The RAMASES Study Tour

The first night we had a meal together at a favourite place called The King's Head, but this was not dedicated to an English king but a great take-off using the enigmatic pharaoh, Akenaten. We had a lovely evening and a great opportunity to catch up on our news and get to know Bernard, Lynda's brother who lives in Mykonos. Sadly, Angie didn't join us as she was feeling out of sorts and the journey had knocked her for six!









The first day of the RAMASES itinerary was one of acclimatisation. We wandered into town and saw all the improvements they were making around town particularly in the area of Luxor Temple and the Bazaar.




They are making wonderful progress excavating the Avenue of Sphinxes between the Temple and Karnak. I feel sure it will look most impressive once it is completed.







It was lovely to be with our old friends again and most evening we spent in the company of Angie, Veronica, Lynda and Bernard. Some of the others joined us from time to time and we had some brilliant times together.











One thing for certain was that we had very many enjoyable hours with them all.


The following day we drove to El-Toud, a village located 20 kilometers south of Luxor. In the centre of the village are the remains of a temple dedicated to the god Montu.
These were excavated in 1934 by a French archeological team. In 1936 the French Egyptologist Dr. Bison De La Roque found 4 boxes of copper with the cartouch of the pharaoh Ahmenhotep of the 12th Dynasty. Tuthmosis III established part of the temple and the god Montu in his sacred barque is shown in a nice relief.

There were many broken stones carefully arranged by today's archeologists which showed some typical scenes of fine quality and there were some unusual carvings which intriqued me, as I had not seen their like in Egypt before.

This reminds me of sculptures I've seen in South America.

On leaving the site we were able to get some super pictures of life in an Egyptian village.

All mod coms - well, maybe! This guy looks content with his lot.

The following day was to be a rest day on the itinerary and it fortunately coincided with our 40th Wedding Anniversary.

Our trip to Egypt.
We left Larnaca at 18.30 for the short flight to Cairo. 50 minutes later we were on the ground dealing with visas and luggage and looking for our Ground Agent. We were eventually taken to our overnight hotel in the Giza area, located very near to the Pyramids. That sounds good but we were very disappointed. It was located on a very busy street that was used by traffic all through the night, horns and brakes disturbing our sleep. The hotel, The Delta Pyramids, was rather tired and offered nowhere to relax and have a drink. We walked outside for a while but it was a very poor area and not a place for wandering.


The next morning we met our guide, Ahmed and headed out to Memphis and Saqqara. All places that Jeff had not been to before.










We stopped for lunch at a tourist restaurant where we had a very nice meal served with some wonderful bread - hence posing for this photograph.

Afterwards we headed for the Giza Plateau and the pyramids.
Jeff and I were both impressed by all the work that had been done to tidy up the area but our objective was the Boat Museum as Jeff had not seen this before.
He was suitably impressed by the boat that had been buried in the ground at the foot of the great pyramid at the time of Cheop's death over 4,500 years ago and has now been rebuilt and is on display in a special museum.

We paid an expected visit to a perfumery where I bought some essence and a couple of bottles then it was a ride through Cairo to the station for our overnight train to Luxor. Everything went find, we easily found our carriage and seats, got ourselves comfortable and had a couple of G&Ts we had prepared earlier in a water bottle, a snack and then it was not long before the train was on the way and we had reclined our seats and had nodded off for a few hours.

We arrived in Luxor at approximately 7am, this was rather early to check-in to our hotel, The Sonnesta St George, but the staff were not phased about that but they did stuggle to find our booking. I had booked our accommodation over the Internet and the poor girl could only find a reservations for Lloyd A and there was nothing for Anne Lloyd. She searched and searched, asked us to wait a while and eventually called her line manager. They finally decided that they would continue to hold the room they had for Lloyd A (just in case they turned up later) and they would allocate Anne Lloyd another room. However, they were almost fully booked and the only room they could offer us would be a Junior Suite - and there would be no additional charge - so they hoped we would accept .......... yes please. We had a cracking room with Nile views, street balcony and sitting room area. As we were to stay for a week it was a great result.

We unpacked and had a wander down into Luxor. On the way there, even after all these years of visiting Egypt, I managed to get taken advantage of by a "chancer". We had a snack lunch and then visited The Sunshine Home orphanage where I sponsor a little girl, Selwa.



Seeing the children and how they are progressing was so rewarding. We had brought a doll for Selwa which we thought was rather tacky as it had flashing earrings which were activated by squeezing its hand. Anyway it was a great success with all the children. These children have literally been thrown out onto the streets, some at a matter of only days old mainly for reasons of illegitemacy. They have a rather bleak future in terms of acceptance into the community.

We went back to the hotel for a nap prior to awaiting the arrival of our RAMASES friends from Kent who were to stay in the hotel next door, the Nile Palace. We watched for their coach arriving from the airport and dashed downstairs and into their lobby to say hello. It was quite an emotional time as all these lovely friends arrived, but I could not contain my excitement when who walked through the door but Veronica Brill. There was no way she was coming to Egypt because she had just had a mastectomy but a last minute cancellation had given Veronica the opportunity to ask her doctor if she could come on this trip. I couldn't contain my excitement when I saw her - this was going to be a great week.