Saturday, October 25, 2008. Today we're docked at Safaga, Egypt on the western shore of the Red Sea. Safaga is nothing to write home about—it’s an industrial port, but it’s attraction is the fact that it is about a 2-hour drive east of Luxor on the Nile, probably Egypt’s second most significant historical site and a must-see for Egyptian visitors.
Note that we’ve posted five new photos here, showing:
Knights of St. John Crusader wall tower at Rhodes,
Betty with cannon balls at 15th century Crusader wall at Rhodes,
Bill at the helm of Star Clipper,
Sunset over Alexandria Harbor,
Mosque at Port Said, Egypt.
Today most of our fellow travelers took a bus excursion over to Luxor to visit the ancient site of the Karnak and Luxor temples, the largest and best preserved of the ancient Egyptian temples, from days of the Pharaohs (2700 BC to 100 BC). The city of Luxor was then called Thebes by the Greeks, and was the capitol of the Egyptian royalty for many centuries. We visited there last January on our Egypt tour with Lynne and Bruce Noel, and since we've already photographed every stone, we decided to decline this excursion and relax in Safaga.
Yesterday, we were at Sharm El Sheik at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula on the Red Sea. This is the resort city where many of the international Middle East peace meetings and negotiations are held, some of which have produced the peace agreements between Israel and Egypt and Jordon.
Some of our group took a 3-hour bus ride through the Sinai desert and mountains to Mt. Sinai and the St. Catherine's Monastery on the "Mountain of Moses" (where it is said that Moses received God's 10 commandments and other instructions for his people. Because of the long bus ride and expensive optional cost, we decided to also decline that excursion and enjoy a relaxed day in Sharm El Sheik. Thankfully, our group made much better speed than Moses and the Israelites did. :-)
Betty wants to tell you that she's learning to play bridge and I (Bill) am relearning--after an abstinence from bridge playing of over 20 years. She also instructed me to tell you about the semiformal Captain's champagne and lobster dinner that we enjoyed Thursday evening--a very nice event while sailing down the Gulf of Suez with 20-knot winds at our back. With these winds, Star Clipper ran under only sail, with engines off. Beatimous!
After departing Safaga this evening, we'll have our longest stretch at sea--eight days sailing down the Red Sea and then across the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea to Salalah, Oman. We'll be forced to relax a bit—should be good therapy. However, we’ll be incommunicado—the ship’s satellite telephone and Internet connection server failed a few days ago and we’re told that it will not be restored to service for the remainder of the trip to Thailand. The ship’s crew have communications for operation of the ship and any emergency communications, but this is not available to us, the guests. So---we can only send news when we get ashore and find Internet or telephone service, which isn’t always easy.
BBC World News by TV satellite keeps us informed of how fortunate we are to be missing the last weeks of the U.S. election campaign and the financial market news! We miss you and hope all's well with you.
Our next post will be 8 days from now from Salalah, Oman, if all goes well.
Love,
Betty and Bill
Note that we’ve posted five new photos here, showing:
Knights of St. John Crusader wall tower at Rhodes,
Betty with cannon balls at 15th century Crusader wall at Rhodes,
Bill at the helm of Star Clipper,
Sunset over Alexandria Harbor,
Mosque at Port Said, Egypt.
Today most of our fellow travelers took a bus excursion over to Luxor to visit the ancient site of the Karnak and Luxor temples, the largest and best preserved of the ancient Egyptian temples, from days of the Pharaohs (2700 BC to 100 BC). The city of Luxor was then called Thebes by the Greeks, and was the capitol of the Egyptian royalty for many centuries. We visited there last January on our Egypt tour with Lynne and Bruce Noel, and since we've already photographed every stone, we decided to decline this excursion and relax in Safaga.
Yesterday, we were at Sharm El Sheik at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula on the Red Sea. This is the resort city where many of the international Middle East peace meetings and negotiations are held, some of which have produced the peace agreements between Israel and Egypt and Jordon.
Some of our group took a 3-hour bus ride through the Sinai desert and mountains to Mt. Sinai and the St. Catherine's Monastery on the "Mountain of Moses" (where it is said that Moses received God's 10 commandments and other instructions for his people. Because of the long bus ride and expensive optional cost, we decided to also decline that excursion and enjoy a relaxed day in Sharm El Sheik. Thankfully, our group made much better speed than Moses and the Israelites did. :-)
Betty wants to tell you that she's learning to play bridge and I (Bill) am relearning--after an abstinence from bridge playing of over 20 years. She also instructed me to tell you about the semiformal Captain's champagne and lobster dinner that we enjoyed Thursday evening--a very nice event while sailing down the Gulf of Suez with 20-knot winds at our back. With these winds, Star Clipper ran under only sail, with engines off. Beatimous!
After departing Safaga this evening, we'll have our longest stretch at sea--eight days sailing down the Red Sea and then across the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea to Salalah, Oman. We'll be forced to relax a bit—should be good therapy. However, we’ll be incommunicado—the ship’s satellite telephone and Internet connection server failed a few days ago and we’re told that it will not be restored to service for the remainder of the trip to Thailand. The ship’s crew have communications for operation of the ship and any emergency communications, but this is not available to us, the guests. So---we can only send news when we get ashore and find Internet or telephone service, which isn’t always easy.
BBC World News by TV satellite keeps us informed of how fortunate we are to be missing the last weeks of the U.S. election campaign and the financial market news! We miss you and hope all's well with you.
Our next post will be 8 days from now from Salalah, Oman, if all goes well.
Love,
Betty and Bill
