RING!!! The phone call to awaken us went off at 2:45 am and we all got up for our trip to Abu Simbel! Do not ask us why the tour works this way, but it does and it is brutal!

Our restaurant prepared a boxed breakfast and we boarded our minibus at 3:30 am and then joined an entire convoy of mini-buses and full tour buses. The itinerary was to leave Aswan by 4:30 am, get to Abu Simbel by 7:15 am, see the site by 9:00 am, and return to Aswan by 11:30 am. Most people slept on the bus even after the sun rose, as the landscape is unbroken desert. The long, somewhat uncomfortable, bus trip was well worth it when we saw this amazing place.

Before entering the site, a guide explained everything first and had pictures of everything we would see, and then let us be on our way. Tessa's stomach had been quite upset and she was a little faint so it was good to be on our own. We looked around; taking our time and making our way back to the bus by 9:00 am. We even had time to barter for a key chain (Tessa has been collecting them). Barry was very proud because the opening price was 125 Egyptian pounds (25 dollars!) but when Barry was done, we bought it for 15 Egyptian pounds, about 3 dollars, Canadian. When we returned to Aswan, we went back to the hotel and had a lovely lunch, after which the kids worked on their math and science.

The afternoon flew by, and we ended it by taking a walk along the Nile and checking out some felucca (Egyptian sailboat) prices. We'd thought about going for a sail, but worried about time constraints so instead we wandered back and made our way to the train at 5:45 pm.

It was a great train and we wished we'd had that train for our overnight journey! The two hours passed quickly as another group of Western Canadians were aboard as part of a tour group. It was wonderful to visit with a woman from Kelowna and the Davis family from Calgary.

When we got to Luxor, we were met with an agent who got us a cab and brought us to the Shady Hotel. It had a pool (bonus!) and a fun, friendly staff. We quickly discussed the next two days' itinerary with our agent, opting not to do anything until late the next afternoon, so that we could sleep in and then explore a bit on our own. Then we retired to our rooms to watch some Egyptian soap opera on TV, update journal entries, etc., before going to sleep.