Egypt...
What a unique and wonderful time we had in Makadi Bay (1/2 hour near Hurgadah),Egypt for our first week of the holidays. We left on the 17th of Dec and returned on the 24th.

A room with a view...

We started off our week in adjoining rooms on the main floor but after 2 days we experienced a rather unsettling thing when we woke up early one morning to find that the boys sliding door (the back glass door hidden under the curtains) was left open about a foot. We then discovered that 2 watches and Tiera's mp3 player were missing. After reporting this to the front desk we were promptly given a superior suite with adjoining rooms on the second floor overlooking the pool area and the sea. The deck was huge! It was beautiful. We never did get our things back.
















































The boys playing dice out on the deck.














Every night at 10pm there was some kind of performance for hotel guests. This one night Connor was in his glory when a guy performed one night with 6 cobras - poisoness.































Around the pools and down at the beach. The pool was much too cold to swim in at only 19*, but the sea was around 24* but it still felt cold.








































We spent one full day on a tour which took us to Luxor. We started off in a convoy of 50 buses and vans. I guess they feel it's safer in numbers. We started at 6am and got back around 10pm.















For as far as we could see it was sand and mountains full of sand. Along the canals there would be scenes of green fields that were irrigated from the canals flowing along beside it. We were surprised to see anything could grow there.




































Local transportation buses.












We soon noticed that every bridge (and there were lots) that crossed a river or canal had an armed guard at the entry. We were told by our guide that they are there more for a show than anything. I wonder...

There were also "check points" at the entry and exit to every town - it didn't matter how small it was. These check points were armed heavily with guards with big machine guns. Tour buses are allowed to go through without stopping and sour our big entourage was waved through while all the other cars had to stop. Apparently every car (unless your a tourist) entering the town must stop and show their papers. You could spend alot of time in "check points" if you worked out of the town.











































The first place we arrived at was Karmak Temple. It held the "holy of holies" for the Eyptian religion where only a few priests were actually allowed in to.










We had an English/French speaking guide. We had 2 other men who spoke Fench. So we had a very small tour group which made it great for asking many questions.
















There were 134 columns each covered from top to bottom with hierglyphics and pictures. They told the story of history from each ruler. Even the ceiling was covered in colored pictures. Orginally it had a full ceiling and a New Years type of party was held on the roof each year, but that is no longer there. The architecture and structural design were incredibly planned in detail to allow for each column to sit on a "floating" foundation because there was only sand and no rock to anchor. It was quite incredible to hear the details of this.
























































































































Our next stop was at the Papyrus factory then on to lunch at one of the local places. It was that evening that we started getting sick.














The Valley of the Kings is where many of the Pharoahs were buried.













This tomb belongs to Ramses the 3rd. They varied in size and decoration depending on how many years they reigned. We weren't allowed to take any pictures inside, but you follow down a long steep pathway and everywhere inside in covered in colorful hieroglyphics leading them safely to the afterlife.






We visited Hatshepsut Temple. This was the temple built by the only woman pharoah. It was destroyed and rebuilt several times.

























Crossing the Nile River was an interesting few minutes. We sat in these very colorful boats. The most interesting part was the sunset.

























Back at the beach at our hotel.















Mark took Caleb and Connor snorkeling off the beach and on a 1/2 day cruise. They saw some neat things. The most exciting was an octopus, a gigantic puffer fish and lion fish.