marked with unexpected rain, the second week has been dry but with chilly starts. For example, it was 39 F one day and I had to go buy a fleece jacket and layer all my clothes on just to stay warm. Most days have warmed up nicely into the 60s eventually but this spell of cool weather is unexpected. That said, it’s nicer than struggling with a blasting sun and 95-degree heat.
The last week has taken me through Puente la Reina, Estella, Los Arcos, Viana, Navarrete, Najera, and Santo Domingo. I’ve met a lot of interesting people, eaten some good and some pretty awful meals, and developed some completely unexpected foot blisters. So everything has not gone to plan.
At this point in the Camino, it’s not uncommon to see a lot of pilgrims dealing with physical issues. And there are plenty of knee braces, taped ankles, and hobbling pilgrims to be seen. I’m in the latter group but my limp really appears only at the end of the day, not on the trail. Heavy doses of determination, ibuprofen, and Tylenol are being deployed. I’ll be in the larger city of Burgos in two days and a visit to the outdoor gear shop for new shoes may be in the cards. And before you ask, yes, I walked almost 50 miles in my current Keen hiking boots during training, so they were properly broken in. And I stop each day at the halfway point to change socks. All this worked splendidly during my last Camino, so why I’m having problems now is a mystery.
I have been surprised to find out, in conversations, just how many other pilgrims have packed their boots away and bought new “trail runners” or “hiking sandals” in the last week.
The famous Puente la ReinaOne of many Camino tunnelsA fiery dawnCreative hiking pole use New Camino markers aboundMunicipal Camino artIn the Rioja region, excellent red wineYou can’t get away from it
As I may have already said, there are a lot of pilgrims out here this year. I don’t know if it’s pent up post-COVID demand, or just the new “overtourism” at work, but it’s busy. Must be a good thing for the Spanish economy, but it sometimes makes it hard to find a table or a bed.
In one of those nice Camino moments, I just ran into Jo, from Australia, in the bar here. She was one of the four pilgrims I met at dinner on my first night in Saint Jean Pied-de-Port, and have not seen since. It was fun to hear how her last two weeks have been, though not the part where she hurt her ankle. This interweaving of people on the Camino is one of the best parts of the Camino experience.
I’ve settled down into the Camino routine, and hopefully will resolve my foot issues in the coming days. I’m also waiting for my absentee ballot to appear in my email Inbox so I can complete it and send it in. There’s been a big, non-partisan push through U.S. embassies and other organizations to get Americans overseas to vote this year.
And, hopefully, it will warm up a bit out here; some Fall weather would be appreciated. With that I’ll say thanks for the comments and support, and see you next time. Cheers.
I always step off from Saint Jean Pied-de-Port with high hopes for clear weather and wonderful mountain views as I cross the Pyrenees. I’m imagining a nice picnic at the half-way point, looking across vast valleys, under a pleasant sun. And that’s exactly how it worked out… last time.
Dense fog, steady drizzle
This year, however, I got none that. My first two days, up over the mountains, were accompanied by hard rain, dense fog, flodded trails, and soaked gear. The best that can be said is that it was in the 50s, so not freezing. Whoopee!
I spent the first night at Borda again. This is a nice albergue and a good place to rest for those of us not inclined to make the trek all the way to Roncesvalles the first day. It’s also a good place to meet others in your “wave” of pilgrims setting out on the Camino Frances.
Last Camino I distinctly remember walking parts of the trail and thinking “this would turn into an awful stream bed if it was raining”. I wasn’t wrong! Add wet rocks, leaf mush, and mud, and there were places that I felt were very dangerous. In fact, I got to within 1 Km of Roncesvalles before I slipped and fell going down some rocks. By that time, my legs were very tired and fatigue took its toll. I was sooo lucky that I wasn’t injured.
Nonetheless, I made it to Roncesvalles, managed to dry out almost everything overnight, and set off for my easy “short day” walk to Viskarret. The next day was much longer, to Zubiri. The sun came out, the breeze came up, and life was good. The trail, of course, was still a mess in places and the steep descent into Zubiri in wet, muddy conditions was frightening. I took another spill and wound up with what later became a world-class bruise down my arm. Nothing broken or sprained but my ego, so again I was lucky.
“Only” 790 Kms to goBeautiful forest walkViskarret happy feetLurking wildlifeSunny rest stopThistles in sunlightEstafeta Street aka Pintxos Heaven in PamplonaFirst Pamplona pintxo, only 5 euros
The next day, it was a long but dry and uneventful walk into Pamplona (my iPhone said 38,000 steps) and I’m happy to have a rest day here. I enjoyed pintxos (tapas) on Estafeta Street last night and I met some nice fellow pilgrims here. I’m looking forward to a foot and leg massage this morning, then to enjoying a relaxing time around town for the rest of the day.
I’m staying at a nice albergue, Casa Ibarrola, where I’ve stayed twice before. It’s a bunk-room-style accommodation but each bed has its own “capsule” and some privacy. Also, the sleeping area is air conditioned. The two brothers that run the place are great fun and it’s another good opportunity to make friends with other pilgrims that I’ll probably see on the trail in the coming days.
Tomorrow starts a week of long walks every day, but with good weather. Heading out of Pamplona in the morning, I’ll have a long climb up to the wind turbines on the ridge overlooking town, followed by a long descent on the other side to get to Puente de la Reina. I’ll check back in next week. Thanks for coming along!
Yes, here I go again. Three Caminos is a good number of walks but I have in mind doing five or so. We’ll have to see how the old bod holds up.
Before writing this, I reread my first post from 2022 and, well, I’m not sure I can improve on what I wrote then.
I met a gaggle of nice pilgrims (here’s a shout out to you: Jaya, Peter, Susan, and Jo) and shared a nice evening with them upon arrival.
View from the Roman Bridge
Saint Jean Pied-de-Port is always an interesting town, with lots of hikers and lots of tourists. My wife and I love Espelette pepper and I’ve discovered a store here entirely devoted to it, even offering an Espelette liqueur!
My companions from last night all left this morning and they had a beautiful day for walking. Most were going all the way to Roncesvalles on Day 1 – ahh, youth! Sadly, the weatherman is forecasting a wet start for me tomorrow.
We’ll see what the morning brings but one thing is sure: my ~1.2 million Camino steps this year will start with but a single one tomorrow.
We sailed overnight and arrived at Aswan in the wee hours. At the ungodly hour of 5:00 am, we collected our breakfast boxes at the gang plank and met Mahmoud and our van on the dock. We then drove for nearly four hours south through the desert to Abu Simbel. There were plenty of other tour vans and buses on the route, but it was a long, boring drive through the desert. The one place where we made a rest stop along the way was a real grungy hole-in-the-wall roadside cafe.
I noticed that the tour promo materials said this was a three-hour drive, Mahmoud said it was “only” three and half hours, but in reality it was four. One day Mahmoud mentioned something called “Egyptian minutes” (an apparently elastic measure of time) so perhaps that was being employed when describing how long this trip would take.
Abu Simbel is a famous pair of temples built by Ramses II in 1244 BC and lost to history, completely covered by sand, until it was re-discovered in 1813 AD. It was going to be submerged with the completion of the Aswan High Dam in the 1960s but an international effort saved it.
Designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the temples were cut into pieces, relocated, and reassembled, exactly as discovered, into a new man-made mountain above the new waterline.
It’s impressive and we went into the larger Ramses II temple but, once again, it was very crowded and hot inside. We didn’t stay inside long, and the line to get into the Nefertari temple next door was incredibly long so we skipped it. After that, it was out through the vendor gauntlet and back into the van for the four-hour drive back to Aswan.
Was it worth it? I’m not sure. My companions thought it was.
Our last night onboard the ship produced a nice sunset, and that brought out many feluccas, traditional small sailboats, on the river. It was an idyllic moment.
Our last day in Aswan was interesting. It started with a van ride to the Unfinished Obelisk, in an ancient quarry in the heart of town. This 12,000-ton granite obelisk, commissioned by Queen Hatshepsut and the largest ever attempted, was nearly ready to be broken free from the surrounding rock when it developed a fatal crack and had to be abandoned (I’ll bet some heads rolled that day). It’s amazing to realize these things were carved out the surrounding stone with very primitive tools.
Then we went off to the top of the Aswan High Dam, which provides most of the electricity for Egypt and provides flood control; it’s one of the world’s largest earthen dams.
Finally, we went back into Aswan and took a small power boat out to the island containing the Philae Temples, dedicated to Isis, the goddess of love and beauty, which were rescued from rising waters.
Then we had a really good Nubian lunch, cooked in earthenware pots called “tagines”, at a colorful restaurant overlooking the water. While we ate, a small sandstorm rolled in, coloring the sky orange and reducing visibility. Luckily, no sand got on our lunches.
After lunch and a somewhat raucous return boat ride, our van took us to a shop that sold spices, teas, and coffee and we were given a presentation and a chance to sample many of the products. And, of course, to buy some, which we did.
The shelves were filled with spices, coffee, and tea and the aromas in the store were marvelous.
Marti bought a bag of mixed pepper corns and another one of Egyptian ras al hanout, which is used in tagine dishes and is spicier than the version we find in France.
We’d officially checked out of the ship in the morning but left our luggage aboard and our van returned us to it. They kindly let us kill a few hours in the ship’s lounge before we headed to the airport for our return flight to Cairo.
We said goodbye to our guide Mahmoud, who was taking the train home to Luxor, and provided big, well-deserved tips, in U.S. dollars, for him and the MS Tulip’s crew.
Back In Cairo
Our progress through the Aswan airport and flight north was uneventful, if a bit late for us. We were met at the Cairo airport by our driver and taken to the Triumph Luxury Hotel on the east side of the city.
Our check-in process, at 11:30 pm, did not go smoothly and calls to the Egyptian Tours Portal “Emergency” hotline produced no help, which was very disappointing. This was the one time our ETP guide was not with us to oversee the check-in. John and I played good-cop-bad-cop on the desk clerk and he eventually gave us our rooms.
Rooms, it turned out, overlooking a special event that went on until 2:30am, with music so loud that the window frames in our fourth-floor rooms rattled. After a fusillade of complaints and a chat with the Manager, we were eventually moved to other rooms, but I had to think the desk clerk knew what he was doing when he gave us the rooms.
In the morning, our first guide Ahmed met us once again and we drove off to the famous Egyptian Museum. Ahmed’s experience and knowledge of the museum proved invaluable as he guided us through the huge building and showed us some of the highlights of their enormous collection.
We saw mummies and statues and toured the King Tut Treasures room, and more. It was mind-boggling! The museum was crowded, but comfortable (it’s not air conditioned) and there was a a lot of signage in English as well as other languages.
There are, in fact, three major museums in Cairo. The Egyptian Museum is located downtown in Tahrir Square, was built in 1901 and houses 170,000 artifacts. The Museum of Egyptian Civilization is outside the city center to the southeast and today houses mostly mummies. The Grand Egyptian Museum is west of the Nile out in Giza, and is the brand new, bigger-and-better museum that is not open just yet. Many artifacts from the first two museums will be moved there when it is.
After a 90-minute highlights tour of the museum, we headed for lunch at The Old Cairo Restaurant, a Cairo classic. The usual process was that our guide would discuss lunch with us at the beginning of the morning, call in a reservation, and we’d drive up, walk in, and be seated immediately. Which was terrific if there was a long line. The food today was the usual Mediterranean mix of salads, hummus, shwarma, fish, and French fries. It was tasty.
We then walked down the street to Saint Virgin Mary’s Coptic Orthodox Church, also known as the Hanging Church, which is one of the oldest churches in Egypt dating back to the third century. Among the interesting things there was this, the only claimed piece of the true cross that I’ve ever encountered:
We were pretty worn out by then and declined Ahmed’s offer to take us to the Khan El-Khalili Bazaar. This is the largest open-air market in the world, where you can find much, much more of all the things we’d already seen elsewhere and said “No thank you” to.
So, we retired to the Triumph Hotel, which was oddly empty and quiet – the effect of a combination of Ramadan and another holiday perhaps?
We had programmed in a final day in Cairo with nothing planned, in case we wanted to revisit some museum or even do nothing but lounge. In the end, we did the latter and it was a very good choice.
The next day, we said goodbye to Egypt, our van took us to the airport and we flew back to Paris. Our friends flew back to Rome to continue their tour of Italy.
Some Final Thoughts
Health: Marti and I both arrived home in Paris with ferocious colds. Cairo suffers from air pollution; perhaps a combination of this and the sandstorm particles in Aswan made us particularly vulnerable to the cold virus? We tested for COVID (results: negative), just in case. We were also just plain tired – the irregular schedule, the early and late flights, hiking around sites, and bouncing around in a van were all fatiguing. After a week in Paris, we are recovered and feel fine.
Clothing: I wore hiking shorts and golf shirts and Marti wore jeans some days and long cotton dresses other days. Some of the sites were very windy, so my windbreaker and her cotton over-shirt worked well and were necessary. Despite the warnings about conservative dress in a Muslim country, we saw many young women dressed in unIslamic styles. Both Marti and I wore hiking hats for sun protection.
Money: We changed money at the airport and used the ATM a few times while in Egypt. Currently, Egyptian Pounds (EGP), Euros, and U.S. dollars are all welcomed at most tourist sites and hotels and for all tips, so we were able to spend down nearly all of our pounds before leaving the country. We also used our Visa and Master Cards to good effect.
Religion: The religious component of life in Egypt is omnipresent, especially the loud calls to prayer broadcast from mosques multiple times per day. That said, it was not oppressive for us nor did we feel ostracized. Christians make up 10% of the population, and tourists are a huge part of the economy and so are very much welcomed.
Stray Dogs & Cats: There were a lot of stray dogs and cats roaming the cities and the ancient sites. At some places, the dogs wore ear tags, so someone is keeping track of them. They were not aggressive but, of course, none of them looked well-fed. The dogs seemed to all be the same medium-size, short-haired breed.
Food/Water: We ate carefully, used bottled water exclusively for drinking and brushing our teeth, and avoided gastrointestinal problems, aka “King Tut’s Revenge”. In truth, we were told that the water in Cairo’s major hotels is all filtered and drinkable, but we decided not to take any chances.
Internet/Cell Service: Worked well for us at major hotels in Cairo, but was poor and inconsistent aboard our cruise ship, even when docked in Luxor and Aswan. Some members of our party had no problems, though.
EgyptAir: We flew two international and two domestic flights in Business on EgyptAir, the national carrier. Online reviews are not very complimentary but we found the service pleasant and reliable. Best of all, our checked luggage always arrived with us.
Third-World: I found the chaos, dirtiness, and poverty mildly traumatizing. The Egyptian people were friendly and kind but I was constantly reminded of how lucky we are to be educated, affluent Americans. It’s a perspective I wish more of my countrymen could experience.
The second part of our trip involved flying to Luxor to meet up with our Nile cruise ship.
We didn’t have a lot of choices when it came to picking flights from Cairo to our next stop in Luxor, so we found ourselves being collected by our driver at 4:30 am to go the airport on the other side of Cairo. We were handed “breakfast boxes” made up by our hotel as we checked out (pastries, sandwiches, fruit, juice, and water) which we had to eat before we got to airport security, and which none of us were too inclined to eat in the van at 4:30 am.
The roadside lights of hotels, stores, billboards, roadwork zones, and police roadblocks narrowing the freeway to one lane for no apparent reason, were incredible at night. I almost put on my sunglasses.
Cairo airport security was interesting. First, you had to pass by police at the door, then you had to put your bags through a scanner and go through a metal detector to get into the area with the airline check-in counters (but no one was there to pay attention to any of the metal detector alarms). After checking-in, we collected our boarding passes and proceeded to a lounge. A bit later, when our flight was called for boarding, we realized that there was another security scan to go through, out by the gates. This time it was the Full Monty: laptops out, shoes and belts off, pockets emptied, with separate lines for men and women (because everyone got a pat down, regardless of the metal detector results). We had to scramble to get to our gate in time. As it was, at the gate we boarded buses and were driven all over the place before reaching our plane (some wags suggested we were being driven to Luxor).
Our EgyptAir flight was good, short, and comfortable in Business Class. We arrived in Luxor and met our new guide Mahmoud outside the entrance, along with our driver and van. Off we went to the Hilton Luxor Resort and Spa, a lovely property right on the Nile. We were incredibly early for check-in but Mahmoud went to bat for us at the front desk and got us rooms right away.
In Luxor
Luxor (population 422,000) was something of a relief after Cairo (population 22 million).
We had programmed a day off into our schedule, so we unpacked, ate, and lounged around the hotel until 4:00 pm when we had a reservation at the famous Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor for High Tea.
The Winter Palace, opened in 1907, is famous and claims guests over the years such as Winston Churchill, Agatha Christie, Howard Carter (discoverer of Tut’s tomb), and various dukes, duchesses, and kings. It has featured as a locale in numerous books and movies, including Christie’s “Death on the Nile” mystery.
High Tea was a memorable collection of scones, sandwiches, and pastries, and we enjoyed them with some nice tea.
After stuffing ourselves, we had a stroll around the gardens out back, which are quite beautiful. They include some exotic animals, such as caged flamingos.
When the sun sets and Muslims can break their day-long fast, they often do it with an immense feast and partying into the wee hours. We found a nice table set up in the garden for such a feast.
We returned to the Hilton for the night, after a strange taxi ride that included an unannounced stop at a roadside oven for fresh pita bread. Our driver was hungry!
The next morning, Mahmoud and our driver picked us up and we went off to tour the sites on the East side of the Nile, which included the huge Karnak Temple complex and Luxor Temple. This was our first experience being guided by him and he wasn’t quite as good as Ahmed had been. For example, he gave us 20-30 minutes of historical introduction while we stood in a corner of a crowded, loud, park entry hall and it was very hard to hear him. Nonetheless, when received, his information was key to understanding what we were seeing around us.
Karnak Temple is a huge place, built up over 1500 years and many regimes, and features a forest of immense columns. A one time, it was the most important place of worship in ancient Egypt. It was beautiful and impressive, and we jostled with quite a few other tourists for views and photos. There were hieroglyphs everywhere, some of which retained a bit of their original coloring. What a sight!
This was our first exposure to acres of hieroglyphics and it was amazing to see the level of effort put into decorating these temples. Mahmoud provided good historical context for the many details of the temples, and explained many of the figures and symbols we saw.
← This is said to be the cartouche of Alexander The Great.
Our next stop was the Luxor Temple which was also immense and very interesting.
Finally, we were taken to our Nile cruise ship, the MS Tulip, one of a fleet of 250+ such ships that ply the waters between Luxor and Aswan. Think “luxury hotel on the water”. We had a nice stateroom with a king-sized bed, in the middle of the ship, with big windows for viewing the passing countryside. The ship has just 42 cabins and wasn’t very full, so it wasn’t crowded.
The ship provided breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffets for us and a super-attentive staff. Luckily, we’d been told to hold our tips and provide one big one for the crew when we left the ship at the end of our cruise. So, having conditioned ourselves to hand out tips to everyone, we now didn’t do so when aboard the ship. Yikes.
Sometimes the world isn’t as big a place as we think. We met a family sitting near us during our meals on the ship who were visiting from Vienna, Virginia, in the U.S., just a few miles from where I lived for 30 years.
We relaxed for the rest of the day on the ship and spent the night docked in Luxor. The next morning, Mahmoud collected us again and we set off for the famous Valley of the Kings, West of the Nile.
The Valley of the Kings is, of course, where for a period of nearly 500 years from the Eighteenth Dynasty (1550 BC) to the Twentieth Dynasty (1069 BC), rock-cut tombs were excavated for pharaohs and powerful nobles under the New Kingdom of ancient Egypt. Many tombs are open for modern day tourists and we went into three of them.
As you can see, the carvings and colors are largely intact and they are glorious. It was hot inside and quite crowded, so everyone kept moving along after getting some good pictures. We had to marvel at the engineering and level of effort required to create these tombs. I’m sure the ancient Egyptians never imagined an “immortality” like this!
Our next stop was an alabaster shop, where six employees outside the front door put on quite a clever demonstration of how alabaster pots are made. Tips were doled out in appreciation.
Once again, the plain outside of the building gave little clue to flashy interior. There was a terrific selection of pottery and carvings on offer and we were given the hard sell, but we managed to get away without spending any money this time.
I confess to feeling bad about not buying anything when the staff goes to such effort to sell, but this was a popular tourist trail stop and there were plenty of other potential customers right behind us.
Back in the van, we headed for Queen Hatshepsut’s Temple. She was only the second woman to rule ancient Egypt and she did so for about 20 years (~1470-1450 BC). Her reign was a period of great prosperity and general peace, and she was one of the most prolific builders in ancient Egypt.
Our final stop of the day was at the Colossi of Memnon, a pair of giant statues. Then we headed back to the ship in time for lunch and a 1:30 pm sailing, headed for Aswan.
We enjoyed the views from the top deck and eventually sailed through the night up the Nile (“up” is South bound, “down” is North bound – yes, it’s confusing) and woke refreshed and ready for more.
We weren’t alone: we were part of a 19-ship string of cruise ships making its way toward Aswan. The weather was great, the temperature very pleasant and tasty, cold, Egyptian beers were available. By dinner time, the ship was in a large holding bay, queuing to enter a major lock.
While we were waiting, enterprising locals rowed up in small, colorful boats and offered us Egyptian towels, table cloths, and such for purchase.
They were quite good at throwing the items, in small bags, up to the top of the ship, where guests could examine them and then throw back down either the money or the goods.
Sounds like there’d be a lot of lost money or goods in the water but, no, it all worked quite smoothly. The boatmen had apparently had a lot of practice at this.
As it got dark, we were concerned that the small unlit boats would get run down by newly arriving cruise ships but, of course, that didn’t happen.
Overall, our cruise ship experience was very pleasant.
We woke the next morning at Edfu and, after breakfast, walked down the dock to horse-drawn carriages which took us on a 10-minute ride to Edfu Temple. The carriages were worn and the ride was rough and chaotic but we arrived intact.
We’re leaping ahead in time now. Edfu Temple was built in the Ptolemaic Kingdom between 237 and 57 BC. The inscriptions on its walls provide important information on language, myth, and religion during the Hellenistic period in Egypt. Once again, we had beautiful weather but had to contend with crowds in the temple.
Our carriage driver was quite a character and very gregarious, shouting out to locals as we passed.
← I spotted a pair of young stowaways riding on the back of the carriage in front of us and they did not want their pictures taken, but it was too late.
We went back to the ship for lunch and a rest, and then walked down to the nearby Kom Ombo Temple. This is an unusual double temple, dedicated to two different gods, crocodile-headed Sobek, and the first “god of the Kingdom”, the falcon-headed god Horus the Elder. General construction began during the Ptolemaic dynasty, 180–47 BC, though some additions to it were later made during the Roman period.
One of the more interesting things at Kom Ombo was this carving:
This is supposedly a depiction of ancient beer-brewing vessels and the recipe! We sampled the modern Egyptian brews and liked them. Sakara Gold was the best, I thought.
After our visit, we whisked through the nearby Museum of Mummified Crocodiles (seen one, seen them all). Then it was nice to be able to walk back to the ship at dusk.
Our guide, Mahmoud, sailed with us on the ship, though we saw little of him during our off hours. He was observing Ramadan and could not join us for meals.
The ship’s crew broke their fasting with their own dockside party in the evening and frequently, when we were up on the top deck enjoying a cocktail at the end the day, the barman would rush our check over to us and then apologize for leaving at sunset, so he could go eat.
As the sunset, we set sail for Aswan, the Nubian border, and some amazing sites. Join us in my next post, Part 3, for the continuation of our journey.
Here’s my chronicle of our recent trip to Egypt, in March 2024, which I hope you will enjoy.
Setting the Scene
Visiting Egypt has been a dream of mine and, over the years, Marti and I have steeped ourselves in Egyptian historical fiction, movies, guidebooks, and traveling King Tut museum exhibits. Having spent the winter months in Cyprus, Cairo was just one easy further step south and going now made sense.
Marti and I flew from Larnaca, Cyprus to Cairo on Egypt Air on March 22nd, for a ten-day tour. Our friends and veteran travel buddies John and Alyce, from San Diego, flew in later that day from Rome to join us.
Practicalities
When I started planning the trip last summer, we acknowledged the tremendous logistical and cultural challenges Egypt presents and decided right away to work with a tour company. This proved to be a very good decision, especially after the Oct. 7th Hamas raids and the ensuing Gaza warfare, although we never felt at increased risk.
We did our research and selected Egypt Tours Portal to organize everything, which they did very well. They arranged drivers, guides, our Nile River cruise ship, museum and site tickets, and most meals. One payment to them covered everything except tips, gifts, a few meals, booze, and international flights. We were very satisfied with the service they provided.
The four of us had a van with driver and a guide at our private disposal. Although we had a prearranged itinerary, we had the flexibility to customize each day’s activities and starting times. The drivers were great, the vans were air-conditioned, and the guides were well-versed and very kind.
The van and driver notwithstanding, the roads in the areas of Egypt we visited were generally in horrible shape. Rough, pot-holed, and in poor repair. There were serious speed bumps everywhere, for example, flanking all intersections, so braking, crawling over them, and reaccelerating repeatedly made for an unpleasant ride after a while.
Driver behavior, especially in Cairo, was crazy. Where lane lines existed, they were mostly ignored, even on freeways. We shared the road with all manner of non-automotive vehicles: donkey carts, tuk-tuks, and small motorcycles with as many as six riders crammed on them. Egyptian pedestrians are also world-class jaywalkers, with a “go ahead, hit me” attitude, which matched drivers’ “OK, maybe I will” attitudes.
In Cairo, roadside billboards were everywhere and at night they were lit up like Las Vegas. There were huge electronic signboards advertising all sorts of stuff that spanned the entire 12-lane freeway. Yet, Egyptian drivers seemed concerned about sparing their headlights and turned them on only sporadically at night!
Our visit occurred during the Muslim holy period of Ramadan. As you may know, this is when the faithful may not eat or drink anything from dawn to dusk. Normally, I would not have scheduled a visit during Ramadan but I didn’t realize that its dates change year-to-year. It had minimal effect on us directly as the tourist industry goes 24 x7 but some shops were closed, some menus were reduced, and we felt a bit bad about eating lunches, for example, when we knew our guide was eating nothing.
Nearby hostilities notwithstanding, tourism was up and it was crowded at most of the sites we visited. The weather was in the 70s-80s and nice. We experienced one sandstorm, in Aswan, which blotted out the sun but didn’t interfere with our activities.
Egypt recently experienced some serious inflation (Americans don’t know squat about real inflation) which resulted in an exchange rate for us of 50 Egyptian Pounds to 1 US Dollar. It wasn’t quite carry-your-money-in-a-wheelbarrow time, but it meant we were getting 2,000 or 3,000 EGP from an ATM at a go and handing out 100- and 200-EGP tips (expected for just about everything) like candy. It puts a big wad of bills in your pocket and messes with your mind.
Our itinerary included two days in Cairo, fly to Luxor, spend six days cruising between Luxor and Aswan, and finally fly back to Cairo for two final days.
Arrival in Cairo
Marti and I flew into Cairo airport, where we were met in Arrivals by an Egypt Tours Portal rep who walked us through getting visas, clearing customs, and picking up our luggage, and then introduced us to our waiting guide, Ahmed. He took us out to our van, and we headed off around Cairo to the Giza plateau area and our hotel, the Hyatt Regency Cairo West. The hotel grounds were like a military compound, with two security checkpoints in the driveway (along with the ubiquitous speed bumps) and a bag scanner inside the front door. Hooray! We were in Egypt!
The Hyatt was nice, and we appreciated the unIslamic availability of cocktails and wine in the bar. Several large, loud tour groups were also staying there, making us keenly appreciative of our private tour arrangements. Our friends John and Alyce arrived a few hours after we did.
Marti particularly like the cellphone towers disguised as palm trees.
Ahmed and our driver collected us the next morning and we were off to see the Pyramids! The day’s schedule was The Great Pyramids, the Sphinx, lunch at a local restaurant, jewelry store shopping, and the Saqqara Step Pyramid.
All the sites we visited are essentially national parks. They were complete with large parking lots full of cars, vans, and tour buses (very chaotic-seeming at first but actually quite fluid), modern ticket offices, bag scanners, lots of armed security staff, and QR-code-reading entry turnstiles. And, oh yes, lots of tourists.
At each site our guide whisked us through/around lines and security, handed us pre-purchased tickets, and ushered us into the site – very nice, indeed.
Here are a few photos from our visit to the Giza Pyramids:
The pyramids and Sphinx were amazing! We couldn’t quite stop smiling, just being there at last.
The Great Pyramid of Khufu (aka Cheops) standing since 2570 BC, filled the sky and two other adjacent pyramids stood beside it. We declined offers to go inside them, given what we’d heard about the steep and claustrophobic decent/ascent leading to not much to see. The Sphinx was smaller than imagined and located in a pit, so not what I expected. Still, it was cool to be there. Lots of these things, like the Sphinx, were largely buried in sand in the modern era and had to be excavated to be seen whole (more amazing Egyptian engineering feats).
The pyramid complex is quite a large area and, whenever we needed it, our van magically appeared to take us to our next stop. After a few hours, we headed out for lunch at a nearby restaurant. The food was typical Mediterranean fare but pretty tasty. Ahmed kept a watchful eye on us and paid the tab.
A note about drinking water: we were advised to use bottled water for drinking and brushing our teeth, and we did so religiously. We also avoided unpeeled fruits and vegetables. The tour company provided each of us a half-liter of bottled water at the start of every day. Happily, the result was that none of us came down with King Tut’s Revenge.
After lunch we went to a jewelry shop. These planned shopping stops are interesting and provide a commission for our guide. This stop brought us into what was a modern, well-appointed and well-lit store behind a very modest facade, with a very welcoming staff. We were plied with cups of hibiscus tea and given a pleasant, but hard, sell. Marti and I both spent a bit of money on gifts for others, but we forgot to haggle. It was an interesting experience and not too mercenary-seeming.
Our final stop of the day was the Saqqara “step pyramid” site, which was 30-minutes away down really awful roads and through some dirty, poor neighborhoods I found disturbing. Dumped trash lined the road and a canal, side roads were not paved, and the buildings were ramshackle. The difference between my personal circumstances and that of the people outside the van was profound. I would not have liked to make that journey alone.
We noticed quite a lot of buildings, everywhere, that were unfinished or never finished. For example, a 3-story building would have a fourth floor that was just cement columns and rebar sticking out of its top. We weren’t sure why, but in some countries an “unfinished” building isn’t taxed, so never technically finishing construction keeps the taxman away.
In Saqqara, we visited the Step Pyramid of Zoser which was the first major tomb to use a pyramid shape and durable materials, and set the pattern for the pyramids that followed
← It looks like John just realized he was standing on the trap door to the secret crypt below! This was our first tomb visit and our first exposure to hieroglyphics.
About the site vendors: The exit from each park-like site we visited was through a gauntlet of vendors. This souk featured salesmen who would step up and almost block your way, waving dish towels, table cloths, tee-shirts, statues, etc. trying to get you to stop and buy.
All were adept at sizing us up on the fly as Americans and switching their sales pitches to well-spoken English. Some of them were children; there were flocks of 10-year-old boys hawking refrigerator magnets, for example. “Six magnets for just one dollar” was a familiar cry. We politely said No Thanks and kept moving, and occasionally our guide intervened if necessary. After a few days, we kind of braced ourselves for the onslaught when leaving a site; it was tiresome and not the best final memory to have of a place.
Many vendors didn’t take No for an answer and you had to repeat yourself over and over again (even in Arabic, the basics of which we had learned). In fact, I noticed that many Egyptians we dealt with had a selective inability to hear the word No. For example, this kind of exchange was typical: “Do you want a dessert” – “No, thank you” – “Good, I’ll bring you a dessert then”.
Engaging with some of the younger kids, perhaps out of compassion, was a mistake as it often caused others to swarm you. Our guide had to shoo some folks out of the door to our van at one stop, in order to close it.
And that concludes the start of our exciting visit. Tomorrow, we fly off to Luxor, the mysteries of southern Egypt, and our Nile cruise ship. Join us in my next post, Part 2, for the continuation of our journey.
The Occasionally-Examined Life 