The Nile River Valley ~Tombs, Temples and Tourists

At the end of that 3.5-hour bus ride from the port city of Safaga where our cruise ship was docked we found ourselves in Luxor, Egypt crossing the Nile River . . . surrounded by some of the Ancient World’s most famed sites.

The Nile River at Luxor, Egypt

That visit to Luxor was one of the selling points of last spring's cruise - our Magic Carpet Ride - through the Middle East that departed Bangkok,Thailand and sailed to Istanbul, Turkey. Although, truth be told we didn’t know that much about Luxor before we’d boarded the ship, I can tell you now that a day was no where near long enough to explore the treasures of this extraordinary place.

Luxor came to importance nearly 4,000 mind-boggling years ago,during the Middle Kingdom period (2055 – 1650 BC) when the then Upper Kingdom and Lower Kingdoms were united into one. Luxor, or Thebes, as it was then known, became the capital. The city grew and the Arabs are said to have renamed it ‘Luxor’ or “City of Palaces” because of its palaces and huge edifices. It remained the seat of power from 2100 BC to 750 BC.

Modern highrise hotels like this one line the Nile River in Luxor, Egypt

Today’s Luxor provides tourists a kaleidoscope of contrasting scenes. Modern tourist hotels along the Nile are only a few blocks from the remains of the temples of Karnak and Luxor. Cross the Nile and you’ll find yourself among so many west bank tombs and temples, it is difficult to keep them all straight.

Colossi of Memnon near Luxor, Egypt

Because of the distance cruise ship tours must travel from the port to Luxor, one day tours don’t even begin until a hot afternoon sun is blistering the Valley of the Kings.  Even with tourism's downturn, awed visitors snake into and out of the tombs at such a measured, slow pace that long lines form under an unforgiving sun.

Cameras are not allowed (in fact, confiscated if used). That is a good thing because otherwise with the crush of people in those tiny little tomb entryways, we’d still be standing there while shutterbugs took aim at the ornately decorated walls.

A trip to this area requires both stamina to stand in the sun waiting a turn inside and an ability to walk some distances in the  intense heat.

To appease the camera-totting among us, we had brief ‘photo stops’ at Hatshpsut Temple and the Colossi of Memnon –  I can tell you that the afternoon heat was so intense that only the shutterbugs hopped off the bus. Many opted to stay inside its air-conditioned comfort.

Memnon was the legendary African king who was slain by Achilles during the Trojan War. The Colossi are in front of the main entrance to an enormous funerary temple, the remains of which are being brought to light, according to our trusty Lonely Planet’s guidebook.

Again, while we found the ‘sites’ to be fascinating, it was some of the ‘sights’ along the way that really caught our imaginations. Scenes along the Nile, where dozens of river boats sat idle had us wondering if it was because they didn’t come to life until evening or because tourism is at a record-low thanks to security concerns in the country.

River boats docked along the Nile River in Luxor, Egypt

Another ‘sight’ we would not only have loved to explore, but to have stayed at is the famous Winter Palace Hotel, built in 1886. Agatha Christie wrote her 1937 novel, “Death on the Nile” while staying here. These historic hotels are among our favorites and one day we do hope to return to this one.
 

The Winter Palace Hotel - Luxor, Egypt

The Winter Palace is quite near the Luxor Temple, where we ended our day-long whirlwind tour of the area. You may recall from last week’s post that we had to leave the city before 6 p.m. as we’d not be allowed out after that time for security reasons. We had an hour to wander among the temple’s wonders, so here’s an small sample of what we saw. . .

Luxor Temple Egypt

We felt small and insignificant walking between these columns.

For that matter, everything was so large, that we felt small and insignificant.

One of the most amazing stretches of history in Luxor, to my way of thinking, was the avenue of sphinxes, a three-kilometer alleyway that connected Luxor and Karnak – the old street is lined on both sides with sphinxes, many of which are still being excavated.

The Scribe and The Scout at the avenue of the Sphinxes 

(Note for travel fashionistas: Forget fashion! It is simply too hot.  I am wearing the loose cotton top I had purchased at a roadside stand in Thailand where we’d had our first introduction to the area’s intense heat. Cruise ship fashion went by the wayside in lieu of cool and billowing clothes. Sunglasses and hats are essential for travel in the Middle East – a heavy duty sunscreen and lots of bottles of water are far more important than extra photo cards and batteries).

Avenue of the Sphinxes excavation continues between Luxor and Karnak, Egypt

The setting sun signaled it was time to begin our journey back to the ship.

Luxor Temple 

But adventures were only beginning because -- move over Lawrence of Arabia and Indiana Jones – our next stop was Jordan and its famous Wadi Rum. . .a vast desert where we skipped the ship’s tour and did our own – we’ll tell you about that next week.

Hello to our new subscribers, thanks much for joining in the journey! Happy and safe travels to you all~
 
Linking up this week with:
Mosaic Monday – 
Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday – 
Photo Friday
Weekend Travel Inspiration

Cairo ~ A Stay at the Palace . . . I mean, the Marriott

As usual, The Scout, had done his homework on hotels prior to our trip to Cairo, Egypt. We were headed to the Cairo Marriott and Omar Khayyam Casino, in the Zamelek neighborhood of this sprawling city.

Cairo Marriott Hotel entry

What I hadn’t realized until our driver pulled into the guarded and gated entry (as most public places are these days in Cairo) that it wasn’t ‘just a Marriott’, on this island in the middle of the Nile River, it was a Palace! 

Quite literally, we’d arrived at the146-year-old former Palace Al Gezirah, the centerpiece of this five-star hotel.

While I didn’t know about the palace prior to our stay, we were so taken with it while there that I've set out to learn more about its history . . .

The palace was built at the direction of Isma’il Pasha,(often referred to as Isma’il the Magnificent), who served at Khedive of Egypt and Sudan from 1863 until 1879 – its purpose was to be a guest palace for the Suez Canal inaugural celebrations in 1869.

Imagine the guests who've walked these stairs

The neoclassical building, (a popular architectural style throughout Europe at the time), was designed by Austrian architect Julius Franz. German architect Carl von Diebitsch, was responsible for the ornate interior design.

During our near week-long stay earlier this month we had ample access and opportunity to explore the former palace as its grand rooms are used for receptions, meetings and events and some have been converted to restaurants and  lounges. The casino is housed there as well.

Imagine making your entry via this hallway

It was easy to let our imaginations take flight when walking the long elaborate hallways – all the while wishing  that the walls could talk. So many tales they could tell of its guests; Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, among them.

One of the meeting/reception rooms

And then there were the events like Khedive Isma’il’s son’s wedding which reportedly lasted 40 days.

Setting up for a dinner 

The building itself has undergone a number of changes as it transformed from palace to a hotel. For instance, back in 1879 when it was known as the Gizirah Palace, it was seized by the state for outstanding debts and subsequently acquired by the Egyptian Hotels Company.

Another palace room

Between 1894 and 1903 an additional 400 hotel rooms were added, along with electric lighting.

During the British occupation of Cairo (from 1914 – 1918) the palace served as a hospital and then was returned to the Egyptian Hotels Company. The following year it was sold to a Syrian landlord who’d settled in Cairo. Habib Lotfallah, the purchaser, paid 140,000 Egyptian pounds. For 40 years it was known as Palais Lotfallah.

One of the hotel restaurants located in the Palace

In 1961 under President Gamel Abdel Nasser, the palace was nationalized and became the Omar Khayyam Hotel.  In the 1970’s Marriott International took over management of the hotel, renovating the palace, and building two towers that flank it. The resulting compound is more than 1,000 guest rooms, numerous restaurants and bars.

The Palace was breathtaking from ceiling to floor

While exploring the hotel was so interesting that we could have spent hours there, we had 'a bit more' history waiting for us in town and surrounding areas. . .you know, places like the pyramids and the Sphinx in Giza. . .just to name a few. We’ll take you with us as we set off exploring some of those in our next post. We also plan to backtrack a bit and show you around other places in the Middle East that we visited as part of our spring cruise.

Hotel grounds and our room

For those of you not ‘into’ history or palaces, let us assure you the hotel has modern guest rooms and beautiful grounds.  While we used accumulated Marriott loyalty reward points for our stay, room rates for rooms with view decks are currently about $150US per night, double occupancy on booking.com. (An incredible deal, as we paid that to stay at a Fairfield Inn in Central Washington State last summer.)

Happy New Year to you and yours ~  hope your 2016 is filled with travel adventures whether taken from your armchair or in real time! And as always, thanks for the time you spent with us today!

Linking up this week:

Photo Friday 

Travel Photo Thursday – 

Wordless Wednesday

Our World Tuesday

Mosaic Monday – 

Through My Lens

Tuesday Travel Classics: The Majestic Hotel

Our Travel Classics feature takes us back to the United States’ Pacific Northwest this weekend for a stay at The Majestic Inn and Spa in Anacortes, Washington. . .

Telling friends that we celebrated The Scout’s birthday a few weeks ago at this charmer in the middle of the Historic District in Anacortes, a city about an hour and a half north of Seattle, their response is the same: 

“Anacortes? Isn’t that where you catch the ferry to the San Juans and Victoria, B.C.?”

One and the same! 

But if you’ve only driven to the ferry, you’ve missed some great Northwest history and a true Travel Classic hotel.

One of our favorite places in this wood-framed charmer -- that houses a spa, bar, restaurant and meeting rooms -- is its teeny-tiny top where there’s a surprisingly spacious sitting room for the use of guests.  From its comfy chairs there’s a 360-degree view that takes in a bit of the San Juan islands, Guemes Channel, the town’s sprawling commercial district and its Cap Sante Marina.

The hotel building dates back to the late 1800’s; a time during which the town was booming with hopes of being the transcontinental railroad terminus.  Staff members told us that this enormous building was moved to its present location in the early 1900’s from one several blocks away. The move, done by horse teams pulling the building on log skids, spanned an entire summer.

Guest rooms have been modernized and an elevator carries guests to all but the top, the fifth, floor these days. 

We’d opted for one of the favored corner rooms on the top floor which required climbing a flight of stairs. . .but the room and its deck made that climb worth it.

(It was too cold to sit outside but we often stepped outside to enjoy the view from our perch high above town. That’s our deck just on the roof line.)


Our room, one of 21 in the hotel, had a sitting area and wet bar with small refrigerator, television, and en suite bath.

A French press coffee maker was provides and the front desk provided as many packets of fresh ground coffee as we wanted.

We paid $147, plus tax, for a mid-week stay in February. Rates on this room can go as high as $309 in mid-summer (and these corner view rooms go fast).

The hotel’s popularity has prompted the construction of an annex, scheduled to be opened in late Spring 2013.  We suspect those rooms will also be luxurious, but we’ll be opting for the old building every chance we get.

What's there to do in Anacortes? Come back on the weekend when our travels will take us out and about in this charming waterfront town and nearby Guemes Island  in our WAWeekend series.

If You Go:

The Majestic Inn and Spa, 419 Commercial Ave., Anacortes, 98221, toll-free 877-370-0100, www.majesticinnandspa.com

Have a Travel Classic to recommend? Use the comment section below or if you’ve received this in your inbox, send us a quick email. Happy Travels and thanks for stopping by today!

Tuesday Travel Classics: Ely’s Hotel Nevada

Continuing our series of Travel Classics – those still-sparkling hotel gems of yesteryear -- we make a stop in Ely, Nevada and The Historic Hotel Nevada and Gambling Hall.

Back in 1929 when the six-story tall hotel opened, it was the tallest building in the State of Nevada.  (From my photo, you might still call it a ‘high-rise’ in this small town 250 miles north of Las Vegas). 

The Scout had researched the hotel prior to our Winter Road Trip, but we couldn’t fit in more than a lunch stop there on the southbound route. That little taste had us vowing to return, which is what we did on our return  from Arizona. And that time we spent the night. 

Just like those upscale casinos in Las Vegas, the hotel’s front desk is just off  – in this case – the ‘Gaming Hall’ (casino)  and the guest rooms are on the floors above it. Unlike those Vegas places, this one was small and filled with curios.



Buffalo heads, stuffed critters, the bigger-than-life bronze cowboy and antler chandeliers left no doubt you stepped back into the Ol’ West. Being December, all were decked out in bows and garlands as well. 

We can recommend the hotel restaurant for both the quality of its food and the portions.
This is my half of the French dip sandwich plate we’d ordered for lunch.






The hotel opened during a time in our country’s history when "Prohibition” was still in effect.  But thanks to the local bootlegging efforts the hotel was kept supplied with “Bath tub Gin” and “White Lightning,” the latter a grain alcohol that could reach 200 proof.

Back in its early days rooms rented for $1.50 a night and all had private toilets and nearly all had private baths as well. I suspect they might not have been as cute as the one we stayed in for only$54.95 (free wi-fi and a welcome margarita; no hotel fees, either!) Though we’d been warned that the old pipes carrying water to our shower in our en suite bath could go from cold to hot without warning, we didn’t have a problem (but we didn’t take long leisurely showers either).

Rooms are all named for and decorated with that person's musical memorabilia. 

Ours was Charlie Rich,  the Country Western singer. 

Bet you know this song of his (click the link to You Tube and go) 

“Behind Closed Doors”





If You Go:

Ely, is in White Pine County in the central part of eastern part of Nevada, sitting at the crossroads of U.S. 93 and U.S. 50. As you enter the town,you’ll find a selection of motels flanking the main drag.

But we’d recommend heading straight to The Hotel Nevada where they say, “Stay with us once and you’ll become a ‘customer for life’.”

That’s what happened to us.  We’ll be back. Hopefully, soon!

Have you stayed in a Travel Classic? Tell us about it in the comment section below or for those of you subscribers, head to TravelnWrite where you'll find the comment section.

Ely, Nevada: An Elixir for the Soul

While The Scribe was packing our suitcases, The Scout was planning the route for our Winter Road Trip through the Western United States. 



He’d calculated that on our second southbound day we’d reach tiny Ely, Nevada, (population 4,288 in 2011)  tucked away in the eastern part of the state in time for lunch. This town, that began in the late 1800’s as a stagecoach stop, is located at the northern tip of Nevada’s Great Basin. It became the county seat in 1887 and by 1906 was a copper mining boom town.



Illuminated by a mid-day sun against a blue sky background the the city park with its nearby towering County Courthouse called out Small Town Americana.   It’s a call that we find irresistible.



The Scout had read about the historic Hotel Nevada and Gambling Hall which  at six-stories it was until 1948, the tallest building in Nevada.  it was there we dined on our mid-day break.  (You can tell from the photo it is still one of the tallest buildings in town.)

So charmed were we by this taste of the Old West – both town and hotel -- that we vowed to return on our northbound trip – and three weeks later pulled in for a second dose  of small-town-soul-elixir.

By then winter had turned the little town into a Currier and Ives card:



Our arrival seemed synchronized with the snow that began falling in the mid-afternoon.


The small town seemed even more charming as -now bundled in winter coats and gloves -  we strolled along its darkening main street, named Altman.



One of our favorite ‘finds’ along the way was Economy Drug, an old-time combination pharmacy, gift and toy store, and boasting one of the coolest authentic drug store soda fountains we’ve ever seen.  Opened in the 1940’s the family’s on its third generation pharmacist.

We were warmly greeted by two camera-shy ladies running the eatery, one in particular was a ‘fountain’ of history about the town and the business. She told me not to miss the ‘naughty boy’  mural on the side of the building. So . . .

I didn’t want you to miss it either.  (Look closely near the lighted window.)

This time we stayed overnight in the historic Hotel Nevada and it’s a story unto itself. . .one that I'll soon be telling. . .

If You Go:

WHERE: 

• Ely, is in White Pine County in the central part of eastern part of Nevada, sitting at the crossroads of U.S. 93 and U.S. 50. As you enter the town,you’ll find a selection of motels flanking the main drag.

WHY:

• It’s a great base for outdoors enthusiasts as camping, hiking, fishing and places to climb are found within a close radius.
• In Ely, you are also in old Pony Express Country and not far from some old stage stops and mining ghost towns. 
• The old Ely Ghost Train, is an operating railroad museum. Between May and September you can take train rides powered by old steam engines No. 40 and No. 93 – both important links to the area’s mining past. For more information:  775.289.2085

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