The Mysteries of Egypt

The trip to Abu Simbel takes three hours.   We’ve left at yuck o’clock so as to arrive before the crowds and also before the heat of the day.   We were told yesterday that there are two kinds of days in Egypt, “hot days” in which it is just hot all the time regardless of whether you can find shade or not, and “hot sun" in which it is hot in the sun, but better in the shade and with a breeze.   We are in the latter, happily!! At one point there is a traffic back-up because the road doesn’t open until four.   It is also the road to Sudan, so there is more security than usual. After a couple of hours of driving through unrelieved desert, we pull into the only roadside civilization we’ve seen.   It a little cantina kind of place and seems to be known by all the tour guides.   If you time your arrival correctly, you can see the sunrise over the desert!   There is a small busload of Japanese tourists who think it’s cool to pose sitting in the middle of the roa

Well, we spent the night on the train, in our own little sleeper/couchette.   Not as romantic as they make it sound in the novels.   We’ve done it before and the first time it’s an adventure.   I was finally free my feet from the fuzzy covers that are tucked all the way under the mattress and that helps. Around five thirty I wander down the hall to the WC and realize I need my phone!   It’s sunrise!   When I get back I can’t open the cabin door and our sweet steward, who has been standing guard all night long, has to open it for me.   Marilyn is awake, too, and we decide on an early breakfast.   It turns out to be three different kinds of bread with little containers of honey and butter and one triangle of Laughing Cow cheese.   Marilyn asks for water and gets a huge bottle!   I ask for coffee and it arrives in a thick glass with sugar;   although I have to ask for cream, which is powdered.   But the Egyptian coffee is really good! Ginger checks in with