More of Egypt

Wednesday, June 23 – The morning started off by exploring a bit more of Alexandria. Our first stop was the Montazah Palace, once the summer residence of the royal family, set on 200 acres of gardens. Our second stop was Biblioteca Alexandria, a huge complex that includes a ginormous library, a planetarium, a science museum, a manuscript museum and an exhibition gallery covering 85,405 square meters. The main building is a huge slanted disc supposedly to represent the rising sun. Our third stop was a huge mall which had everything from Baskin Robbins to Nine West. It was a chance to pick up some snacks and have some “American” style food. We then headed back to Cairo in time to catch our sleeper train to Aswan.

Thursday, June 24 – We awoke still en route to Aswan. The train ride itself was about 13 hours and, compared to the trains in Europe, I thought it was quite nice. Aswan is Egypt's southernmost city and my Lonely Planet describes it as the following: “Aswan sits on the bank of a particularly beautiful stretch of the Nile, a dark blue swathe of water surrounded by dense palms and butterscotch islands.” We arrived in Aswan around 9:00am and headed off to the Temple of Philae – a beautiful temple located on an island and dedicated to Isis. Our second stop was a perfume factory where we watched a glass-blower make a beautiful glass perfume bottle and smelled various oils and essences. Apparently 80% of all the world's commercial perfumes comes from Egypt's essences. When then checked into our hotel and had a few hours to relax and sit by the pool. In the evening we took a lovely boat ride down the Nile, cruising in between islands and seeing various sights. Our final stop for the day was a Nubian village. The Nubians are the people indigenous to the area. To get to the village we had a ½ hour camel ride, which I have to report, is really not that fun of an experience in my opinion. We spent the remainder of the evening with a Nubian family in their home, eating, dancing and smoking out of a shisha.