Leaving Thanksgiving Day for 5 days in Europe. Visiting Amsterdam and Paris. Wednesday we fly to Egypt to spend a few days before cruising the Nile then head to Petra, Jordan. It should be an exciting trip. See you later.

Heading to Europe for 5 days then on to Egypt and Jordan. Flying into Amsterdam then Wednesday fly to Cairo for Cruise on Nile then to Petra.

We leave tomorrow. It’s getting real.

We have arrived. Waiting for rain to stop so we can start sightseeing. \240We did a canal cruise and walked in the sleet.

Today was windmills, cheese and fishing village

They make 15,000 lbs of cheese a day.

We visited Henri Willig farm which produces cheese.

Today we stayed at hotel and I got some work done. We are rested and ready to go for tomorrow.

Today we met Jon and Holly in Paris. First stop Galeries Lafayette and Louis Vuitton. \240After successful shopping we went on a 3 hour introductory tour to Paris.

Today is easy day. We are changing hotels to airport hotel so we are ready to leave for Egypt tomorrow. \240

Flying to Cairo today. A day of airports and airplanes. I highly recommend the Zurich airport.

We have made it to Egypt home to 25-30 \240million people.

Egypt was a Christian country until 641 AD. \240First mosque built 642 AD. The Mosque of Mohammed Ali was built as a fortress. \240Mohammed Ali was the first ruler of Egypt. He modernized Egyptian 1805. \240Strong army and navy. \240The mosque was built in 1819. Muslims washed their faces 5 times a day. \240From 1000 to 1150 AD, Egypt was country of Shiites. Now it is Suni Muslims.

At 12 o’clock on Fridays everyone is required to go to mosque. They believe Mohammed was last messenger from Allah. Muslims pray and wash 5 times a day. \240They have to be clean to meet God. \240Women normally pray at home. If they go to the mosque, women are separated from men. They also must fast 1 month per year. Rhamadan is to give up with your senses anything bad. \240Once in your lifetime they are expected to go to Mecca.

Muslims are to give 2 1/2% to charity and the poor even within your own family.

Heiroglyphics were first understood in 1822. Chariots were known to exist in Egypt prior to 1800 BC.

We have armed guards on our bus and saw police everywhere in Cairo. Even saw several bomb squads in gear.

Today we visited Saqqara the site of the first pyramid, the Step Pyramid.

Second stop was Great Pyramids of Giza. They were built in 2700 BCand consist of 2,706,000 blocks. The quarry was 3.5 miles from the pyramids. \240There are 9 pyramids in Giza area.

We then visited the Great Sphinx. What an amazing day. \240The blocks of granite were brought there from Aswan via the Nile River.

Today we fly to Luxor. We are all exhausted and day 2 is definitely an exhausting one. We had to be up at 4 am for our flight to Luxor. There are 350 boats that cruise the Nile. \240Luxor became the capital of upper and lower Egypt 2700 BC. In 331 BC, Alexandria became capital of upper and lower Egypt. The Hall of Columns has 143 columns. The colors are original from 1500 BC. Luxor has 1/3 of the artifacts of the world.

There are only 48 passengers on board out of possible 70.

Today we had to get up at 3 am for the hot air balloon ride at sunrise. It was amazing.

After lunch, we went to Dendera Temple. More than 50% of population of Egypt are farmers. The main crops are cotton, rice and sugar cane.

Since 1952, 9 years of education are mandatory for all citizens. There is more than 30% illiteracy. If they choose they can go to high school and college. It is entirely free. 10% of population attend private school. After school, military service is mandatory. If they cannot read or write it is 4 years service. Higher educated, 1 year service.

As you cross the border from province to province, there are armed security and every tourist vehicle is constantly escorted by security.

Today we visited the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of Queens. 62 tombs have been found so far. 2 are still missing. \240We visited the tomb of King Tut. \240King Tut’s tomb was discovered in 1962. \240The Valley of the Queens has 84 tombs. \240The tombs were cut below ground into the rock. They always had a pyramid on top of mountain to indicate burial site.

At the Valley of the Queens we visited the tomb of Queen Nefartari. \240Queen Nefartari’s tomb was the largest found in the Valley of Queens. It was found in March, 1904 by an Italian archaeologist.

Everyday is more tiring but absolutely amazing. Wednesday is the day we are looking forward to but these are not disappointing.

Today we are in Esna, Egypt. \240The vendors here are very aggressive. If you can’t deal with it just stay on boat because it doesn’t get any better.

The Esna Temple is being restored but you will notice the bullet holes where it was used as target practice while still buried under sand. The colors are magnificent. They are using special chemicals to remove the smoke and grit.

The new town was built on top of the old town including the temple.

The rest of the day was spent cruising the Nile to Aswan.

Today we are doing a private tour to Abu Simbel. Abu Simbel is about 30 miles from the Susan border. \240Abu Simbel was originally built where it constantly flooded. In 1863 it was rediscovered buried under sand. When Lake Nassar was built, the Abu Simbel temples were moved 250 feet higher. The mountains were recreated and covered with the original stones. The temples were disassembled and reassembled. The larger temple King Ramses II built for himself. The smaller temple was built for Queen Neferatari, his favorite wife. She became sick while it was being built so he stopped working on his and worked to complete hers. He only visited the site of the temples once. After Neferatari died, he never visited again.

Egypt shares the largest manmade lake in the world \240with Sudan, Lake Nassar. Egypt and Sudan were one country until 1956 when they split. \240Due to the war in Israel, Egypt has closed all of its borders. Trucks leaving Egypt for Sudan are stacked up just inside the border. Gas is becoming a problem because Egypt used to import it from Israel so some of the trucks transporting to Sudan have run out of gas. \240Buses from Egypt drop people at the border.

Crocodiles are not controlled so their population is constantly growing.

Aswan city has a population of approximately 2 million people but Aswan province has a population of over 7 million. \240Egyptians live on only 5% of the land in Egypt. 95% is desert. The people live on both sides of the Nile but not in desert.

The military has started a project of growing agricultural products in the desert. They get the irrigation from Lake Nassar and then drill wells approx 25-30 feet deep. Since the war In Ukraine, they have not been able to import these products so they’ve started growing their own.

They are also building an entire city in the desert for the Sudanese caught in Egypt after the war.

Today we decided to skip the tours and sleep in so I’ll do a tour of ship inside and outside. \240We leave Saturday to go back to Cairo then Sunday fly to Petra.

Today we are in Edfu. We decided not to go in town today so had late breakfast and got ready to disembark tomorrow morning.

Again enjoying the sailing up the Nile. Tomorrow back in Cairo then Sunday on to Petra.

There are only 48 people on board out of 90. It is very personable.

The vendors will go as far as hooking onto the ship and throwing tablecloths, scarves, etc to passengers.

Today we fly from Luxor back to Cairo. We will have a walking tour of Coptic Quarter and church.

We flew to Jordan early this morning. The weather is unusual for this time of year. There is usually snow but we have none. Unfortunately we are going to have rain the next 2 days.

The Dead Sea is 1300 ft below sea level. \240The Dead Sea is called that because not many organisms can live in it due to the salinity. The water level is dropping 1.5 inches per year.

Today is our day of mosaics. \240There are 10 million people living in Jordan. Approximately 5 million live in Amman. There are almost 1 million Syrians and .5 million Egyptians. 92% of 8 million Jordanians are Arabs. 2% are Armenians.

We visited Mount Nebo where Moses died leading the Israelites out. The battle of Jericho was also fought on the site. This was all confirmed by Franciscan nuns in 1933 on expedition. \240The foundation of the Mount Nebo Church was found and the new Mount Nebo Church was built atop it.

Then we went to the Queen Noor Foundation. There they specialize in mosaics and camel hair rugs.

We then had lunch in Madaba. \240We had maqlooba for lunch. Madaba was abandoned from 749 to 1870 due to severe earthquake. In 1895, a mosaic was found of a map. A family was convinced not to build their house on top of it. They donated the land and the money to build St George’s Church on the site.

St George’s Church is the site of the largest mosaic. Approximately 1/3 of a map was found made of mosaics. \240There are approximately 700,000 pieces in the section uncovered so it is estimated there were 2.1 million pieces in the entire map. The map is oriented East to west instead of north to south.

The war in Israel has resulted in a decrease in tourism of approximately 80%.

Today is Petra. The day I have been waiting for. I can’t believe I’ve made it. \240All I can say is Oh My God. It was everything and more. 18,000+ steps 7 hours and fantastic. Hope my pictures don’t disappoint.

People lived inside these tombs until the 1980’s. At that time the government moved them to new homes as Petra became a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Today we leave Petra for Jerash, Jordan. Jerash, is the Roman Ruins in Jordan. The area in Jerash is 3 times the size of Pompeii.

An interesting thing we learned about family life in Jordan is that the father and mother and all their sons and their wives and children live in the same building. The fathers are responsible for giving their sons apartments when they marry. The girls live with their husbands in their apartments but are given the equivalent value of an apartment given to the sons. This money belongs to the bride only. These family clans eat lunch together every day. \240Each family contributes to the expenses of maintaining building. \240When both of the parents die, the sons start their own building for their sons. The girls family must visit her parents every day.

The Greeks took over the city in 350 BC. \240In 749 AD the town was evacuated due to large earthquake. The east side of the city was Reinhabited but the west side where all the temples and churches were was not.

W arrived at the W Amman for our flight tomorrow to Vienna. Then Friday we head home. \240It’s been an amazing trip. Tired and ready to come home but also an excellent adventure.

Today we start our journey home. Vacation finished. We leave Amman for Vienna and overnight in Vienna then fly to Chicago Friday then to Houston. Late Friday night return.

Leaving Vienna, Austria shortly for our trip home.

We have arrived home. A long 2 days to get home.