There & back again

 So many places, people and images over the past few weeks.  We had almost forgotten how travel 🧳 is about more than the journey.  We got opportunities to adapt plans right away with the Sahara dust choking the skies over Spain; learning to navigate around Albania; creating glass art with new friends; traveling with old friends to Egypt and then how to be safe with Covid as we returned.  

So many thanks to our home team for helping hold the fort!!

Paris & an opportunity

OK, so we need to hang out for a few days & decided to stay in Paris en route to home.  It’s a city we can roam via the metro & it has such an amazing history.  With that said, will post photos of random shots of this City of Light.

Domestic duties:  laundry 🧺 

And the interior of the hotel Lux Picpus 

We’ve settled into a hotel, curiously named Hotel Lux Picpus.  It’s in the Picpus quarter in the 12th district & may be a distortion of the old village name but it’s fun to say it with a French accent.  Our taxi driver thought we were hilarious as we tried saying it out loud.  It’s a leafy street with coffee shop with a funky vibe, Vietnamese restaurant , pharmacy and children’s garden.  With nearby Metro stations & our new passes, we are set to see Paris, albeit slower pace as we fully recover from Covid.  

More photos:

Chilling at the Red Sea

 Our final stop before we start the journey home.  There’s something special about clear seas on a desert beach.  Tomorrow we head to Cairo to get tested & grab middle-of-the-night flights to states.  

Here’s a few shots of marsa alam:

Hatshepsut is my hero

 Hatshepsut was a female pharaoh just trying to make her mark in ancient male-centric times.  Her monuments are huge, including obelisks and giant statues at Karnak.  We went to her after-death palace today - another jaw-dropping sight!

As history would have it, all references to her were removed from the tombs & written records, except for a single hieroglyph.  From that, and her monuments, she’s been recognized in modern times.  Hatshepsut my hero!

Our next stop was Valley of the Kings, where there are no pyramids- the tombs are carved into limestone on the valley walls.  The temperature reached 107 as we wandered the trails leading to the entrances, and felt like we would have failed in the entrance exam for ancient workers (ex. “Can you endure hardship in extreme heat?).  We used the tools available to us:  sunglasses, hats, UPF clothing, sunscreen, liters of water & Spanish fans.  

Afterwards we stopped at a locally owned fabrics workshop.  Beautiful cloth woven by very talented women.

Luxor: land of antiquities & HEAT

 Goodbye Cairo;  hello Luxor.   We’ve landed in Luxor, where the valley of kings, Thebes & Karnak temples await.  Projected temperatures are 106 to 108, but it feels hotter because of the reflected heat from the ancient stones.  I suspect that my afternoon will be spent crashed out in the hotel room with the lights low & cool cloth on forehead!  It’s also the most amazing landscape of temples & ruins!!

Cairo: Giza, pyramids & Saqqara

 Awestruck by the ancient Egyptians and what is left behind in Giza.