Day 2 & 3 in Luxor, Egypt

Trip date: December 2022

Day 2 in Luxor! After a lovely breakfast in the garden of the hotel (eggs, Egyptian pita with falafel, feta, cucumber, tomato, and fresh hibiscus juice) our guide Gaber and the driver picked us up. We'd be spending the entire day exploring the East Bank. And since there is only 1 bridge in Luxor it was a 40 minute drive around. There is a ferry but it's passenger only.

The East Bank is where the main city and big hotels are. But to be clear, this is definitely a developing nation situation so the roads are dusty, many are dirt, and all means of transportation are on them; cars, scooters, donkeys, bicycles, people walking, tuk tuk, horse and buggy...and we passed our first camel!

Our morning stop was at the Luxor Museum, which sits right on the banks of the Nile looking out to the west. We started in a small room, called the Luxor Cachette, that houses 15 statues that were discovered under the Luxor Temple in 1989. We'd be visiting the temple later in the day so it was very cool to see these. 

I really liked this museum as it was small enough to comfortably cover without being absolutely overloaded. Some of the highlights for me were the collection of almost perfect statues that had been excavated, the mummy that many believe to be Ramses I (which was originally stolen by grave robbers and sold to someone in Canada!), the collection of funerary objects, and original "blueprints" of tombs!

After a few hours at the museum we drove to Karnak Temple. As this was a Friday it seemed that every man in town was on his way to the central mosque when we drove past. It was quite a sight to see, not to mention the call to prayer that was blaring from loudspeakers around town. Friday is the most holy of the Muslim weekdays we learned, so many places will close midday for a while.

This complex is huge! About 200 acres huge! It was constructed over 1500 years, entirely for the worship of the god Amun, chief god of ancient Thebes (Luxor). It is believed to be the largest religious complex ever built. Gaber had some color prints of what it may have looked like in its heyday. Incredible.

Karnak is made up of over 200 structures including temples, chaples, squares, obelisks, a lake, and the famed Great Columns. 134 giant columns to be exact, all made out of sandstone. At the time they would have supported a roof and walls.

The complex use to have 17 obelisks, 3 are still standing. The one on the left is for Thutmosis I and the one on the right is for Hatshepsut. 

It's overwhelming to try to comprehend that anything is still standing from this 3300 year old complex. I was completely blown away and before coming didn't even know anything about it! It was definitely one of my favorite stops. 

It had been a big morning and we were all looking forward to lunch. We had chosen Sofra and had invited Gaber to be our guest. It's one of the better restaurants in town so he was excited, as were we. We sat upstairs on their terrace, had some delicious fresh juices (the restaurant is dry) and an assortment of mezze at our big round table that looked like a giant tray. I ordered the local specialty hamam mahshi (pigeon stuffed with rice) and when I went to cut into it with fork and knife Gaber let me know that locals pick up the entire bird and bite right into it. Done! It was excellent!

It was late in the day and we were headed to the Luxor Temple; the sun was just starting to set and the light was gorgeous on the banks of the Nile.

First we walked to the remains of the Avenue of Sphinxes, a 1.7 mile long road which was lined on both sides with more than 1,050 statues of sphinxes and rams that connected Karnak to Luxor Temple. That's a lot of statues!

As we walked up to the temple, the first thing we saw was the last remaining obelisk in Luxor. This one has a twin which was gifted to the city of Paris and is at the Place de Concorde.  

3,400 year old Luxor Temple was built over hundreds of years. Pharaoh Amenhotep III started the construction, both Tutankhamun and Horemheb added to it, and then Rameses II finished it. 

The temple was buried under the streets of Luxor for thousands of years. This mosque was actually built right on top of it and you can still see the door, red painted around it, where the street would have been!

You'd think we would have been "ruined" by this time but everything is so damn fascinating! It was also really cool to walk through the temple as dusk turned into night.

Luxor souk is just across the street so Gaber took us inside to do a little shopping. We all found the merchants to be particularly aggressive about making a sale. If you even glanced at something they were right there starting to sell you. 

We all did end up buying some scarves as the weather had turned colder than we had expected (and packed) for. But it was an ordeal even with Gaber! This isn't a locals market so they are use to tourists.

Phew! It had been a long day! We said goodbye to Gaber and headed to the Royal Bar at the Winter Palace Sofitel Hotel. Martinis were had! Maybe 2! Pro tip: if you are in need of a cocktail in Egypt your best bet is to head to one of the large international hotels. 

We called a driver that the hotel had introduced us to the night before for a ride back to the West Bank and spent the rest of the evening chilling out in the Embrace Hotel's lovely garden.

On our last day, Christmas Eve, we were supposed to go for a sunrise hot air balloon ride over the valley. Unfortunately this was canceled due to high winds. Fortunately we got to sleep in and had a ½ day to just relax in the gardens of the hotel. 

Gaber met us after lunch and we walked down to the banks of the Nile. He pointed out some interesting things along the way, including homes that had paintings on them signifying that members of the home had made the pilgrimage to Mecca.

We'd see this throughout our travels around Egypt. Much easier to decipher than hieroglyphics! 

Our afternoon was spent on a private felucca, a traditional simple wooden sailboat. We had invited Gaber to join us and we all had a great time sailing around the Nile, taking in amazing views of the Luxor Temple from the water, and checking out the other boats. 

We had an early dinner at Banana Island which is also a restaurant. After filling up on hummus, kefta, and a delicious soup we were given a huge bunch of bananas to take with us. It's a thing I guess!

Back on the boat, we shared them with the captain and his "sail boy" while sipping on hot mint tea and literally sailing off in the sunset.

What an outstanding end to an amazing time in Luxor! We absolutely loved Gaber our guide (see prior post for his contact info) and we all felt like we learned a lot about the pharaohs, temples, and tombs in the area. 

All Luxor photos here.

Other posts from this trip:

My Birthday with Pharaohs in Luxor, Egypt

Four Nights on the Nile
48 Hours in Aswan, Egypt
New Year's Eve Inside Egypt's Pyramids
Exploring Cairo
48 Hours in Dubai, UAE
Emirates International First Class

My Birthday with Pharaohs in Egypt

Trip date: December 2022 

Last year I finally was able to visit a country that had been on my list since I was a kid; Egypt! My friends and I went for my birthday, Christmas, and New Years. It was amazing!

I flew from Seattle to London on Virgin Atlantic. Virgin had had a points transfer deal which made my Chase points worth 30% more so I booked into their Upper Class which I had never flown and was excited about. Virgin shares the Delta Lounge at SeaTac, which is really a great lounge, so I had a lovely snack paired with champagne before boarding my overnight flight. 

I always love a layflat bed when flying but I have to say that the configuration of Virgin's B787 was not good. All the "pods" face into the aisle (instead of forward) and have their back to the window. This means you are facing everyone; so weird!

Service was very good, all my food was fine (the airplane salt & pepper shakers were a cute touch), goodie bag was basic, but the jammies were great! I wouldn't choose to fly this particular metal again but that is a first world problem, I am aware. 

In London I met my friend Caitlin at our terminal for our Egyptair flight to Cairo where we would be connecting on to Luxor. As we waited to board we found out that Egyptair is a dry airline, aka no alcohol served onboard due to their Muslim ownership, but you could BYOB! So I grabbed a couple of mini bottles of wine and away we went. 

I had booked my London-Cairo-Luxor flights using miles via Amex so was also in business class. The layflat seat was very comfy and there was a ton of room! I asked the flight attendant for a glass for my wine and had a very enjoyable flight. Unfortunately Egyptair is known for being delayed and our flight was 2 hours late getting into Cairo, meaning we had missed our connection to Luxor (with our friends Forest and Thibault on it!).

Egyptair was very helpful though and not only put us up in a hotel but let us choose the Marriott which was in the airport. Since I am Marriott Gold they gave Caitlin and I a huge room with a lovely big bathroom. We ordered up some room service and caught up, forgoing any actual sleep as we had a 4am wake up call for our rebooked 6am flight. TOO EARLY!

Our 1 hour flight to Luxor was uneventful, I was even served a good breakfast and coffee in nice china in business class. We landed at Luxor airport, picked up some gin in duty free, and grabbed a taxi to meet our friends at the Embrace Hotel on the west bank. 

Dec 22nd, my birthday, and boy did we hit the ground running! We got to the hotel at about 9am and our private guide picked us up at 10am for our day in the Valley of the Kings. Hiring a private guide, we used Gaber and booked thru Yalla Travel, meant that we had an Egyptologist and a driver for 3 days to show us around and more importantly to explain the over THREE THOUSAND YEAR OLD history of what we would be seeing. 

As soon as we were on the road heading west to the Valley, Gaber was pointing out excavation sites, ruined statues, and other tombs in the hills. It was absolutely surreal! All of the area is an excavation site basically. I was thrilled!!

There are 63 tombs in the valley and 11 are open to the public, but not all on the same day. We chose to visit 4 of them, including Tutankhamun's (did you know he was buried in Luxor?).

Our first tomb was KV14 which was originally built for Queen Twosret, who was the last ruler of the 19th dynasty of Egypt. She was buried here in 1189BC. The tomb was then reused and extended by Setnakhte, the first pharaoh of the 20th dynasty. It was very unusual for a tomb to be used like this and also makes it one of the largest tombs in the valley. For an idea of the the layout of these tombs this site is fascinating! 

Next we toured KV11 which is the tomb of Pharaoh Ramesses III. Setnakhte originally started this tomb but abandoned the project when they accidently broke into the tomb of Amenmesse! 

KV62 is everyone's favorite child pharoah, King Tutankhamun. Immediately upon entering you go down a set of stairs and through a small hall before entering a chamber where Tut's body is on display! This isn't the burial chamber, you continue just a bit to enter into that small but lavish room. It's just incredible that you can be that close to the 2000 year old mummy!

And finally KV6 the tomb of Pharaoh Ramesses IX. The walls of the entrance here are covered completely in hieroglyphics but as you continue on the decorations aren't complete. They think that maybe the had to rush the finish when the pharaoh died.

Nothing can prepare you for walking into these tombs. The fact that the colors on the walls are still so distinct is mind blowing. It would be very easy to spend the day here but we had more to see! 

A short distance away we stopped at the Mortuary Temple of Hatshepsut, built into the base of the cliffs just outside of Luxor. It looks like a movie set!

 

Queen Hatshepsut was the wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II and reigned from 1479 BC until 1458 BC. She is remembered as one of Egypt's greatest rulers. 

This 3-level temple took 15 years to build and was like nothing else at the time. Originally there were rows of sphinxes guiding you to the 900 foot long building adorned with 22 Hathor columns. There are chapels dedicated to various gods and walls covered with reliefs of every known plant and animal in all of Egypt. It's truly a marvel.  

The entire complex was to be used as a place for people to worship Hatshepsut in her death and to remember her greatness. Unfortunately her stepson Thutmose III hated her. After her death he tried to erase her existence by removing her name from buildings, demolishing statues of her, monuments, etc. There's a lot of drama with these pharaohs! 

And all of this was before lunch!! Gaber took us to a restaurant with a nice terrace overlooking the nearby fields for some traditional Egyptian food. And then we were off again...

Next we visited Medinet Habu. There is so much history at this site! Originally Hatshepsut built this as a Temple to the god Amun in the early 18th Dynasty. 

Then Ramesses III had more construction done to make it his Mortuary Temple. It's a huge complex with courtyards, temples, storage rooms, a palace, etc. It was very cool seeing this after visiting his tomb earlier in the day.

When you visit these sites you will see security men keeping an eye on things in the ruins. They will also offer to show you areas and rooms not open to the public... for a fee. It's a good idea to keep 5 and 10 Egyptian Pounds (20-30 cents each) in your pockets for this. We were shown a few interesting spaces including the area where animal sacrifices were made. 

It was late in the day when we visited and the light was just beautiful! And we were the only people there by the time we left. Honestly, this site wasn't on our list but our guide Gaber recommended it and I'm so glad he did! It's his favorite as he grew up in the village next to it and he use to play in the ruins as a kid! Amazing!! 

We made a quick stop at the Colossi of Memnon on the way back to our hotel, which were built in 1350 BC as part of a massive temple that no longer stands. 

And then it was time to have a drink, get cleaned up, and go out for my birthday dinner! We went to Marsam which is inside a very cool hotel by the same name. The food was great, and the restaurant served wine (most don't since it's a Muslim country), and the company was even better!

Happy Birthday to me! In Egypt!!

All Luxor photos here. 

Other posts from this trip:
Day 2 & 3 in Luxor, Egypt
Four Nights on the Nile
48 Hours in Aswan, Egypt
New Year's Eve Inside Egypt's Pyramids
Exploring Cairo
48 Hours in Dubai, UAE
Emirates International First Class

Santa Fe Weekend

Trip date: April 2023

I had never been to New Mexico so I asked my friend Gail if she wanted to do a weekend in Santa Fe. We used one of my Alaska $99 Companion Fare certificates and flew in Premium class after work on a Thursday. Unfortunately our flight ended up being 1 ½ hours late; fortunately we both have access to the Amex Centurion Lounge at SeaTac. 

We flew into Albuquerque and while joking with the car rental agent at Alamo about getting an upgrade, their manager offered us a brand new Chevy convertible for the same price as our basic car. Nice!

It was about a 1 hour drive to the Marriott La Posada de Santa Fe. Gail had stayed here before and was excited about returning but when we checked into our room we were in a very old room with 2 Queens and a tiny bathroom. We had been upgraded to a room with a patio but the only place for my suitcase was in front of the patio door so we didn't use it. It was really too bad as the rest of the property looked pretty nice and many of the rooms had wood fireplaces! We were both disappointed.

Because of our flight delay, it was too late for dinner but we had a couple of nightcaps in the bar, which also had fireplaces burning the local piñon wood which smells incredible. 

The next morning we had a great breakfast at the hotel. New Mexico is known for their Christmas sauce, which is both red and green chili sauce on your enchilada's. It is absolutely delicious, and much spicier than I expected! Especially at breakfast!

On the agenda was a visit to Ten Thousand Waves spa. It's about 30 minutes outside of the city, situated up in the hills. We chose to park in the lower parking lot and walk up the 90 steps to the reception. 

Modeled after a traditional onsen, they offer public or private baths, and also a foot bath. There are also meditation rooms, a sauna, and a great gift shop. We soaked in the foot bath and then the public bath before each having a massage. The masseuses each had their own little rooms they worked out of. It was incredibly relaxing and we both loved our visit here!

Back in town we hit up Coyote Cafe for a late lunch of nachos and margaritas. So good!

Afterwards we walked around the corner to Gruet's tasting room. We had reservations, and it was a good thing as it filled up right after we arrived! The tasting room is beautiful and their sparkling wines are delicious. What a fun afternoon!

On our walk back to the hotel we stopped at Joe's Tequila Bar which is inside the Inn at the Alameda. I was quite impressed with their selection and their service. It was the first time I had tequila served with orange and cinnamon and I liked it!

On Saturday we started our day at The Teahouse where I had a huge breakfast burrito. Then we made the hour drive to Bandelier National Monument. Wow! What an incredible area this is! 

We took the Pueblo Loop Trail, which is very easy and takes you past the remains of an indigenous village that had about 400 people living in and near around it about 500 years ago. Walking through the ruins was awesome but you could really see the layout once you walked up into the hills a bit.

In these surrounding hills are over a thousand caves that were dug into the soft rock and used as dwellings. Many of them are accessible by ladder, all of them are super tiny inside!

As we continued along the trail there were areas with ancient petroglyphs. You barely had to search for them they were so obvious!

When we got to the Alcove trail we headed toward the large cave which is located 140 feet above the floor of Frijoles Canyon. It is believed that around 25 Ancestral Pueblo people lived here between 1250 and 1600 AD.

We decided to climb up. Eek! There are a series of 4 wooden ladders as well as some stone stairs. I'm not the best with heights (fear of falling!) and there were a lot of people but Gail was a great coach!

It was much harder coming down, for me anyway. My arms definitely got shaky and I had a little vertigo, but once you are up there, there isn't any other choice but to also climb down. I've never been in anything like it before and I was super glad we did it!

It was a stunning drive back to Santa Fe, cold and sunny, we had the top down and the heat cranked up!

Back in town we had another late lunch, this time outside at the Plaza Cafe. Afterwards we did some shopping at a few of the pottery galleries.

We decided to do a little happy hour cocktail crawl starting at Secreto which is inside the Hotel St. Francis.

Drinks were good and it's quite a fun vibe; they have a nice little patio also but it was full when we were there. We walked over to La Fonda and for another margarita before heading back to our hotel for some tacos. La Fonda is known for the bar up in their bell tower but it wasn't open for the season yet.

Sunday was Easter and we hadn't made any big brunch plans so we headed back to Plaza Cafe for a last enchiladas with Christmas sauce outside in the sun with mimosas.

We spent the rest of our day touring through some of the art galleries, shopping for chili powder, and checking out the Loretto Chapel and its mysterious staircase. Spoiler alert... it's a spiral staircase that reportedly was built by a mysterious carpenter, without anyone witnessing him. 

I was much more interested in going inside the Cathedral but as it was Easter weekend it was open for mass only. 

Before heading to the airport for our evening flight home, we drove to Happy Accidents cocktail bar in Albuquerque for one round. It's super fun, has a huge selection of tap cocktails, and a wonderfully nice staff. I highly recommend a stop if you are in the area!

It's an 8 minute drive to the airport from there. Easy peasy!

All New Mexico photos here.