Off to Egypt

It’s hard to believe that we are leaving again as it doesn’t seem like a year has already gone by since we were in Indonesia. Nonetheless, the tickets say tomorrow is the day, so once again we are scrambling a bit to try and get a long list of last minute details taken care of in an ever smaller period of time. Tomorrow around this time we will be somewhere over Canada on our way to Frankfurt, and then on to Cairo, which will be a new part of the world for us.  There is definitely a bit of trepidation in leaving the familiar surroundings of Asia, but Egypt seems like one of those places you have to see in your life, so for us, that time is now (we’ll also be spending some of our time in Sinai, so technically we can still get our Asia fix).

We have a bit of an itinerary this trip as Egypt is a little less free-wheeling for travelers than some countries we have been to, but so far we have only scheduled the essentials to try and reserve some degree of spontaneity.  In general, we will be splitting our time roughly equally between the western side of the country and the Sinai Peninsula. In the former, our path will go through Cairo, Luxor, Aswan and Abu Simbel, taking in the various temples and such at each location.  The Sinai is mostly for relaxation and hopefully some diving, although time permitting we hope to take a short trip into Jordan to visit Petra.

Once again we are particularly fortunate to know our family is in good hands with both sets of grandparents operating the house of no rules.  It is only because of their help that we are able to embark on these annual adventures, and for that we are deeply grateful.

As always, the plan is to keep a fairly regular record of where we are and what we have seen (time and connectivity ultimately dictating how often that actually happens). So, if you never thought you’d see Angela eating a pigeon or waking up at 2am to climb a mountain, stay tuned.