Monday 19 December 2006

Took the tube out to Hammersmith to catch the latest concert stop of Tenacious D, the comic/musical duo headed by Jack Black. The venue was the Hammersmith Apollo (originally The Odeon), which had been the site of many, MANY classic rock shows throughout the years. Springsteen’s shows in 1975 and David Bowie’s last performance as Ziggy Stardust are just to name two.

It was quite the entertaining show, but the one thing that stood out to me was just HOW much the crowd got into it. Maybe it was my seat or the smaller venue or the acoustics of the building, but you could hear the crowd sing EVERY single word with the band on EVERY single song.

Not that I was one of those or anything...

Some Classic shows from the Hammersmith Odeon/Apollo
(Thanks JohnG for turning me on to YouTube)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=0aRhqVWUPPs
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cUxEO51EYdY
.http://youtube.com/watch?v=eTJCnidpgfM

Friday and Saturday 15-16 December 2006

On Friday night we had a nice dinner in London with our friends the Jamiesons and the Burkes. It was time for the husbands to meet and it really was a great time! Christine and Phil stayed for the weekend and on Saturday night we went to see the musical review Dancing in the Streets. It was a really fabulous show that had Christine and me dancing in the aisles. I think that even the guys were singing along with a few songs! This is definitely one that I recommend and would see again. It was a really great way to spend our last 2006 weekend in London.

We’re off to Houston this week and will return in 2007. Christmas Blessings to all!

Friday through Sunday 1-3 December 2006

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING!!!

This was a shopping weekend! I went with my friends Gina and Christine on a three day shopping trip to the German Christmas Markets. We left London early Friday morning on the coach (bus) bound for Germany. We travelled to Dover where we crossed the English Channel on ferry to Calais, France. We went through France and Belgium and arrived in the German border town of Aachen late Friday afternoon. Yes – we covered 4 countries in one day. This is about the drive time from Houston to Dallas!! We dropped our bags at the hotel and took off for our first market run. It was an outside affair with many booths and vendors. We took a survey of things the first day knowing that we’d have a number of opportunities to shop. We bought just a few things and turned in early as we were off to Cologne on Saturday morning.

Cologne had 6 Christmas markets and we walked to the far end of town to catch the New Market as it opened. After 3 more markets, we realized that we were seeing many of the same things in each market – so we pulled out the Euros and started taking advantage of the storage space provided on the coach. Later in the evening we drove back into Aachen and revisited the market from Friday night. We bought Christmas gifts (for ourselves and others!) and had a great time fighting the crowds.

On Sunday we departed for Brugge to purchase the famous Belgian chocolates and handmade lace. Unfortunately, it was a rainy and cold day in Brugge. We did manage to purchase a few items, but decided to have a nice meal and visit. We had a wonderful meal in a nice (dry and warm) restaurant and just enjoyed the company. We reminisced about our last weekend away (this past summer to Langkawi while on a two week business trip in Kuala Lumpur).

It was a really wonderful weekend, full of adventures and laughs that we will definitely remember fondly on our next weekend away.

Sunday 26 November 2006

Wake up early this morning (another 4:30ish wake-up call) to take a hot air balloon ride over Luxor and the surrounding area. We got GREAT views of the Valley of the Kings/Queens and watched the sun rise over the desert. Amy even had a great time, as long as she didn’t look over the edge.

To end our trip we met most of our tour group for a final Lebanese meal. We finished off the night smoking banana and strawberry flavoured tobacco through a traditional hookah (water pipe).

Saturday 25 November 2006

After docking back in Luxor, we spend the whole morning touring the West Bank. There were not a lot of photo opportunities as cameras are not allowed in the tombs. The outsides of the tombs at The Valley of the Kings are very non-descript and are hidden amongst the cliffs. Inside, however, is something else as the walls and ceilings have kept most of the original colours.

Restrictions only allow us to visit 3 tombs and Sonia suggests two with the most vibrant artwork and one that has a cool deeeeeep passage to enter. Amy has recovered somewhat from the previous day, but politely declines the opportunity to crouch down the small opening of the last tomb.

Next was a visit to the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, the first female pharaoh. Her temple is different from the rest as it incorporates several terraces and contrasting colonnades that seem to be carved directly into the mountainside behind.

After visiting two more tombs at the Valley of the Queens and a quick stop at the Colossi of Memnon, two huge seated statues, we also visit an alabaster factory.

Friday 24 November 2006

Today Amy is stricken with “Pharaoh’s Revenge”, a stomach disorder that has incapacitated several of our cruise mates. She spends most of the day in bed, but all she misses is deck time as today there are no excursions, just deck time as we make our way back down the Nile.

Figures… our last day on the boat and they decide to have turkey for dinner. The day AFTER Thanksgiving.

Thursday 23 November 2006

Happy Thanksgiving

Turkey kebob anyone?

For shear “wow” factor today was the day. I thought it would be Giza and the Sphinx, but today we visited the temples to Ramses II and Queen Nefertari in Abu-Simbel. Taking the turn around the hillside and seeing the four huge statues of Ramses II hewn from the Cliffside cannot be described. Again… photos do this no justice. Equally impressive was the temple to Nefertari.

Inside the hillside temples (unfortunately, no camera were allowed) was even more awe inspiring as the reliefs have kept their painted colours more so than any other site.


A quick lunch and we then had our “felucca” (a Nile river sail boat) trip. Just a little one hour cruise giving us a sample of local things.

Tonight was our “galabeya” night, where we dressed up in traditional Egyptian clothes and ate traditional Egyptian food. I finally got to try falafels. Not quite sure what I expected, but that wasn’t it. Afterwards, there was dancing, games and drinks. It was neat watching the crew have fun, as men have no problem dancing amongst themselves. Mohammed, our chef (for the record the food on this trip was awesome… I think I gain back most of the weight I had lost while in London), was the best dancer of the lot.

Wednesday 22 November 2006

This morning we had an early morning tour of the temple at Kom Ombo which was really cool because you can see it from its vantage point overlooking the Nile. Well… we saw it as we left because we were docked there overnight. This was a dual temple with Greek and Roman influences and was the first time we saw an image of Cleopatra. We were so early in fact that for a while we were the only people in the temple.

As we cruise further south we finally started getting into some desert scenery which is what we had envisioned it would be like.

This afternoon we dock in Aswan and are off for an afternoon of touring. We start with a visit to an ancient granite quarry site that still had an unfinished obelisk still embedded in the rock. After a quick stop at the High Dam of Aswan (which forms Lake Nasser) we take a small boat trip out to see the island temple at Philae.

Interesting Point: Tonight at dinner after talking with our tour guide, we found out that we (as a tour group) was under constant surveillance of the Egyptian military. We have at ALL times three armed guards on the boat, and when we leave we are “shadowed” by two other guards in a separate vehicle. Never, EVER did I notice this. Just goes to show you the environment we are travelling in. While assuring it was also eye-opening.

Tuesday 21 November 2006

A quick morning tour of the Temple of Khnum at Esna starts our day. Since the temple is so close to the river we walk there from our boat. It was rather small, but is the first temple we’ve seen that has Greek influence (thanks to Alexander the Great). Our walk back gives us our first taste of having to deal with street vendors hawking their goods. We’ve dealt with individuals pedalling items, but this time it was a good ten minute walk past several storefronts.

After an afternoon of cruising and sunning we docked at Edfu and took a horse drawn carriage (are we a bunch of tourists or what?) to the Temple of Horus. This was the most intact temple we’ve seen so far. Even the innermost sanctuary with its granite altar was intact. Horus, the falcon-headed god of the sky, is my favourite deity, (not sure why, but he is) and there were several reliefs and a large granite statue of his image.

What made this visit a little more “moving” was we were in the temple during the broadcast of the Islamic afternoon prayer.