Not so much

October 3rd - 7:50pm
I'm sitting in the lobby of the Winter Palace hotel. It's the posh portion of the hotel where rooms go for 3 and 4 hundred a night. They have free wifi here so I've snuck in to send notes and update my blog. It's a beautiful hotel though and over a hundred years of history. Well, today I didn't do so much. I think the travel has caught up to me and I was really tired this mornig. I ate breakfast at the hotel and had a lot of fruit which was a departure from my -everything cooked- diet. Should have stuck to that. 

I did make it to Hatshepsut's mortuary temple on the west bank of the Nile this afternoon. I've always wanted to vist that place for some reason and it was astonishing. To walk the stairs and stand on the terraces was profound. To think about how much history and to look out onto the Nile valley... it was wonderful. The architecture is one of the most magnificent as well. The beauty of it and the placment,... it was all so much to take in.

Ali, my taxi driver today, was pretty cool. He grew up on the west bank, has three brothers, four sisters, and his father has four wives. Sweet! Well, maybe not so sweet... We talked quite a bit and it was interesting to finally have a long conversation with someone. His brothers are in the tourist business so he kept trying to get me to buy other services though. The trip over was long. I can't believe they built a bridge to the west bank and placed it so far down the road, like 8km out of town. Until six years ago it was a ferry ride so I guess it beats the traffic mess/delay that would create today. Luxor has been a good place to visit and I've been enjoying my stay here. I could probably stay a few more nights but then I'm looking forward to spending time in Alexandria. The down side is the train ride back. Hugh.