Another VERY EARLY morning that involved transportation! And this one is now a high point of this adventure. We met the bus, which took us to the pier, to meet the small boat, to travel to the west bank of the Nile, to meet the small bus which took us the field in the middle of farmland. And there we watched about 20 hot air balloons being filled. We climbed into ours (a large basket holding about 24 people) and were up to view the Nile, the sunrise, the fields and the other balloons. Spectacular! We were in the air for about 40 minutes and eventually landed not too far from the launch point (pilot directing the vans and ground crew to our location by cellphone). Once out we began the short walk out of the field to the vans only to see, very suddenly right in front of us, the wall of a small house collapse into the road (I believe the bottom was undermined by irrigation water and the wall simply slid down the front of the house into a heap of mud bricks). No one was hurt – the ground crew was quick to be sure that both all the tourists/ground crew and all the family in the house were okay and to very quickly hustle us away (I guess in case more might fall down) but still quite a disturbing scene.

So, after that exciting (!) morning, we listened to a presentation about the Nile and various geographical areas of Egypt and enjoyed cruising towards Qena.

Then, off to the Dendera Temple complex, which honors the goddess Hathor. Beautiful! A welcome dinner with “Meet the Staff” and a chance to chat with other cruisers (only 48 total) was delightful, as was the long night’s sleep.

Our day began VERY EARLY with an 8am charter flight out of Cairo to Luxor. The chaos of the airport was not in the least lessened by being in the charter terminal! But we made it, our luggage made it and all the cruise participants made it. We went directly to the Temple of Karnak which was incredibly impressive. These people really knew how to build! This temple complex covers about 2 square miles and is dedicated to Amun, king of the gods, Mut, mother goddess and Khonsu, god of the moon.

We also visited the Luxor Library and Heritage Center before heading the our ship, the Viking Ra and some very welcome lunch, the safety briefly and a brief outline of the next day’s schedule. Then, off the the Luxor Temple, including a view of the enormous statues at sunset. Back to the ship, dinner and a long sleep in the extremely comfortable bed.

So we made it! Giza was fascinating, as you might imagine. The morning was spent exploring Saqqara and the step pyramid of Zoser (2650 BC). Our program director, Ghada, told us quite a lot about the building and meaning and history of the pyramids. For example, this one wasn’t actually meant to be so tall but after building one layer, the builder just kept going – sort of a pre-pyramid. This exploration was followed by a visit to a rug “School”. Here children learn to knot and weave rugs as a possible profession and are also provided with schooling. Lunch at a hotel and then on to the big event – the Pyramids! Alf’s bucket list item and truly amazing. Seeing the 3 pyramids was awe-inspiring – they are simply ENORMOUS. I would have liked to walk all the way around the Great Pyramid but it would take quite a while and at 95 F. a bit of a challenge so I settled for a lot of pictures of these wonders of the ancient world and camel ride. Alf was not so impressed with the camel – so very very downhill when the camel’s back end goes up first! But he managed and when we followed this with a visit to the Sphinx I think he was totally satisfied with finally checking off this lifetime goal.

Saturday was our first full day with Viking (land cruise portion!). We started with the giant buffet breakfast here at the hotel followed by a short meeting with our fellow travellers (I think a total of 48). Then, off to the Citadel complex. This is a collection of buildings, a cemetery and a great deal of reconstruction and demolition – very chaotic. The one thing I’m sure of is that the mosque we visited was beautiful! It’s basically a copy of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul – huge, ornate. The exterior is covered with alabaster. The interior is one open room – covered with a large carpet for prayers for many, many years but since COVID the carpet is gone and the faithful bring their own rugs for use on the marble floors. So odd the things that COVID has changed!

Our second stop was the Egyptian Museum, a gigantic structure containing artifacts dating from the earliest settlements, around 2500BC. Hot, stuffy, crammed with people but worth it. This is where some of the items from King Tut’s tomb are displayed, including the coffin, the headdress and many small items such as breastplates, statues, rings. The stone inlay is amazing! We weren’t allowed to take photos of most of it but here is a little taste:

A few hours back at the hotel for lunch, another soul-reviving shower and a brief nap. Then, off to the street bazaar and dinner. The bazaar is very similar to others I’ve walked through – incredibly dense with goods, people and noise! I was offered pants at 3 dolla, 2 dolla, okay free if you buy something else at least 10 times. Pants? Feral cats and dogs all over. Pretending I don’t understand what they say (which was occasionally hilarious). Still, I managed to buy nothing in the 45 minutes we had to explore and didn’t get lost. One older person in our group did manage to lose herself and there was quite a kerfuffle until our security person located her – but all was handled quickly and professionally. Just made me think of Girl Scouts and NYC (if you know, you know).

We followed this with a lovely meal in a local restaurant – okra in sauce, meze platter with hummus etc., tomato soup, beef stew, rice custard, strong coffee. By the time we got back to the hotel everyone was drooping but content. Nice day!

We started our day with a food tour (found on Viator) led by Ahmed. The whole experience was terrific! Pickup at our hotel was smooth and on time. Our guide’s vehicle was clean and comfortable and he was both knowledgeable and friendly (and a great driver in the chaos that is Cairo traffic). We ate three really delicious meals – nothing fancy or touristy – just ordinary food that people here like – so good! As always in this part of the world, between meals we visited a few shops just in case we could be persuaded to purchase something. And, well, I was – but it’s a spice blend (ras el hanout) so maybe that’s okay. We sampled koshary at El Akhowa – just as it was opening. This is the dish eaten by everyone here – lentils, chickpeas, rice, noodles and fried onions. One adds some tomato sauce or chile sauce if desired. Cheap, very filling and really tasty. Falafel (from El Taeab) wrapped in just-made Egyptian bread was absolutely wonderful. Crispy, light, a little cucumber and sauce and just the best falafel I’ve ever had. This was a complete hole-in-the-wall that was frantically busy serving the take-away falafel, and for good reason. I stood to watch the cook scoop up the dough and toss it into the huge bubbling pan of fat, then turn to slice eggplant, then turn back to drain the fries then back to the falafel. . . no wasted motion. Last food stop was Realiz for chicken shawarma. A little sliced fresh chile on top of the chicken in a roll with a tomato-y sauce was delicious but thankfully our last stop.The food plus the pyramids in the background and the calls to Friday prayers really made this excursion a great way to start this journey.

Checked in with Viking this afternoon and we start with the group in the morning.

We are here! The flights worked, the BA lounges at Dulles and Heathrow gave us comfy places to wait, the Egyptian e-visas were accepted, the luggage came and the transfer to to hotel was smooth. All that anxiety over the travel portion for naught – sigh. The Sheraton Cairo is fine – many floors, several restaurants, a casino and a wonderful view of the Nile from the lounges and restaurants. Showers, dinner and sleep was all we could manage by the time we got here! We came a day early and are hopefully in the same rooms for the land portion of our Viking stay in Cairo which should begin this afternoon. Eager to hear what Viking has planned for us outside of the scheduled excursions to Giza, museums etc. So, breakfast in a little bit, then a private food tour which I hope will give us a little overview of the city as well as a fun intro to the cuisine of this part of the Middle East. It’s always all about the food!

Well, not as interesting as other ports – these are really good spots to go to other places from! But not much on their own in a limited time. Actually okay as I picked up a bug and needed to stay in for a day and a half, but am totally fine now and eager for disembarkation tomorrow and the beginning of our trip to Denali. We will start in a small town called Talkeetna then travel to the National Park on Tuesday. Alf has pictures from the Alaska Sea Life Center here in Seward that I can hopefully share later.

On to the big mountain!

This morning when the sun rose (that was a 3am) I could hear the foghorn. Sigh. Once it was truly light I could see the rain and visibility was about 30 feet. Another sigh. But we were cruising towards the Hubbard Glacier and hope springs eternal.

By 11 the fog cleared and the rain stopped. We stood on the bow as we entered Disenchantment Bay, cameras in hand. There was blue ice in the water and the immense cliffs of Hubbard Glacier ahead. So often everyone stood in silence, and we heard “white thunder” – the noise of the glacier moving and calving (breaking off pieces). I cannot tell you how much the sight and sound filled the world when we were MILES from the glacier. The ice shelf is 500 feet tall and I have no idea how wide. The captain took us to within about a mile of the ice wall and after a bit actually spun the ship so that everyone on every deck would have a wonderful view. We saw ice crumble into the bay, took hundreds of pictures but mostly just reveled in the natural splendor we were seeing. The ship-board naturalist gave us information as we stood and insisted on ship-wide silence for a moment so that everyone could take in the wonder. It was amazing.

Tomorrow we are in Valdez. Til then.

Today brought a wonderful excursion to Jewell Gardens in Skagway (which means place of the north wind I think – and very aptly named), an organic show garden. The flowers are simply beautiful and when viewed from the air the beds form a leaf and other garden objects. They grow lots of herbs and vegetables – think cabbages the size of beach balls and rhubarb. Don’t forget the rhubarb – it’s a big thing here, both in importance and in size. The leaves are two feet across! When the gold rush brought tens of thousands of new residents to the region, fresh produce was hard to come by.  In the late 19th century, a handful of entrepreneurs tried their luck at farming, including Henry D. Clark. Explore the farm founded by Clark and learn about his early success in cultivating the land; his resulting fame as the “Rhubarb King” spread far and wide. We enjoyed a lunch made from the vegetables grown right there along with eggs from their 20 resident chickens.

Afterwards, the main event was a two-hour presentation by the glassblowers from the Jewell Garden Glass Studio. This was simply fascinating. I’ve seen glassblowing lots of times but the creation of art glass was really something. Topped off with a rhubarb mimosa it was a memorable afternoon.

Alf spent the day taking a vintage rail car through the White Pass Summit (does that sound like something he would do?). Walking back to the ship I passed people dressed in costumes of the settlement era – it was all fun!