Saturday, April 4, 2009 Aswan, Egypt What a great day! It started with a motorboat ride to the base of a sand dune. Here we mounted camels and trekked up the dune to St. Simeon Monastery. The camel ride was very fun. I found out that my camel's name was Oscar and he was 3 years old. A few of the people were fearful and wanted to get off and walk. The desert Monastery of St. Simeon, on the west bank of the Nile, was built in the 7th century AD. Once ...

Friday, April 03, 2009 Aswan, Egypt Today was basically a free day for me. This morning there was an optional tour to Abu Simbel. It seemed quite pricey to me and so I opted out. Those who went had to get up at 4 am, leave the hotel at 5 am, fly to Abu Simbel, look at the monument and return to Aswan in time for lunch at noon. The price was $250. Instead, I got up at 5:30, called Pat and went back to bed from 7:30 to 10:00 and even skipped breakfast. We...