Pictures from our trip to Aswan.

Yes, I had taken more pictures than I showed you in the last Blog.
Here are a few more of the hotel itself, one or two views from the hotel and also a few short videos taken through the train windows on our return journey.
Here goes!

That's the "Nile Wing", the picture was taken from the pool. Those balconies are marvellous, very spacious and with astounding views. I just caught the corner of the Nile Wing in this first video, it's a panoramic view from our balcony, enjoy!

Although the hotel has been almost wholly re-designed, the designers wouldn't have dared to make much alteration to the fabulous Moorish flavour of the public interior areas:

Here's a view across the Nile to Elephantine Island and St Simeon's Monastery, away in the desert. It's a fascinating trip out there, we took camels across the scorching sand (it was a good few years ago) but you can walk, it's not all that far. Whichever way you choose, this place is well worth a visit, very interesting!

However, if you're more like we are now, the following picture shows us the Cataract library, where very few people seem to go. They have some lovely coffee-table type books, but also some interesting and amusing old books on the shelves. We could have spent many a comfortable hour in here.

The train journey home was as frustrating as it was interesting! Being daytime, there are so many fascinating sights to see from the train. The biggest problem is, though, that no matter how vigilant you are, for every point of interest you see on one side, you miss two on the other!!! The scenery is constantly changing; from village to mountains, from disjointed towns to ancient granite quarry or from a busy main road passing a large steelworks, to biblical farming vistas. I took a few videos, but they hardly give you a taste of what there is to tickle your fancy on such a journey.

Since we got back home, we haven't really accomplished much at all! Apart from cleaning, of course, and the odd bit of cooking and dish-washing, we've mainly lain around complaining about the heat! Now, I know (from a phone conversation with a friend in Derbyshire today) that it's really quite cold at our other home, but how could you manage with this temperature (taken in the shade, of course!) and it's still only May!

It's right what the Egyptians are fond of telling tourists, "It's a hard life here in Egypt!" But someone has to do it! Please take pity on us, and think kindly of us as we soldier on bringing little snippets of our Egyptian life for your delectation.

It's now time for bed, at 01.48, and it's still over 28C outside.