While in Luxor saw an advert for a 3 night cruise on the Nile Admiral to Aswan, returning by mini bus. Absolutely mind boggling! The ship was pleasant, food pretty good and our group were all very friendly. We got on board at 18.30 the first evening and stayed in Luxor that night, our first trip being to the Valley of the Kings which was only a coach ride away. Early start, the Collossi at Memnon photo was taken at 6.30! They say the Valley of the Kings holds the tombs of 70 generations of Pharaohs, think about that for a minute. Edna can go back 9 generations and that takes us into the mid 1600s! As I said, mind boggling. The weather was, of course, beautiful but it was January and early mornings and evenings were chilly (note the sweatshirt in the third photo). At every stop hawkers rowed out to the ships and tried to sell their wares, seemed reasonable prices. The cruise was marred by an accident at one stop where our ship and an adjacent craft started to drift towards each other and one boat load of hawkers started rowing like mad to get out before the boats collided. Although we didn't see the outcome (thank God) apparently it wasn't good and there were fatalities. This also showed up the difference between our countries. We were delayed for a while but then sailed on. In Britain those boats wouldn't have moved until there had been a full enquiry! In Egypt, don't delay the tourists (sad but true). The mini bus trip back was interesting. We had to wait until several bus loads arrived to be escorted back to Luxor by the Police. A never to be forgotten experience. Click on the photos for a larger picture.