"It's nice here, isn't it?" exclaimed Abdou the West Bank Donkey Man, for the umpteenth time!

Yes, he was a lovely fellah as he took Number 2 Daughter and I on our donkey tour of the West Bank farming lands and villages, then stumbling over the mountains from the King's Valley to Hatshepsut's Funery Temple. Great fun was had by all, including him as he had to keep stopping my donkey from wandering into the path of the fully laden six-wheeled tipping wagons coming pelting down the road from the Valley area.

Of course, that was many a long year ago, when she was a little girl, instead of the fully grown beauty queen and devoted mother which she now, who (just about!) singlehandedly runs the pharmacy at our local hospital! But we still have a laugh when any of us comes out with Abdou's catchphrase.

And so it was, as we gracefully made our way up the Nile on Mr Ramadan's Nile Cruiser, the Royal Viking. "It's nice here, isn't it?" I must have said that to Freda at least a half dozen times, and each one raised a smile for both of us. It IS nice, and genuinely so! I'm ever grateful to our good friend Mr Ramadan Hagaggi for helping us to travel on her, as we do really feel like part of his extended family. (He's a nephew of our dear departed neighbour [the English speaking Egyptian Guide, Licence No. 9 in all Egypt!] Uncle Mohamed, whom we had the privilege to help and care for during the slow decline towards his death, and whom we still miss greatly!)

We've been fortunate enough to cruise the Nile on this vessel about 5 or possibly 6 times, now, and I love it. I cannot honestly put my hand on my heart and tell you that it's the most luxurious Nile cruiser on which we've sailed, but the very fact that we keep on returning to it must tell you something? It's comfortable, certainly clean enough; and with every usual Nile cruiser facility available onboard, the crew/staff are attentive and kindly as ever, and the food is very good, even improved upon previous visits! Roll-on next time, we can hardly wait!

(If you type 'Royal Viking', into the little search box at the top of this page, you'll find lots of posts about her and also the Cataract, as the two have often gone hand in hand.)

The main purpose of the cruise was to get us to Aswan, and our pre-booked stay at the glorious "Old Cataract Hotel". I've probably told you all this before, Dear Reader, but the Cataract is my No. 1 favourite hotel, ever. There is the old building, known as the Palace, and also the concrete monolith which was formerly the "New Cataract", which was in the same style as the equally awful (but both adequate and cheaper) "New Winter Palace" in Luxor. Now, it has been almost re-built (a few years ago, I blogged about it at the time!) as "The Nile Wing" and is the very apogee of luxury and modern style! I'm writing this very Blog in the office part of our suite in that building, who's a lucky boy then?  

Here's the view from the balcony, of the room which we were allocated on arrival, I think it's outstanding!

Mind you, this room on the 6th floor wasn't what we were really expecting, but we were glad of it, nonetheless. Our original booking was for Saturday, but the cruiseboat leaves Aswan in the very early hours on Saturday, so we had to leave her on Friday. Frantic phone calls and emails etc to the Cataract manager had him struggling to find room for us in an hotel which was already bursting at the seams. But, star that he is, he did it, good old Mr Osama Saied! Thank you.

The room was very nice and well appointed, but........twin beds? Really, for old folk who've been married for a month short of 50 years?

Thankfully, by the next night, our proper room was available and made ready for us. But that's for another story!