Day 7

6/18/10

Today is the day we fly to Luxor. We woke up at 3:45 to put our luggage out at 4:15 and leave by 5:30. We went to breakfast at 4:30. We have been eating at Omar's Cafe in the hotel and they opened early for us. Karin and Mark joined us later because they are always slower than we are. Im a light eater for breakfast, and I was done eating by the time everyone inlcuding grandma got to the table.

After breakfast, we went out to the bus to identify our luggage at 5:15. Sam gave us our boarding passes and explained that we were already checked in and that we were sitting alphabetically. I was not near any of them or anyone I've met so far. After a trek through the winding airport, we took a bus out to the complete other side of the airport to board our plane from the middle of the loading area. I had the aisle seat! But, I couldn't check my carry-on like everyone else did on the domestic flight because of my huge, heavy blue cat statue; I am afraid someone will inadvertantly break it.

Grand Circle again takes care of getting our bags for us. All we have to do is identify that it is there. Its great. We head out to our new yellow bus and wait for all of the luggage to be loaded up before we head to the ship.

The River Anuket is only a few minutes away and as we are the first of the two flights out this morning, we get there before about sixty people. It is much less intense. The very first thing we do is take a cab over to EgyptAir to pick out our seats for our Cairo JFK flight. We get a four seats near the frontish of the plane.

We then stopped at the Luxor Museum. There are some beautifully preserved statues that were found at Luxor temple underground nearly by accident. They looked like recreations they were so well preserved. Sam says she was actually at Luxor temple when they were being excavated. The rest of the exhibits were beautiful, I particularly liked one Sekhmet statue when she looked sad. I got a postcard on the way out the door.

After being hasselled by all of the cab drivers and horse and carriage drivers we decided to walk back the few blocks. The direct route was not clear due to contruction and we had to go around. It wasn't too bad of a walk, but grandma had a hard time with it for obvious reasons.

We got back just in time for lunch.

After lunch we went to the Luxor Temple which is in the middle of Luxor the city and only a few blocks away from the river front where we were docked. It is huge! I took so many pictures. I was drinking water, but it was getting really hot. Upper Egypt is soo much hotter than I thought it was going to be. We walked around and saw so many statues and fragments found that have not been identified or put together yet.

Before we got back on the bus we explored the avenue of sphinxes outside of the temple. This avenue used to lead straight from Luxor temple to Karnak temple. For those not in the know, it is miles away, and each sphinx is pretty big.

I'm not feeling to good and am very glad to be getting back on the bus.

Dinner is ok tonight. I'm not feeling so good and Mark is pressuring me to eat cheese even though I DONT DO THAT EXCEPT ON COOLED PIZZA. But I make it through dessert. We like our seatmates well enough. We are getting ready to leave. I want to go upstairs to our third floor cabins because I do NOT feel good. Grandma stops to talk to someone and Kj and Mark stop at the gift shop. I cant wait anymore and I run back to Grandma for the key. I run up the steps as quickly as I can and rush to the bathroom.

I'm ok until right before they make it up. I do not feel good for the rest of the night.

I'm instinctively searching for cold and I end up staying in the bathroom for the rest of the night. Every time I start to get too cold it wakes me up and I simply turn over to the other side and get colder. This stops my sickness, but I'm still to sick to think about going out tomorrow. I hope I can go out tomorrow. Its Valley of the Kings Day!!

Tune in tomorrow for more of Sarah's Egypt Adventure