December 4, Luxor

We caught our flight to Luxor by taking an Uber to the airport.... Sweet deal so much cheaper than the damn taxis.

We faced a similar situation when we landed to Cairo, many taxi drivers clambering for a fare.  People were very aggressive and kept grabbing for the cart to escort us to their cab.  Bill kind of lost his cool and yelled at one guy.  We got in a cab and the driver was trying to gage if we knew Luxor or where our hotel was.  Bill told him that we had stained at the hotel many times before.  We were quickly taken directly there!

The Nefertiti Hotel was a quaint older hotel with a fantastic roof deck view of the Luxor Temple.  We  thought that the Luxor Temple was not on the itinerary of the cruise, so we went over to see it.  We wandered around and took photos and then decided we were hungry.  We went up to the roof deck and ordered some dinner.  The dusk view was wonderful

Here are some pics from the Temple of Luxor

 The minaret of a mosque is on the left and the Luxor Temple is in the right center

 The faint lights in a line from the temple to the right edge is the Avenue of Sphinx's

 Our dinner was a feta salad

 A wonderful chicken and freekah casserole

 Bill ordered this delicious pizza like thing of meat, bread, and cheese

 This was a camel burger, nothing to write home about, tasted like a well done hamburger

 Here is a good shot of the Avenue of the Sphinx's

After dinner we decided to explore the soul which was just outside our hotel and down the little alley.  As we walked into the area, we were immediately glommed onto by a man who said he recognized us from our hotel and that he was a chef in the hotel.  We let him lead us all over and one place that we ended up was this spice seller.  $20 later, I came home with lots of a few spices, turmeric, curry, saffron, and hibiscus tea.

The real test of our collective patience.  We went to a knick-knack dealer's store.  We knew it was going to be a no go, but as he said, it doesn't cost any money to look.  After leafing through more awful papyrus we were escorted into the statuary area, another bleak, bleak demonstration of artistic talent.  Then I mentioned that I was interested in a scarf.  Upstairs we went and were given the hard sell.  Bill was an excellent bad cop.  We haggled him down from 1100 EP to 300 EP, he still made a profit, not a urge one!  It is a beautiful scarf and I am happy to have paid about $15 for.

We were then taken to meet his teacher and friend.  This man sells t-shirts in the souk and teaches during the day.  We did buy a t-shirt for my mom with her name in hieroglyphs.  Back to hotel and to bed.