9th June 2010

Up at 9am, lots of sore heads from the night before. We went to Karnak and Luxor Temples.

Karnak is an outstanding temple, with huge columns, walls covered with hieroglyphics, and The Avenue of Sphinxes which is 2.5 kilometres long.

The Avenue of Sphinxes at the Luxor Temple was a double line of human-headed sphinxes that once connected the Temple of Khonsu at Karnak with the Luxor Temple. It was built for processions in which priests and celebrating pious people moved along the shore of the Nile and through the Avenue of Sphinxes to and from the temple.

Luxor Temple is among the most beautiful Temples in Egypt. It was known in the New Kingdom period as Ipt-Rsyt, which means the southern shrine. This was to differentiate between this Temple and Karnak Temple, which was the northern house of Amon Ra.

In the afternoon we made a 5-hour journey to the coastal resort town of Hurghada on the Red Sea.

Hurghada was founded in the early 20th century, and since the 1980s has been continually enlarged by Egyptian and foreign investors to become the leading seashore resort on the Red Sea. Holiday villages and hotels provide aquatic sport facilities for sailboarders, yachtsmen, scuba divers and snorkellers.

We checked into our hotel, had tea in a pub and them went night shopping.

10th June 2010

Katie and I went shopping downtown then swam in the Red Sea to cool off. We went to a private beach and had lunch at Cacao. We had a two hour massage, body wrap, facial, sauna, steam bath and sat in a jacuzzi. We all went down to the Marina for tea. It was a funny night watching some of the passengers Sumo wrestle..............