The travels of Tim and Megan: April 2009

Monday, April 27, 2009

Hampton Court

On Saturday we headed south of London to Hampton Court. This year marks the 500th anniversary of King Henry VIII taking the throne, so there are a few exhibitions about him at Hampton Court Palace.

Hampton Court Palace is a royal palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, just south-west of London. It has not been lived in by the British royal family since the 18th century. Hampton Court was originally built for Cardinal Wolsey, one of Henry VIII's favourites, in around 1514. In 1529, as Wolsey fell from favour, the palace was handed to the king, who enlarged it. The following century, King William III undertook a massive rebuilding and expansion project, intended to outshine the French palace at Versailles.

We began our visit with a tour of King Henry VIII's State Apartments. The Great Hall was very impressive - this is where a lot of the lower ranks of Henry's court used to eat. The room is 32m long by 12m wide and would hold up to 600 people over two sittings, for two meals a day. The beautiful hammer-beam roof (see photo below) was originally painted red, blue and gold. We also passed through the Great Watching Chamber and saw inside the Chapel Royal. King Henry amassed an immense collection of tapestries - around 600 - and some of those surviving tapestries still decorate the walls throughout Hampton Court Palace today.

The first of the three large courtyards within the palace is the Base Court. This spacious courtyard provided a cramped but luxurious home for members and guests of the court. Beyond the Anne Boleyn Gateway is Clock Court - the heart of the palace and named after the extraordinary Astronomical Clock above the gateway. The third and final courtyard is the Fountain Court, a beautiful square of grass with a majestic fountain in the centre. It was around here that Henry and his wives had their private apartments.

Next we visited the Tudor Kitchens. Even though a large part of the Tudor Kitchens is no longer accessible, we were still able to visit a massive set of kitchens. The route is laid out showing where the raw food - mainly meat - came in and was processed, through storage rooms, to massive roasting ovens where it was cooked and out the other end, where the cooked food was taken to the royal court. Apparently King Henry's diet was made up of 75% meat.

The kitchens contain replica food and utensils to show exactly what things would have looked like in the 1500s. The massive chunks of meat were usually roasted over an open fire, although sometimes they were cut up and cooked in a huge cauldron or cooked as pies in pastry cases. There is a narrow alleyway running alongside the kitchens called Fish Court. There are a number of small store rooms along this alleyway, which were used as fridges to store raw ingredients. The alleyway is narrow running north to south so that no sun shines down there. It is open to the air and the rooms are small with thick stone walls which used to keep the stores nice and cool.

Next we visited the King William III State Apartments. The entry to these apartments is by an opulent staircase, where the walls and ceiling are decorated with magnificent paintings. Through the King's Guard Chamber (with 2,850 pieces of arms and armour) is a long corridor, off which there are various bedchambers, meeting rooms, closets and eating rooms. We decided not to visit the Queen's State Apartments or the Georgian Rooms - we could still be there now if we had seen everything!

Instead we opted to visit two exhibitions: the Young Henry Story, which focused on Henry from the time he became king throughout his marriage to his first wife, Katherine of Aragon; and a portrait exhibition of Henry's six wives, amongst others.

The Palace Gardens are enormous. We walked out of the palace and down the path through the Great Fountain Garden. We sat on the lawn in the sun and had a snack before continuing our walk through the beautiful gardens, amongst the perfectly manicured trees, bright-coloured flower beds and stone statues. There is a hedge maze at one end of the gardens, which is actually larger and more difficult to solve than it looks from the outside. Still, we managed to find out way to the centre after a few wrong turns!

Hampton
Court
Palace
entrance

Ceiling in
the Great
Hall

One of
many
tapestries

Base
Court

Astro-
nomical
Clock

King Henry
VIII

Fountain
Court

Palace
Gardens

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Egypt - Part 3: Luxor to Cairo

Friday

On Friday we had a 5.30am wake-up call - it would have been 4am had we chosen to do an optional hot air balloon ride over Luxor and the Valley of the Kings - and a massive day ahead of us. We were greeted in the hotel restaurant by a rather officious waiter who told Tim that he could not sit at the table he was about to sit at, but instead had to sit right down the far end of the restaurant miles away from the buffet, past a couple of dozen empty tables. Given that it was not yet 6am, he's lucky he didn't cop a smack in the face. If there was one disappointment about our stay at the Steigenberger Nile Palace Hotel, it would be the waiting staff - they seemed to go out of their way to make things difficult for us, rather than help us.

After breakfast we hopped on the bus and headed out to the west bank of Luxor to the Valley of the Kings, picking up the part of the group who had been hot air ballooning on the way. They had a super time, however, their balloon basket landed in the middle of a farmer's crop field and the farmer was rather upset, charging towards the basket brandishing a garden hoe as they landed.

Even though it was early in the morning when we arrived at the Valley of the Kings, it was very very hot out there and there wasn't a lot of shade from the sun. The Valley of the Kings is a valley west of Luxor where, for a period of nearly 500 years from the 16th to the 11th century BC, tombs were constructed for the kings and powerful nobles of the New Kingdom. There are 63 known tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the most recent being discovered in 2005.

The royal tombs are decorated with scenes from Egyptian mythology and give clues to the beliefs and funerary rituals of the period. Almost all of the tombs seem to have been opened and robbed in antiquity, but they still give an idea of the opulence and power of the rulers of this time. We visited the tombs of Ramses IV, Ramses I, Ramses IX and Tutankhamen.

Prior to arriving in Egypt, we assumed that Tutankhamen and Cleopatra were two of the most important figures in Egyptian history, as they were really the only two names we had heard much about. During our tour we heard almost nothing about Cleopatra and just a little about Tutankhamen, when we visited his tomb and saw some of his treasures at the Egyptian Museum. Tutankhamen was eight or nine years old when he became pharaoh and reigned for approximately ten years, dying aged 19. In historical terms, Tutankhamen's significance stems mainly from the fact that his tomb was discovered almost completely intact — the most complete ancient Egyptian tomb ever found.

Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered on 4 November 1922 by Howard Carter and it made history because of the enormous amount of treasure found in the burial chamber. Inside, amongst all the traditional funeral trimmings, the things that stood out were the Pharaoh's sarcophagi - the royal corpse was encased in three mummy cases. The first was made of gilded wood, the second of gilded wood set with precious stones and the third of solid gold. The golden sarcophagus is one of the greatest masterpieces of goldsmiths' art of all time. It contains 200kg of gold and is 1.5m high. The second and third coffins reside at the Egyptian Museum, while we saw the outer coffin in the tomb.

The tomb of Tutankhamen is also unique in that it still contains the king's body. This was another of the highlights of the trip, seeing the small corpse of Tutankhamen lying in its coffin, mainly wrapped in white mummy cloth, but with the head and feet exposed. Most of the treasures from the tomb are now housed at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo - more about them later.

From the Valley of the Kings we took a short ride to Queen Hatshepsut's Temple. Against its stark mountainous backdrop, the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut is a breath-taking sight. It is very different to any other temple we saw in Egypt - it rises from the desert plain in a series of imposing terraces. It was constructed for the Queen in the 18th Dynasty and sits adjacent to the much older Temple of Montuhotep II, the ruler of the 11th Dynasty. In 1997, 58 tourists and four Egyptians were massacred here by Islamic terrorists in what has become known as the "Luxor Massacre". Apparently there are bullet holes in the walls of the temples from the attack, but we did not see them.

Next stop in a busy morning was the Valley of the Queens. In this region, around 80 tombs have been found, although most of them are badly damaged, some showing traces of fire and others having been used as stables. The tombs mostly date from around 1300 to 1100 BC. We visited the tombs of Queen Titi and Prince Amunherkhepechep, son of Ramses III (those of the pharaoh's offspring who died in childhood were also buried in the Valley of the Queens). Next to the prince's coffin, on display in a glass cabinet, was the skeleton of a 5-month old foetus, believed to be the prince's younger brother. Both tombs were decorated with beautiful wall paintings in bright colours.

We had a quick chance to freshen up back at the hotel before grabbing some lunch at McDonald's, which we ate on the bus while we travelled to the Temple of Karnak. McDonald's in Egypt seems to follow USA's lead of serving everything in giant size - a large coke comes in more of a barrel than a cup and fries are pretty much delivered in a sack. As some of our tour group was departing in the afternoon to head to Dahab on the Red Sea coast, we had a quick tour of the Temple of Karnak.

At the heart of the immense Karnak temple complex lies the Temple of Amun, dedicated to the king of the gods. With its endless courts, halls and colossi and huge sacred lake, the scale and complexity of the sprawling temple is overwhelming. It is the largest temple complex in Egypt, covering an area of more than 40 hectares! From its modest 11th Dynasty beginnings, pharaoh after pharaoh added to and changed the existing buildings, seeking to make their mark on the country's most important temple. No expense was spared and during the 19th Dynasty, around 80,000 men worked in the temple as labourers, guards, priests and servants. The temple lay buried under sand for more than 1,000 years before excavation work began in the mid-19th century. Today the massive task of restoration continues.

The highlight of the Temple of Karnak is the Great Hypostyle Hall, supported by 134 gigantic columns. We liked the rows of sphinxes leading up to the main entrance to the temple (the ones that used to lead all the way to the Luxor Temple) and we also enjoyed wandering around the ruins beyond the Hypostyle Hall, sitting on broken statues and carvings. The Temple of Karnak has recent claims to fame in that it appeared in the Lara Croft video game, Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation as well as in the film The Mummy Returns.

We had a few hours to relax back at the hotel before heading to the Luxor train station to catch an overnight train back to Cairo. We sat down by the pool and had a drink and a chat to the rest of the gang. We had heard from Melissa and Trevor that a restaurant just down the road from the hotel, ironically called The Ritz Restaurant, did a really good curry - to quote Melissa, "the best curry she had ever had". So the two of us, along with Tim and Tania, went along to The Ritz for dinner. We all had a curry, Tim had a chicken curry with vegetables, while other Tim, Tania and Megan all went with a straight vegetable curry. Aside from the fact that Megan found chunks of chicken in hers (lucky she's not a dedicated vegetarian), we all agreed it was the most disgusting curry we had ever tasted. It was a horrible green-brown colour that looked like something out of the sewers and it had a gritty, sandy texture.

Given that we had a 9-hour overnight train ride coming up and we were all terrified of getting the runs, Megan and the others only ate about half of theirs. Despite it tasting horrible, Tim ate all of his - one because he was hungry and two because he figured if it's going to make you sick, eating half or eating the lot won't make a difference. Luckily, none of us got sick, but we figured Melissa had got us good and proper!

We were not on the comfortable sleeper train this time, so we had to slum it in the seater train. However, the seats were actually pretty big and the whole experience was fine - we all got a decent sleep and the train left on time and arrived on time, so no complaints. Except that other Tim returned from a toilet visit looking rather traumatised - so the rest of us held on until morning!

Saturday

We arrived in Cairo around 8.30am and caught a bus to a hotel in the city centre - not as nice as our previous hotels! To add to our tired, crabby moods, there was no water in the whole hotel when we arrived, so we couldn't have much needed showers. However, we had breakfast and a couple of hours' rest before Sobhy took the group on a guided tour of the Egyptian Museum.

The Egyptian Museum is home to most extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities in the world - that's right, it has even more than the British Museum! It has over 120,000 items! The undoubted highlight was the large collection of artifacts from King Tutankhamen's tomb. Many of the artifacts recovered from his tomb were things that the king had used during his life, such as thrones, beds, chariots that he had ridden on hunting expeditions, a decorated chest, which was most likely used as a closet or suitcase, ivory and gold bracelets, necklaces, and other decorative jewellery and alabaster vases and flasks. The tomb is also home to many weapons and instruments used by the King.

The most well known artifact in King Tutankhamen’s tomb was the famous Gold Mask, which rested over the bandages that wrapped around the king’s face. The mask weighs in at 11kg of solid gold, and is believed to represent what the king’s face really looked like. Next to the Gold Mask were the two inner coffins of Tutankhamen (referred to above). They were both stunning, particularly the 200kg solid gold coffin!

Obviously we didn't have time to explore everything in the museum, but other items of note were the collection of animal mummies - including an enormous mummified crocodile, human mummies and a number of big statues.

We had time for a quick shower back at the hotel, as the water had just been restored, before we set off for another guided tour to a perfume factory and the famous Khan Al-Khalili markets. Tim wasn't feeling up for a perfume factory visit, so he strolled the streets taking some photos of the real Cairo. The perfume factory was out in Giza on Cairo's west bank and parts of it looked very poor. We had been told that over half of Egyptians live below the poverty line. There was a lot of rubbish in the streets, crumbling dwellings and broken down vehicles. There was also a massive empty plot of land filled with rocks and piles of rubbish, where there were several sheep and goats "grazing"...on what we are not sure. It was all a bit sad.

Meanwhile Megan was treated to a real show in the perfume factory. The perfumerie was a treasure trove of pretty, jewel-like small bottles and large medicine bottles of flower essences. We consumed a lunch of Egyptian coffee and tomato pasta, while listening to a lecture as to how Cairo produces a significant percentage of all of the flower oils used by Dior, Chanel, Gucci and other fashion houses in their perfumes. We smelt and tried to identify several famous mixes (including Eternity by CK, Issey Miyake and J'Adore) before being let loose to purchase at will. Megan picked up some pure rose essential oil, which can apparently be used to perfume your laundry or bath, as well as a straight perfume.

The final stop on our tour was the Khan Al-Khalili markets in the Islamic district of Cairo. The area spans several blocks east to west and a mile north to south. It is made up of a number of markets selling everything from souvenirs to spices. It was a lot more crowded than previous markets we had visited and the sellers seemed more aggressive than the others too. Beyond the markets, the area is crowded with beautiful mosques, houses and palaces, which provide a welcome distraction from the incessant sales pitches.

Megan bought a little glass perfume bottle and we acquired a little clay sculpture of an old Egyptian man reading a book (see photo below). Our bus ride from Islamic Cairo back to our hotel was rather slow due to the rush hour traffic. The pollution was pretty bad in Cairo - a number of our group noticed that they had sore throats and eyes - not cool.

We went for dinner with Tim and Tania and Damian and Karen to a little place near our hotel that we nicknamed "Molly's" because the Arabic writing of its actual name looked a little like "Molly's". The food was great - shish kebabs and meat shewerma plates with plenty of pita bread.

Sunday

We had the luxury of a proper sleep-in for the first time in a couple of weeks on Sunday morning. After a leisurely breakfast and packing up our bags, we farewelled the gang and headed out to the airport. We were pretty knackered after a really full-on week but we both think that this was one of the best trips we have been on! And special thanks to Sobhy who was a brilliant tour guide and helped make the trip so fun.

Country tally:
Megan 28
Tim 24
Bear 24

Ancient
Colossi of
Memnon

Megs at
Valley of
the Kings

Tim -
same
place

Valley of
the Kings

Megs at
Tutan-
khamen's
tomb

Queen
Hatshep-
sut's
Temple

Tim at
Hatshepsut's
Temple

Temple of
Karnak -
row of
sphinxes

Megs at
Temple of
Karnak

Tim - Temple
of Karnak

Outside
Egyptian
Museum

Rubble
where
sheep were
"grazing" -
Giza

Street
in Giza

Islamic
Cairo

Khan
Al-Khalili
markets

Megs and
Tania
shopping up
a storm

Most of
our tour
group

Our
sculpture

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Egypt - Part 2: Aswan to Luxor

Tuesday

We were woken at 2.30am Tuesday morning and we left our cruise ship (still docked in Aswan at this point) around 3.15am to set off for Abu Simbel. It was a relatively painless bus/plane/bus ride to Abu Simbel and we arrived at the Abu Simbel temple around 5am.

The Great Temple of Abu Simbel (65m long and 38m wide) and the smaller Temple of Hathor were each carved out of a single solid piece of rock in the 13th century BC. Although dedicated to the patron deities of Egypt's great cities - Amun of Thebes, Ptah of Memphis and Ra-Harakhty of Heliopolis - the Great Temple was built to honour King Ramses II. Its 33m high facade, with four colossal enthroned statues of Ramses II was intended to impress and intimidate the enemy Nubians, while the interior revealed the union of god and king. Each of the statues of Ramses II is 20m high and measures 4m from ear to ear. The Temple of Hathor, dedicated to the goddess Hathor, was built by Ramses II to honour his favourite wife (he had more than 40 wives), Nefertari.

Deep inside the Great Temple sits the sanctuary where formerly there stood statues of the triad to whom the temple was dedicated, along with one of King Ramses II himself. It was here that what was called the 'miracle of the sun' took place. Twice a year, on 21 March and 21 September, at 5.58am, a ray of sunlight would penetrate the 65m between the entrance and the shrine and bathe Amun and Ramses II in light. A few minutes later the ray would move on and fall on Ra-Harakhty. After about 20 minutes the light disappeared and it is quite remarkable that the rays of light never struck Ptah, as Ptah is the god of darkness.

The temples were buried beneath sand for centuries until it was re-discovered in 1813 by Swiss explorer Jean-Louis Burckhardt. In the 1960s, as Lake Nasser threatened to engulf the temples, UNESCO cut them from the mountain into small blocks, moved the blocks about 150m further back and about 90m higher up, and completely rebuilt the entire temples on an artificial hill made from a domed structure, high above Lake Nasser.

While we stood in front of the Great Temple, the sun rose behind us in the distance above Lake Nasser and bathed the temples in sunlight. It was definitely worth getting up early to see the sunrise and the amazing temples in the early morning light, not to mention beating the masses of tourists who were arriving in their droves as we left again! We had plenty of time to explore inside the temples, and we loved seeing the paintings, carvings and hieroglyphics on the walls and the magnificent row of statues of, you guessed it, Ramses II, on each side of the main passageway. The remarkable temples were definitely one of the highlights of the trip.

Another bus/plane/bus combo and we were back in Aswan before 9am! Megan retired to bed to get a few much needed hours of sleep, while Tim returned to the Aswan markets with Tim, Tania and Steve to hunt for souvenirs and soak up some of the daily goings-on in Aswan. It was a successful trip, as Tim managed to find a couple of small souvenir ornaments - a camel and a figurine of the Egyptian jackal-headed god of embalming, Anubis! Tim also enjoyed a cold drink at a "cafe" with Tim and Tania. As other Tim puffed on his apple flavoured sheesha pipe, we watched the locals pass by, some riding donkeys, some carrying enormous baskets on their heads, but most clutching a mobile phone.

Back on the cruise ship, we had a magnificent lunch and finally the Samiramis set sail down the Nile. We had a fantastic afternoon up on the sun deck sitting in the pool sipping cold drinks and chatting about stuff. It was very hot and we all got touch of sunburn, but luckily there was a gentle breeze to cool us down slightly. The views from the ship were stunning - old fashioned feluccas (Egyptian sail boats) coasting down the Nile, a thick green band on either river bank of palm trees, grass and crops going back about 50-100m from the river and then barren sandy and rocky desert behind that as far as we could see. We were all amazed at the stark contrast in landscape within a matter of metres.

Late in the afternoon, we docked briefly at Kom Ombo to visit the Kom Ombo Temple. This temple is an unusual "double temple" split down the middle and is perfectly symmetrical with halls, rooms and sanctuaries on either side. The southern half of the temple was dedicated to the crocodile god Sobek, as well as Hathor and Khonsu, while the northern half of the temple was dedicated to the falcon god Horus. Our tour guide Sobhy pointed out some carvings on the walls of the temple, which had recorded what type and quantity of sacrifices had been brought to the temple by the people and the dates they were brought...like an early form of book-keeping.

As we wandered around the outside of the temple, the sun was setting and there was a surreal light, which made for good photo opportunities amongst the temple ruins. Back on the ship, we all got dressed up in our Egyptian themed costumes and enjoyed another brilliant meal before our dress-up party in the lounge bar. The ship continued north down the Nile and docked for the night in Edfu.

Wednesday

On Wednesday morning we had the luxury of a sleep-in...well, relatively speaking, until the 5.45am wake-up call. We took a short bus ride through the town of Edfu to the Edfu Temple and we were the first group there when the gates opened at 7am. This was once again well worth the effort, as by the time we left the temple less than an hour later, the crowds queuing to get in were massive!

The Temple of Edfu is the second largest temple in Egypt after the Temple of Karnak and it is one of the best preserved - it is nearly fully intact. The temple, dedicated to the falcon god Horus, was built in the Ptolemaic period between 237 and 57 BC. The inscriptions on its walls provide important information on language, myth and religion during the Graeco-Roman period in ancient Egypt. The size of the temple reflects the relative prosperity of the time.

On our bus ride back through the town of Edfu, our bus took a corner too sharply and the back wheels slammed into the unnecessarily high traffic median in the centre of the road, puncturing one of the tyres. However, the bus driver soldiered on all the way back to where our cruise ship was docked without stopping, although we were a little lop-sided!

After breakfast we had a sleep for a couple of hours and then made our way up to the sun deck, where we remained for the rest of a very relaxing day, catching some rays, cooling off in the pool and sharing in the hilarity of the jokes and stories from Trevor's 'Zoo' magazine. We arrived in Luxor in the evening, just in time to enjoy an amazing sunset over the Nile.

Everyone in our group was knackered by Wednesday night so after dinner it was a fairly quiet night, as we packed up our things and prepared to leave behind our beloved cruise ship the following morning. The cleaners on the boat had been amusing us during our stay by folding the towels into various animal shapes and in our case they liked to use Bear as a prop. During our stay we had a beautiful swan, a baby (that they had dressed in Tim's cap and was clutching Bear), a crocodile (that Bear was riding - see photo below) and a monkey that they had carefully hung from the ceiling of our rooms just inside the doorway, which gave us all a big fright as we entered our rooms!

Thursday

On Thursday morning we left the cruise ship and were taken into the centre of Luxor, where we checked into another stunning 5-star hotel, the Steigenberger Nile Palace Hotel. Thursday was pretty much a free day. After checking out our massive luxury hotel - see photo of huge swimming pool below - we set off for the Luxor markets along with Steve and Carla.

We got a taxi from outside the hotel, only it wouldn't start! It looked like it should have been in a transport museum. Three or four locals emerged like ninjas from the shadows and managed to push start the rusty beast and we went about two blocks before we pulled over and the driver explained to us that he had a fleet of six taxis, five of which were actually new and worked fine! So we got into one of the newer taxis and continued on our merry way to the markets. The driver was a hard case - he informed us that his name was Mr Fish and he even produced business cards for us, with him posing in dark shades leaning against a taxi under the bright lettering of MR FISH. Quality.

The markets in Luxor had a much more relaxed atmosphere - the salesmen were not quite as aggressive, in fact some of them were quite funny and chatty. The four of us enjoyed some che (Egyptian tea) at a cafe and wandered through the markets looking for something pretty. Megan bought a little ornamental scarab beetle (scarab beetles are good luck in Egypt) and Tim bought a little Tutankhamen coffin that opens up to show a little mummy lying inside. The prices were a lot lower than in Aswan too. The highlight of this market experience, however, was an Egyptian man wandering around holding two live chickens by the legs, which we assume he was trying to sell. Tim and Tania joined us at the markets before we all headed back to the hotel for some lunch.

The afternoon was about lying in the sun down by the pool, watching feluccas sail past on the Nile. In the evening there was an optional tour of Luxor Temple, which pretty much the whole group decided to go on. It was a nice change to see a temple all lit up at night.

The Luxor Temple sits on the bank of the Nile, dominating the centre of town. It was dedicated to the Theban triad of Amun, Mut and Khonsu and it was largely completed by the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Amenhotep III and added to by Ramses II in the 19th Dynasty. The temple is approached by an avenue of sphinxes, which once stretched all the way from Luxor to Karnak, 2km away. The gigantic front pylon of the temple is decorated with scenes of Ramses II's victory over the Hittites in the battle of Qadesh.

Two enormous seated colossi of Ramses II and a huge 25m high pink granite obelisk flank the gateway to the temple. There was once two matching obelisks in front of the temple, however, the other one was gifted to the French in the early 19th century and now sits proudly in the centre of the Place de la Concorde in Paris (which we have also seen)!

Our group then went out for dinner, which was a good chance to catch up with those who had opted for the felucca cruise up the Nile instead of the cruise ship. There were a few tales exchanged and we had another solid dinner, with a mysterious yellow goo for dessert. We had seen this yellow goo before on the cruise ship and it was delicious. It was a bit like custard, but not quite. It sometimes appeared with coconut or chocolate sprinkles on top, but it was always good.