We went to Austria on MLK weekend this January for an alpine ski adventure. For the most part there was snow on the slopes, but as these photos will reveal, there were plenty of bare spots as well. Christopher starts his lessons by learning how to latch into his skis.
I guess our "takeaway" from this day was that Christopher discovered that he does like skiing, and I discovered that I may not be the best teacher in the world.
On a tour of a Pharonic Village, Christopher wanted to dress up and pose as a Pharoh. The sword he is holding is real and quite heavy and proved a challenge for him to keep it held up.
This year we went to Egypt to celebrate Thanksgiving. Behind us is the Great Pyramid at Giza. It is the largest and most perfect of all the pyramids and the last of Seven Wonders of the World that remain. It was a great trip and good time of year as the temperatures were in the mid 70s to low 80 and always sunny! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt
We were all impressed by these great sites. Legend has it that Napolean directed his artillerymen to use the nose of the sphinx for target practice, reducing it to rubble. If true, they must have been great shots because the rest of the face is un-damaged.
Christopher takes a break on one of the columns in the Temple of Karnak. This setting was used in the Spy Who Loved Me with Roger Moore chasing Jaws through this labyrinth of columns. Learn more at this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karnak link.
As this picture illustrates, there is not much seperating the plant life and the barren desert. This was taken along the Nile from the deck of our cruise boat.
Christopher and Sheila take a break along the peaceful shores of the Nile River. This picure was taken near Aswan in the southern region of Egypt.
Christopher failed to heed the words on his shirt and was "caught" by a couple of Egyptian tourist police. These guys are everywhere and often times try and coerce tips from the tourists.
This expansive temple was the place 20+ tourists were killed by militants in the mid 90s.
This is the entrance to King Tut's tomb. His mummy is still inside but all of the treasures are now in Cairo in the Egyptian Museum which we visited two days prior. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Museum
This grand temple was our last stop in Luxor after a long day of sightseeing. The missing obelisk (you can see the empty pedestal) in the background is now located in Paris at Place de la Concorde. You can see it in its new home at this link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_de_la_Concorde
We were pleasantly surprised to find a pool and ping pong table on the top deck of the ship. Sheila took advantage of the sun, Christopher tried the pool and did some swimming. Christopher spent many hours playing ping pong with some Russian kids he met on the boat.
I liked looking at the hieroglyphics. Our guide taught us how to read some of them. Many of the indoor symbols were still colored with the original paint from 4500 years ago!
It amazed me how big the temples were. Most took hundreds of years to complete. More can be learned at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edfu
Here at the Aswan Botanical Gardens we saw several stray cats. We were feeding this one goldfish crackers. At one point we had 2 kitties following us around the Gardens
We spent 4 days with Ahmeed, he's on the left beside Christopher. We had a good time with him. He was amazed at all of the questions that Tom asked. He's 34 and that is considered to be "getting too old to be married", he told us his mother is worried now that he'll never get married. This was taken before we got on the train to head back to Cairo, it was a 12 hour ride so we got 2 sleeper cabins.
Christopher enjoyed his first camel ride near the pyramids so much that he had to have another one. Tom was lucky enough to get to go with him.
We toured this home in the a relocated Nubian village. Nubians are dark-skinned people who live in Southern Egypt. Many of them were displaced after the construction of the Aswan High Dam.
This is the first pyramid ever built. Imotep from the hit movie The Mummy designed it in real life. It was south of Cairo adjacent to the ancient city of Memphis.
