World Cruise - Day 102 - Apr 23 - At Sea + Luxor Part 4

This is part 4 (and final, at least for today) of my post on Luxor (continued):

We ate lunch at Jewel of the Nile restaurant, which was highly recommended on TripAdvisor:

The restaurant is run by an Egyptian man (Mahmoud) and a UK woman (Laura) who are husband and wife.  I contacted them in advance via the Internet to arrange for our group:

This sign was on the front door as we came in:

Laura was a very gracious host for our group, in spite of just having pulled out her back earlier in the day:

Our group at lunch:  Jackie, Terry, Krissie, Brian, Noemi, Sergio and Dan:

As we headed out toward the Nile River after lunch, I caught this photo of several people swimming in the Nile:

There were row after row of Nile River cruise ships lining the waterfront in Luxor, apparently the Nile River cruise business is down rather drastically:

When then went to the Valley of the Kings, which was built between 1600 and 1100 B.C. for the pharaohs of the New Kingdom (18^th to 20^th dynasties).  No cameras were allowed in Valley of the Kings (they used to allow them, not anymore), so the following photos are from photo sharing sites to give you an idea of what the complex looks like.  The following photo shows the area where you walk through and the entrances to the tombs (there are a total of 64, but only about 13 are open to the public) are visible cut into the side of the hills:

Here is a layout of the different tombs, with the entrance at the top:

This is the view going into one of the tombs:

This is the entry to tomb KV2, the tomb of Ramses IV:

Following are some of the inscriptions on the walls of KV2, the tomb of Ramses IV:

More inscriptions in KV2.  Note how the colors are so well preserved:

Then we went into KV6, the tomb of Ramses IX.  This is the entryway:

This is the entry hallway for the tomb of Ramses IX:

This is a view of the burial chamber:

Note that all of the tombs of Valley of the Kings were opened and robbed thousands of years ago with the exception of Tutankhamen, which was discovered in 1922 and was mainly intact.  We will be seeing the artifacts of Tutankhamen’s tomb in Cairo on Wednesday at the Cairo Museum.  Here are wall inscriptions in KV11, the tomb of Ramses III:

More inscriptions in KV11, tomb of Ramses III:

Picture of the entry way, which goes down below.  They sealed up each of these entryways, starting at the tomb and working to the outside to completely seal the tomb.  Yet every single tomb has been opened and either plundered or its contents removed to a museum (in the case of Tutankhamen).  I don’t think the pharaohs would have been happy.

One our way back from the Valley of the Kings, there is a small trolley that takes you from the visitor center to the entrance.  A guy who was selling something got on with us and sat next to Krissie.  He was quite taken with her and said he had one wife, but would like to add one more.  He offered me 1,000 camels for Krissie.  No joke, he really did.  I asked him what I would do with 1,000 camels?  He said that I could open up a business in Egypt offering camel rides and within 2 months, I would be able to retire.  I politely declined his very generous offer.

Back on the road back to the Nile River, more donkey action:

We stopped to visit the Colossi of Memnon, huge (64 ft. tall) statues between the Nile River and the Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens:

One of the Colossi of Memnon statues:

Krissie in front of the Colossi of Memnon:

Krissie in front of one of the Colossi of Memnon, to give you an idea how tall it is (more than 10x her height):

There was a shepherd nearby grazing her sheep:

Blend of old (left) and new (right):

Dan got a pic with the local dog, who seemed pretty interested in his camera:

More donkeys.  I almost created a separate blog entry called “Donkey” but thought I might get in trouble with the Shrek people:

Another motorcycle:

Kid riding on the front of this motorcycle:

More donkey:

Two kids playing in front of a local market:

Local men smoking the water pipe and discussing the issues of life:

We then went down to the waterfront for our felucca ride.  Look closely at the name of the boat on the right:

A felucca is a small sailboat capable of taking about 10-12 people:

It has a beautiful, graceful sail out when at full sail:

We got a nice view of both sides of the Nile River:

Another felucca coming toward us:

The name of our Felucca (they apparently like pithy names):

This was the only Nile River cruise ship we saw in operation, probably another 20-25 were docked, idle:

Noemi and our felucca captain:

Krissie and Jackie:

This boat was named Omar Sharrif:

Jacqueline, this one is named after you:

After we got off the felucca, this horse was idle on the street, eating some greens:

…so Krissie went up to get her photo with it:

We then made our way back out of Luxor and back to the ship.  We left at sunset, arrived back at after 10p.  Our ship sailed at about midnight.

Back to our sea day.  Krissie played in the women’s ping pong tournament this morning and got second place!  There were five women playing, she made it to the finals and lost 21-18, very close games all along the way.  I’ll see if I can get her to wear her silver medal to dinner tonight?  I just asked her, she said no.

We got 12 out of 20 in trivia this morning, 17 won it.  Questions we missed:  Who is the Canadian jazz diva who married Elvis Costello in 2003?  Diane Krall (we said Anny Murray).  What Apollo mission had astronauts Conrad, Bean and Gordon?  Apollo 12 (we said Apollo 13).  Who wrote The Murder of Roger Ackroid?  Agatha Christie (we said Patterson).  What was the first name of Sigourney Weaver;s character Rodney in Alien?  Ellen (we said Agnes).  What is the 12^th sign of the zodiac?  Pisces (we said Sagitarius).  What sort of animal was Snowball in George Orwell’s Animal Farm?  Pig (we said sheep).  What was the title of Kylie Minogue’s first UK #1 single?  I Should Be So Lucky (we had no idea who Kylie Minogue was, much less any of her music titles).  Which veteran rock group released Don’t Stop in 1966?  Status Quo (we said Fleetwood Mac).  Other interesting questions:  What is an elf cup?  Fungus or mushroom.  Take My Breath Away was the 1996 Academy Award winning song from what movie?  Top Gun.  What is the nickname of the M9A1 rocket launcher?  Bazooka.  What actress is the elder sister of Joan Fontain?  Olivia de Havilland.

Two of the staff members (Muragan from Security and Fabio from the Front Desk) played several of the “regulars” (me, Wei and James) in ping pong today.  I was happy to play Muragan to a 2-2 tie in games, he is better than me.  We also played some doubles as well as singles.  It was interesting to see them in their civilian clothes.  I didn’t recognize Fabio at first, I’m used to seeing him in a tie at the front desk.  They are both excellent ping pong players.

Tonight’s entertainment was Gary Arbuthnot:

Tomorrow is sea day #2 of 2 on our way to Cairo on Wednesday.  We are also going through the Suez Canal tomorrow.