The Orient Express???

For those of you who have read this at the Bridge Bible Fellowship blog, my apologies - this is a repeat. Just skip directly to the pictures.

I’m writing this sitting on a train ride along the Nile river. All I can say is, “Whoa!” This train ride has to rate among the top 5 all-time unique experiences of my life.

After waiting at the Giza station for over an hour, watching all the local people get on and off their trains, ours finally arrived.

Our group all had our own car, which is a sleeper car. Two per compartment, which is great. The train is old, like say 1950’s-ish, maybe 60’s-ish. The bathrooms are, let’s say, “interesting.” After an airline-style dinner of two kinds of “meat,” our compartments were converted by our attendant into two-bunk sleepers. Not bad, I’d say, if you like sleeping sideways on a train moving forward and rocking side-to-side.

The train went all night. We left Giza around 8:30 pm Thursday, and arrived at Luxor around 6:30 am Friday. After a wake-up knock on our compartment door, and a breakfast that consisted of 4 different kinds of bread and some cheese and some coffee, we disembarked at Luxor.

Later on that Same Day

This has been another very full day. We visited the Valley of the Kings, where the tombs of some of the major Pharaohs of the Egyptian Empire have been excavated, including King Tutankhamen (King Tut), and Rameses II, who it is believed is the Pharaoh of the Book of Exodus in the bible. After a couple of other stops, then to our hotel to freshen up, we went to the Temple of Luxor, which I have to say, is truly amazing on a human and architectural scale. The glory doesn’t go to God, though - it was built by the Pharaohs of the time to honor themselves.

Back to our hotel, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner on the hotel patio overlooking the Nile.

Tomorrow, we go to the temple of Karnak, then back to Cairo where we’ll visit the great pyramids and the sphinx, spend the night in our hotel there, then begin our travels back home.

This has been one of the longest trips I've ever taken, and it has almost come to a close. I'm not sure I'll remember how to function once I get back home, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. For those whom I've been missing (you'll know who you are), I'll be seeing you again soon, God willing.

Love,

Larry