Living Life in a Foreign Country

LUXOR, EGYPT

كان سفرنا من خلال هذا جزء مصر مدهشة!
كثيرا تاريخ إلى خبرة في المدينة على نيل نهر.

Our arrival into the continent of Africa, a view from our plane. What a magnificant view! I don't think we have ever seen so much sand in our lives....

This is a photo of the "Valley of the Kings" in Luxor, Egypt and the photo below is the Nile, with it's lush green on either side of it. The Nile flowing between the modern town of Luxor and the West Bank necropolis. Scattered across the landscape is an assortment of riches, from the temples of Karnak and Luxor on its East bank to the West Bank temples of Deir al-Bahri and Medinat Habu, the Colossi of Memnon and the Valley of the Kings. This area was previously known as Thebes, which is Egyptian word for treasure-house of countless wealth. Thebe's wealth and power was legendary in antiquity. It's god Amun-Ra was feared across the Mediterranean and in Asia. Thebes was also famous as the home to Cleopatra VII ... who slept with Julius Caesar, Mark Anthony, and lived long enough to make Elizabeth Taylor famous. It wasn't until the 18th century that this city could be visited by tourists. The treasures were spectacular along with it's colossal temples. It was like no other place we have ever encountered.

Upon our arrival into Luxor we spotted many of these carraiges with their drivers waiting to coax you into a ride around the city. Well this driver, named Simon, with his beautiful carraige swept us away into the streets of Luxor.

Simon jumped out and took a photo of us Americans as we started our journey through the city streets.

Below is a video of our first experience in the country. What an eye opener! Check it out....

The local people were all carrying and selling their goods along the streets.

A few of the locals were quite aggressive at times trying to sell you their goods. We quickly learned to you have to bargain for everything.

On our way back to the hotel we saw this little girl hearding her goats back home. This was amazing to see how she moved them so quickly through the city streets with all of the hustle and bustle of the city.

Herbs and fresh fruit were everywhere. The people from the countryside would bring them into the city, daily, to sell. Everything was incredibly fresh.

After our trip throught the city, Simon brought us to the Temple of Luxor. Largely built by the pharaohs Amenhotep III(1380-1352BC) and Ramses II (1279-1213BC) is a graceful monument in the heart of the modern town. In ancient times the temple was surrounded by mud-brick houses, shops and workshops which now lie under the town. They are continuing to uncover these artifacts but, in doing the excavation, they are also moving the local people of today out of their homes. In fact, the President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, was in Luxor while we were there to approve a plan to move more people out of their homes. You can view our slideshow on this temple to the top right of our blog. What an amazing place and to think that these temples were home to the Pharaohs back in 2000BC.

This was one of the signs in Arabic ... a continued reminder of where we actually were!

I loved how the light played with this magnificant architecture of ancient times.

Rich among the pharaohs!!

The size of these monuments were extaordinary! It was breathtaking every step of the way....

Another shot of the sunshine at the entrance of the temple.

This shot was inside and viewing back towards the entrance. The local people were everywhere inside looking to help explain the history of this sanctuary. Rich and I moved through, reading our maps and books and stayed away from the locals, who were usually only looking for an Egyptian dollar (or 2 or 10).

This was on our second day, that we headed out to the Temples of Karnak ('fortified settlement'). This was more than a temple, it was an extraordinary complex of sanctuaries, kiosks, pylons and obelisks dedicated to the Theban gods and the greater glory of the pharaohs. Everything is on a gigantic scale. The site covers over 2 sq km, large enough to contain about 10 cathedrals, while the main structure, The Temple of Amun, is the largest religious building ever built. Another amazing place. You can view our slides of this site in the top right hand corner. In the photo below, Rich is in the Pharaoh's stance on his ship in the sea. On most of the walls, you could see these beautiful etches in the rock. Each told stories of the pharaohs and there journeys along with many of their battles.

This is Rich ... just after reading the sign "Do Not Touch"!

This was our 3rd day in Luxor, when we headed up to the Valley of the Kings. They wouldn't let us bring our camera onto the site, so we don't have any picutres of the tombs. On our way back down from the valley we stopped at this Temple called Hatshepsut(1473-1458BC) a mortuary temple located at the base of the Valley of the Kings. This dramatic rugged limestone cliff rises nearly 300m (1,00 ft for you Americanos) above the desert plain, a monument made by nature, and in it sits this man made monument, Hatshepsut. A truly beautiful temple.

Enjoy our video below....

This was day 4 heading south to Aswan. It took us 3 hours to arrive in Aswan, but on the way down we stopped at 2 more temples. The first was the first temple located in Edfu. The Temple of Horus was uncovered 60 years ago. This temple had been buried by sand, rubble and part of the village of Edfu. So it was in incredible shape. The roof system was actually still intact. You can view the entire temple in our slide show located up on the top right of our blog.

At the entrance of the temple, we found 2 massive granite statues of Horus, the falcon God. Rich, the Fabius-Pompey Falcon God, is standing next to one of them.

A view into the back side of the temple.

This is our arrival to the second temple down south of Luxor. This temple was called Kom Ombo and was a unique riverside temple along the Nile. This temple was known as Pa-Sebek (Land of Sobek) after the crocodile god of the region. Gold was traded here, and more importantly it was a trading center for African elephants brought from Ethiopia up along the Nile. You can also view a slideshow located at the top right of our blog.

These are a few shots of our trip from these temples down to Aswan.

This was a shot looking across the Nile. You can see how it looks very lush and then immediately turns into dry sand.

In this shot you can see some of the housing along the cliffs of the dessert.

There were many vendors along the roadways, selling their wares.

This was our taxi driver named Tayeb (the guy who was very interested in learning more about Sheila's unmarried sister, Mary Lou ... despite having one wife and 6 kids, already). Behind us is the man-made Lake Nasser. An incredibly beautiful body of water flanked by the desert.

They say that this lake is infested with crocodiles. So needless to say we didn't venture down by the waters edge! Ha Ha

This was a city located along the lake right outside of Aswan.

Scenes along the streets of Aswan. We had a lovely lunch in Aswan. Our taxi driver had taken us to a great little place nestled in the middle of the city.

Thought this was an interesting shot along the highway....

Aswan was known for its rock. This was where the pharoahs got all of their stones for the pyramids up in Cairo. You can see these beautiful shaped stone in the distance and could really see why this was such an important location. The pharaohs would have the local people deliver the stones during the winter when the Nile was flooded and they could not farm their land.

In this shot you can see housing located into and along the rocks edge.

An occational local walking his donkey along the highway.

or riding it!

We stopped and had tea at this location above. the kids on this wagon all waved to us.

Above, here is more of those villages along the desert. The sunset below was along the Nile on our way back home after a full day south of Luxor. As night time fell apon us, our taxi driver and all other cars didn't use their lights while driving! That was interesting! So glad we were home by 7pm. Can't imagine into the late hours.....

We stopped for dinner back in Luxor and had dinner at the Old Winter Palace. This was a beautiful place and we had a delightful meal.

Had to take a shot of the local artwork on display in the Palace.

As we walked back to our hotel we stopped in looking for some tshirts. Rich took this shot of me and the shop owner. Kind of a scarey looking guy...........

The week flew by and off we went back to Deutschland... A view from our plan looking out towards the desert.

Hamburg & Bremen, Germany

Jess arrived for thankgiving weekend on Wed. morning and off we flew on thursday up to Hamburg. We arrived just in time for a delicious breakfast in the heart of Hamburg. Now Hamburg is Germany's largest port city. We walked all day and did a little bit of shopping.
Below is a shot of the Christmas Market(Weihnachtsmarkt). Everything is lit up like a christmas tree.

I think that this is my most favorite time of the year here in Germany.

We meandered around and stopped and had a Gluwein (hot moldwine) before dinner.

Jess insisted I take a shot of this coffee shop which we found throughout all of Hamburg. Need I say anymore! Ha Ha

We searched high and low for this delightful sushi restaurant... It was perfect!!

We headed out early the next morning and really enjoyed the city.

Some shots of moving through the city.

We went into this cool installation which explained all of the plans proposed on the waterfront

The building itself was pretty cool.

Christmas market during the day.

A few more shots from the city of Hamburg.

We arrived in Bremen just in time for lunch to join Melinda. Jess and Melinda met over in New Zealand for their semester abroad last year. she was a doll and showed us around Bremen. What an enchanting little village! This was a shot from off a bridge on the way to the city center.

Of course, the Wiehnachsmarkt (Christmas market with all of the homemade goods.)was also going on in the city of Bremen.

Jess and Melinda stopping to turn for the photo below...:)

The sweets were endless in this market and so many beautiful handmade items.

Just enjoying Melinda's company and this charming little city.

Had to take this shot, because this group of tourists reminded the girls of their travels back in NZ. Loads of laughter.

These are some photos on our way down to the Weser river, which runs along this town.

This is the Rathaus (townhall), erected in 1410. This city was known as the "Rome of the North" during its early history (being given this name by Charlemagne in 787) it was used as a base for Christianizing Scandinavia.