Luxor, Egypt

On Monday we did a long day trip down to Luxor. Although it was a long duty day for us with a hotel rest, it wasn't nearly long enough to really see Luxor, but since our hotel was downtown near the Ancient Luxor Temple I was able to get a few pics for everyone to see. Next year the family & I plan to take a proper trip to Luxor so I'm sure Wendy will have a huge blog post on the experience then :) Sounds like there is WAY more to see in & around Luxor that what I offer here!

Looking west across the Nile toward the Valley of the Kings. When we departed in the dark, much of there hills were lit up with spot lights to accent them in the dark...sorry, no time for poping photos on departure & not enough light for that :(

Ruins of the Luxor Temple as we walked around the outside.

Bumped into my good buddy Ronald again...haden't seen him since Beirut a few months ago!

This is the remains of an ancient road that went from the Luxor Temple to the Karnak Temple. I was told that this road had long since been buried & many building, houses, churches & mosques were built on top of it. It actually looks to be about 3-4 feet below the modern ground level. Anyway, the government has reclaimed the land & is unearthing & repairing the ancient road, including the sphinx statues along the side.

Thanksgiving in Athens, Greece

I've already posted on Athens before, but since it is our most frequently visited location & because I got a few nes pics, thought I post about it again. We have now spent more than 15 nights in Athens this year & still have much to see in the future.

I figured he had long sense rusted out, but not true...we found Herbie The Love Bug hidden on an obscure side street while walking up to the Acropolis.

Overlooking South Athens from our trek up the Hill of the Muses (West of the Acropolis).

Once we reached the top of the Hill of the Muses (where the monument of Philopappos is located), the view of the Acropolis with the Pantheon atop, was awesome to the east behind me.

View from the Hill of the Muses, looking southwest to the Aegean Sea.

Closer view of the Acropolis & the Pantheon!
The Acropolis at night.

Can you believe all these pics were taken with my iPhone?...forgot the camera in the hotel room.

Crossing the Arabian Peninsula - Abu Dhabi & Doha

After over 3 weeks on the ground in Cairo (10 days of which were spent visiting with my Dad…see Wendy’s blog) we are finally back in the air & on to a couple new destinations. We left Cairo on the afternoon of Nov 1 & headed south to make a left turn over Hurghada, Egypt, where we would first cross the Red Sea & then the Arabian Peninsula as the sun set behind us. We are enroute to Abu Dhabi, UAE for a couple nights & then on to Doha, Qatar for one night.

You pilot types will appreciate this explanation regarding the vastness of the “Sand Box” across the Arabian Peninsula. As we crossed the Red Sea we were handed off by Cairo Control to Jeddah Control. When we checked on with Jeddah, they gave us our next frequency to call Riyadh Control over ALNAT intersection. Although we could hear Jeddah for much of the trek across the desert, we never talked to them again. Near the end of our 300nm run with Jeddah we began to lose them on the radio…ah, now the reason for obtaining the next frequency at check-on is apparent! As instructed nearly 40 minute earlier, we switched over to Riyadh Control for the next 286nm (again, the same system of hand-off to the next controller), before finally reaching the Arabian Gulf & talking to Bahrain as we passed north of Qatar. By now it is full darkness outside, with only cities & the flames of refineries visible. The controllers in Bahrain & Emirates sounded British & were much like controllers in the US…nothing like the often chaos of Cairo Control :) All told, the flight from Cairo to Abu Dhabi was 4 hours long.

Northern end of the Red Sea. The Gulf of Suez in the foreground. Sina Peninsula from the left & The Gulf of Aqaba to the left in the background.

Along the water front in Abu Dhabi.
There was much new construction (mostly in the form of high-rise buildings) in Abu Dhabi. The Both the heat & vastness of this city remind me of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex.

In the background to my left, you can see the Palace Hotel...quite a grand looking place!

Our refuge from the heat (around 100 degrees here on Nov 2) was this HUGE/modern mall!

Abu Dhabi along the water front as the sun was setting.

View from the resturant atop our hotel.

We approached Doha, Qatar from the northeast in the thick haze, just before the sun set on Nov 3rd.

Caught this pic as we taxied to the gate (And I do mean GATE as in airline. Many airports in these parts treat us as they would the airlines, minus the jet bridge :)

Although it is nothing like the US or UAE, one could say that Doha is quite clean, modern & organized, after living in Cairo for the past 10 months.

Along the water front in Doha.

Here, you can see a very modern mosque behind & to my left.

Another different looking (from what we see in Cairo) mosque in downtown Doha.

View of Doha fron the pool on top of our hotel (The Best Western Seef Hotel).

Marmaris, Turkey

First let me say that if you're interested in news & pics of our life in Egypt, please click on the link to Wendy's blog in the upper right corner of my blog. I haven't bothered to post much about Egypt since Wendy covers that MUCH better than I could...she's there all the time & even speaks Egyptian Arabic now!

Most recently we spent a few days in Marmaris, Turkey, a beautiful resort town on the Maditerranean coast, just a 50 minute ferry ride from the island of Rodos. We actually flew into Dalaman & enjoyed the scenery during our 1hr 35min van ride to Marmaris...this due to some confusion on just what services an Egyptian travel agent actually provides :) I assumed that when the boss' assistant tells the travel agent we are flying into Dalaman, that means they will get us a hotel IN Dalaman...not the case on this trip! Anyway, as they say, when life hands you lemons, you make lemonade, so we enjoyed a view of the mountainous / green Turkish countryside during the drive.

Marmaris was full of things to do & see. My activities consisted of eating, browsing the many shops throughout town (that provided knockoff products for everything from clothing to electronics) & jogging the excellent foot path that follows the beach / coastline.

View to the north as seen from the top of our hotel. My room was actually ON TOP of the hotel where they had added rooms in what must have once been an atic? Quite nice & offered the best view from the building.

There was much active night life along one of the many strips in town. Resturants, shops & bars were open into the early morning hours...although, I can't say that I was ever out past 11pm :)

The view from my balcony looking south.

Anyone know what type of helocopter this is? Me neither...don't know helos that well, but I think it looks Russian or Czechoslovakian. Anyway, I heard it making a low pass over town & went out on the balcony to find it dumping a load of water on an isolated forest fire that had broke out on a rugged hill side just northwest of town.

Oh, this pic is from a couple trips ago in Rome, but thought it was still worth posting. We were parked beside this Falcon 900 owned by the 80's rock band Guns N Roses. They were in town for a concert that night. Interesting that the plane is registered in Spain...I'm sure there is a story there :)

Back to Sardinia

This time I got you all some aerial photos on the way into Olbia airport on the island of Sardinia, Italy.


The terrain all over Sardinia is quite rugged like this.

That's NOT the Olbia airport at the bottom right...maybe it once was, its just some old abandon airstrip. Panning to the left (& to the next picture) will bring the Olbia airport into view.

Ah, there it is! The port city of Olbia is just to the left (north) of the airport.

This looked like a photo-worthy old castle just to the southwest of the airport.

Nice, France was quite nice!

After spending several days in Nice, it was tough to head south back to Cairo. Nice, with its moderate climate, clean air, green grass, shopping malls & miles of great biking/walking trails along the French Riviera, is in sharp contrast to my current home town of Cairo. Things were way overpriced here, although I was able to finally purchase an iPhone 4 at the same price they sell for in the States :) The climate reminded me a lot of Michigan in September.

We didn’t bother to go see the sites on this visit…just ate lots of great Sushi & spent much time on the bike trail along the coast of the Mediterranean. Here are a few of the pics I did get. Hopefully we can return & see more of this beautiful area.

Biking the French Riviera.

Jogging the French Riviera.

Sorry I don't have more to show & tell about this great location!

Kefalonia, Greece

Kefalonia is a beautiful island with VERY hilly terrain, located to the northwest of Athens. The airport is located on the west side of the island & as we approached from the east, we had to stay high to clear the over 5,000’ hill that is located only 8 miles from the airport which is nearly at sea level (quite a vertical drop in a very short distance).

We spent three whole days here at a brand new resort/spa. The tiny town where the resort is located is very quiet with many little outdoor restaurants along the coast. Isolated among the steep hills that blanket the island, we found ourselves forced to relax by the pool, play tennis, go jogging, sleep & eat…it was a tough trip in case you were wondering :)

One of only 2 little fishing boat docks in the community where we stayed.

The main drag...we could stroll from one end of town to the other in about five minutes.

A view of town from above.

What's up with that guy standing behind & to my left? Not sure he'd ever seen a tourist take a picture in his town :)