Edinburgh and St. Andrews - Nov 2010

A civilised pint it was, with all the Jane Austin classics perched behind our pint-sized table, leaning on the 2007 good pub guide. Of course we opted for the latter, identifying the pubs Joel and I couldn't quite make it to during our June 2009 visit. This was Kay's bar, a classic pub in the "new town" in Edinburgh....I advise you check it out.

I was in Edinburgh for a project for work for 10 days with a couple colleagues. Of all British cities, this is one of the best places to be. The project entailed long hours that were rewarded by occasional warm glasses of scotch following the 10pm departure at work.

The good thing was that on the weekend I was in town, my sweetie came to visit and we actually got some sun one of the days.  

On the Saturday in Edinburgh, we took the free city tour, which is really nice for the first 90 minutes, but gets extremely long. We opted out of the second half and made it to the Bow Bar for a drink. Also highly recommended.

One thing that can't be replaced, a visit from your wife when you are out of town (coming up on three weeks in Houston; which seems like an eternity when you are away from home).

That night we had a nice dinner and the next morning instead of doing the castle tour, which we have both done in the past, we took the train to St. Andrews. The train is really handy, just over an hour and £16 round-trip. It was Sunday, which worked out well since we didn't have our clubs. On Sunday's, the Old Course is closed for play and open for walking.

It was amazing to feel the history when walking across the stone arch bridge on the 18th as so many golfing legends have done in the pass. When I crossed it, I said a little prayer that you'll be competing here for the Claret Jug someday, Scottie.

Following the course, we wandered around the town, concluding this is a good half day trip as there isn't a whole lot besides golf, though I am sure friends who have studied here (Megan) would argue otherwise.

All in all, Edinburgh is an amazing city with tons of history and great pubs. St. Andrews is definitely worth the detour, but more so if there is an Open on or a tee-time booked. 

Luxor to Sharm El Sheikh

I had heard about Luxor from various friends and family who have visited in the past. What they didn't inform me of is that Karnak and Luxor temples are probably the most amazing sites we have ever visited.

If you haven't been to Egypt, go. If you go to Egypt, go to Luxor. I wish we had gone to Abu Simbel, but a quick day in Luxor satisfied our craving for more Ancient Egypt. Combine the East and West banks of the Nile around the city and you could safely classify the entire city as a museum.

After a 3am departure from the Cairo Marriott and arriving at 6am, we hit the ground running by heading to the West Bank on a 3 hour tour set up by the Sheraton, where we stayed for the single night (shortened from two nights due to the "snowstorm" in London). If serious power touring like we did, you can see most of the main sights in Luxor. We started at the Valley of the Kings, which contains an amazingly preserved collection of hieroglyphs. Its too bad all the tombs were looted, otherwise it would be the top tourist destination in the world. Regardless, it was a really cool trip into the mountains to see the tombs. We also saw the Tomb of the Nobles and Valley of the Queens on the West Bank.

After returning to our hotel and a quick bite for lunch, we headed to the East Bank for an afternoon of Karnak and Luxor Temples. I knew they'd be great, but the fact that the New Dynasty, when the temples flourished, is 3,500 dated and to have the structures so well preserved/restored is amazing.

In my opinion, it blows ancient Rome out of the water. I mean, look at this!!!

The first is Karnak temple. One thing we did, which many people don't like, it go along with the security guards who show you closed off parts of the site. Many people are turned off as they expect a little tip when they move the ropes for you, but as we learned at Al Azhar in Cairo, £1 for a different perspective is often worth it. In this case, we were led to the side of a closed off monument under refurbishment, where a hidden staircase offered us an amazing view over the entire temple from up high. It was a great sight!

Following the temple, we followed Joelskie's lead and walked from Karnak to Luxor along the Nile right around a magnificent sunset.

One interesting note that would make a frequent visitor to Luxor want to come back is that in the next 18 months the city will open up a reconstructed avenue of the sphinxes that originally contained over 1300 Sphinx statutes on a 3km path. They have opened one section recently which is remarkable in itself, but once the entire ancient trail is reconstructed, it will be incredible.

We ultimately entered Luxor temple right at Sunset. Both Karnak and Luxor are open late and can be seen under the stars, but Karnak has a light show whereas you can leisurely walk around Luxor temple and admire the shadows in a romantic setting. Below is the completed portion of the Avenue of the Sphinxes, the pic doesn't do it justice.

Following a great stroll around Luxor temple and nice meal at Sofra, which is a highly recommended restaurant while in Luxor, we had a lazy night and it was off to Sharm El Sheikh to finally meet Joel, who was supposed to be our trip buddy the entire trip but was a couple days ahead of us given our set back.

We arrived to the Sharm Renaissance Marriott to an amazingly rude welcome, charging us $70 for one extra person. We had disagreements with the GM to the extent where we almost left the hotel. I am still steaming. It really gives a bad impression to Marriott, especially given the Petra and Cairo Marriott hotels were the complete opposite of the Renaissance Sharm. DO NOT STAY THERE.

Regardless it was great to meet Joelskie and catch up on the craziness over the last few days. We also decided to do a Christmas morning hike up Mount Sinai, why not, right?!?!

Its a good idea in theory and a cool experience to climb the mountain to catch the sunrise on Christmas morning, however, you must be fully committed as the overnight hike consists of a 10pm pick-up and starting the ascent at 2:30am to catch sunrise. Regardless of the lack of sleep, it was a great experience and so much fun!

We got a great seat and caught an clear sunrise over the mountains. It was really worth the effort. Our group was good and our guide was a cool guy too. It was chilly despite being in Egypt, but the Bedouins of course had blankets for rental!

We then hiked down, catching a couple cool pics and then checking out St. Catherine's monastery to see some relics of St. Catherine and the Burning Bush, where Moses allegedly spoke to God.

We made it back to Sharm at about 2pm the following afternoon (i.e. it was a 16 hour tour) and caught a few waves in the Red Sea (but due to all the shark attacks had to stay close to shore). At least we can check another major body of water off the list:-)

Onto Jordan, and yet another unique body of water...

Cairo....but first...Amsterdam???

Everyone has their own tale of the terrible Christmas storm of 2010 that took the western world by storm. Most are tales of remorse, some are tales of near misses. Not many are tales of both. Erin and I most definitely experienced both, combined with what I would proudly say is a tale of veteran traveller savvyiness. Also a tale that turned our African Christmas trip into a trip that included an impromptu night in a white Amsterdam.

Our flight was schedule for immediately following the measly six inches that fell on the 18th. In MSP, it probably would've been 30 minutes delayed to remove the snow and the abominable snowmen in the runway. Not to be so, this was Heathrow, whose snow removal plan is to throw a couple old pensioners onto the runway with a shovel to get the runways clear.

As you would guess...flight cancelled. Not a big deal, there was a flight the next night. So we had a chill day in London and a good night sleep. Those watching the news would guess that Heathrow was closed the next day, flight two cancelled. When we contacted the airlines they said they couldn't confirm our trip till the 25th....THE 25TH?!?!?!

Most would despair; we strapped into serious booking mode. In 20 minutes using two computers, a phone and an iTouch with wireless activated, we had rebooked our flights from London City to Amsterdam, with a mandatory night in Amsterdam (which we of course didn't mind - better than missing the trip) before making it to Cairo, only 2.5 days late. I think we got the first flight out of London possible and were probably the first ones to Cairo from London after the storm!

Yes we made it to Cairo, but not before also having to rebook our hotels for the first three nights of our trip, cutting out a day in Luxor, Cairo and Sharm, but still doing almost everything we intended. We arrived at 8pm and immediately experienced our first dodgy Egypt experience, a cross between a rickshaw and a pinto as our first taxi driver. We stayed at the Marriott in central Cairo which is a beautiful hotel built around the turn of the century for a visit from the French Empress Eugiene. We ate at Abou El Sid that night, which is a popular Egyptian restaurant frequented by tourists.

The next morning we got picked up by a great tour guide, Nadia, who Strauss recommended. She first took us outside the city to Saqqara, or the step pyramid, which dates back something like 4,500 hundred years, the oldest large structure I have ever seen. Amazing to put it in perspective as to how ridiculously old this place is. Puts ancient Rome to shame (however stay tuned for Luxor, for the coolest thing I have EVER seen will be revealed).

Following the step pyramid and a quick lunch, we made it to the grand daddy of them all, the Great Pyramids at the Giza plateau, home to the last remaining wonder of the ancient world. It is literally massive, look it the size of the stones. There is also a common misconception that slaves made the pyramids, when in fact they were professional stone workers.

We cruised around the complex, taking lots of pictures and even hopping on a camel (although that isn't me or Erin on the camel). We of course saw the Great Sphinx. All these structures are also at least 3500 years old and have been engrained in our minds in many different ways throughout our lives. To see them in person was remarkable.

Following the pyramids, we got dropped of in Islamic Cairo by our driver and started walking around perhaps the most intriguing part of the historical city. We went to the mosque that is also the world's oldest university, Al-Azhar. It is a beautiful structure with polished marble floors that you can literally see your reflection in. The mosque dates to 961. After walking around we thought about going into a minaret in a nearby mosque, but thankfully they offered us a tour of the university and a trip up the famous minaret in Al Azhar, which was much more of a treat than we could've expected.

We next checked out the local souks of Islamic Cairo and had a mint tea at the famous cafe in the market, Fishawi's. It was a great way to end a long day of touring and a great conclusion to a whirlwind trip to Cairo.