We have had a great time in Luxor, seen some fantastic sights, met some really nice people and, most excitingly, some 20 years after Jim failed to to fix it for Graham . . . taken a hot air balloon flight!

Initially, the early morning police convoy from Aswan was a little disconcerting - especially when the armed guard hopped in our minibus! To start with it all feels very Kate Adie-like, but pretty soon you realise that it is all a farce. Our guess is that all the shows of security are really only there to show western governments that the authorities are doing all that they can to avoid a repeat of any terrorist attacks to ensure that safe travel is still advised.

En route to Luxor we visited the ancient temples at both Kom Ombo and Edfu. Although there was no hassle or arguments with any Egyptians this time, we did manage one with a bloke from Belgium - probably the biggest prat that we have ever met! He was annoying from the off, but after holding the entire convoy up by returning 20 minutes late from a temple visit he went off on one at the driver. A rant about being "a free person, living free from the contraints of a police state"! This somehow developed into a pretentious spiel about "just wanting peace on eath" and wanting us all to find our "inner happiness"! We are not sure what the poor driver made of him, but as you can imagine, Graham couldn't help himself and a "discussion" started . . . had he swallowed the "bulls***" dictionary?! Gemma just wished he could be a "free person" quietly inside his own head, rather than out loud . . . she was trying to sleep!

Despite having more tourists than locals and most of them invading in vast numbers from cruise ships and tour buses, we found Luxor a great place to spend a few days. The sights are unmissable and if you time your days to dodge the masses and steer clear of the tourist traps, pretty stress free and relaxing. Certainly a better all round experience than the more famous pyramids.

We've visited the temples of Luxor, Hateshepsut and Karnak, as well as the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens and Colossi of Memnom. The Karnak complex was excellent to visit but the tombs in the Valley of the Kings and Queens were definitely the highlight of our Egypt visits. The masses of tombs are in a fairly compact site, some up to 300m deep into the rocks and most with an amazing amount of coloured paintings and hieroglyphics. Gemma discovered that her kartouche (name in hieroglyphics) consists of a feather, two owls and a falcon, which means justice, wise, wise brain. No wonder she is always right!

Our early morning balloon flight was well worth getting out of bed for and we flew over Luxor's west bank and tombs. It was ace!! We also felt rather smug about having paid a third of the price of most other people!

Amongst the sight seeing we have eaten felafel, fatta (which is so heavy it should be on a Ronseal ad!) and smoked Sheesha (apple flavour is favourite!), watching the sunset. As far as we are concerned Luxor is great . . . as long as you're not on one of the cruise boats moored 4 deep for a kilometre along the riverbank! We have had an excellent few days here and a good way to end our adventures. Next stop diving on the red sea and doing lots of . . . nothing!!