Easy & fun. Except for 6:00a departure!

We have arrived in Sicily. Ortigia is our first base for 4 days. OMG – the food. We took a photo of our dinner -an antipasti platter so we can recreate st home!

Beautiful streets, shops, cafes,no wonder there is an over abundance of tourists!

Why Malta – not a really good reason – except we want to visit.

We had a great stay. Our hotel is in Cospicua neighborhood. Along water. Historic. Amazing old architecture & historic buildings. Lots of steps.

We did not realize how important Malta was to allied war effort & how much they suffered with constant bombing. A truly resilient citizenry.

In addition to touring Valletta- main city, we visited Marsaloxx, Mdina, & Gozo. Loved each place.

Next Gozo

We took a fast ferry to Gozo Island about 30 minutes from Valletta. Snd, we found a quaint English pub to have a beer while watching USA men’s hockey.

Mdina- historic village -easy bus ride from Valletta. More great historic architecture and charming shops & cafes.

In all we loved Malta. People very friendly. Safe. Lots to enjoy.

Had a great time in Istanbul. Lovely, vibrant city. It was mentioned that they can have 4 seasons of weather in one day & we experienced that. Sunshine, snowflakes, rain.

Beautiful mosques. Fun walks through historic architecturally interesting neighborhoods.

G had a blast playing pickleball.

Fabulous food!

Istanbul was a quick 2 day stay which made sense to bridge air travel between Cairo & Malta. We loved it & look forward to return.

At brekkie this morning, Greg & I were reminiscing about some of the ‘hectic & bustling’ cities we have been fortunate to explore. What made us think of that Cairo. Twenty three million citizens along the Nile make for quite a city.

We like Cairo. Nile is amazing. Beautiful river walk area – fun watching ships. It doesn’t rain in Egypt so everything is dusty. People nice- shops & cafes very interesting. Shopkeeps & cafes hustle for business – politely. Vendors selling food on streets interesting. Have Never seen so many dates in my life. TRAFFIC. Yikes. CRAZY 😜 the symphony – not – of horns doesn’t stop. We never saw an accident & have never ever seen so many misses. No one should ever think of renting a car in Cairo.

We thought Amman Jordan was bustling til we visited Cairo.ha! So civilized. There cars don’t have scratches & fender benders. should have been a clue.

We really enjoyed exploring both and felt safe enough to wander extensively in both amazing cities.

Istanbul – after Cairo & Amman – easy peasy😎 Loved Istanbul with cobbled streets, historic buildings, nice cafes & good food. Streets were marked with lanes & used by drivers ….what a concept!

We really liked all three cities & enjoyed exploring all😊

We met fun friends through Greg’s pickleball contacts. Fun pickleball & fun lunch – where we were taught the local way to eat amazing Egyptian foods.

Rebel suggested a walking food tour in Cairo — Bellies Enroute. An amazing way to take a walking tour learning about local history & culture while enjoying carefully selected food stands. Yum!

Our trip had an overnight train trip from Cairo to Luxor. The ride was smooth & took us past small villages along Nile. We saw donkey carts used for agriculture & lots of citizens caring for their crops.

Our faluca ride was peaceful & fun to see communities from water viewpoint.

We learned that Egypt subsidizes wheat so all citizens can enjoy pita bread. Since Ukrainian war – they started a farming program in desert – irrigated Nile- where citizens can buy land & work irrigated fields in an otherwise barren land.

We wandered off the tourist track in Aswan & found a locals restaurant where we had beef kabobs, hummus, rice, veggies & 2 bottles of water for $6.

We saw cute kitties & pups everywhere and they are busy keeping vermin at bay.

As we travelled from Aswan to Luxor one side of the road is a green & tropical with banana plantations & crops & other side is barren& rocky.

Luxor temple at sunset is magical

Egypt is a wrap😜

Located 4 hours outside of Aswan in southern Egypt near the border of Sudan — in the middle of nowhere is Abu Simbel. When the second Aswan dam was being planned – this site was doomed to be underwater. It was moved – piece by piece to its current location. Thank you UNESCO & others. It is remarkable.

Located adjacent to Lake Nassau which holds enough water for Egypt for 7 years. 😳

The size of Abu Simbel is immense & the thought of moving it – a remarkable accomplishment.

GAdventures supports a nonprofit that works with children. We visited their site & took a bike ride around the hood. Fun. Inspirational

Luxor is located on Nile which provides water & life. The listed annual rainfall is 0.00in /year.

All Luxor Temple at sunset

In an area outside of Luxor – along the Nile is the Valley of Kings – resting place of Pharoahs. While the tombs have all been raided of treasures- the hieroglyphs are amazingly colorful.

We were able to tour 4 of the tomb sites and each was unique & fascinating. The coloring in these sites is provided by minerals – lapis lazuli, iron, copper to name a few. The coloring is magnificent. The tomb sites quite large – with walkways around 100-200 feet. Some of them declining up to 100feet deep.