Florence and the Valley of the Kings

This place makes me get tied up in my own life!

I nearly missed Luxor!
The stories I had heard about Egypt and the male of the species made me wary .
Not sure if the level of maturity was unappealing or the beauty was overwhelming but I found courtesy and respect at every turn.
The notion of wading through a town , with misogyny blatantly slapping me around, would leave me cold- there is enough of that here.

But the plane did not leave at 7 , nor at 10 but finally we made a lazy departure at 11. I had been pleased with my ability to find the best flight .... Two hours and I would be in Luxor by 9.30.
Instead I arrived at about 1.30, tired  out as the previous night had been rather.... shall we say hectic!!!!
I knew my guide would arrive at 9 the next morning and I did want to be reasonably human for that!

I was ushered quickly through immigration , ahead of all the men going home for a weekend.... 5 minutes and I was through..... walked outside  and the taxi drivers made an effort to acknowledge without leering.......
Along comes my driver and we head to the town. I was staying on the West Bank, closer to the Valley of the Kings and Queen Hatshepsuts Temple.
As we drove into the very Egyptian part of town, we stopped and the security guard rose out of the cart where he had been sleeping(????????) I was ushered in and crashed on my very comfortable bed.
Early rising and breakfast in the garden served by Karim - awesome young man.
My day would consist of constant movement across the Luxor landscape , focussing on the monuments left to celebrate the lives of dead royalty- magnificent and not quite reminiscent of Ozymandias.  The Karnak temple , with its giant scarab beetle and 20m thick walls to hold back the flooding Nile..... the remnants of Memnon - called the colossus of Memnon but smaller than I had thought...
and the food
but wine was hard to come by so beer was the flavour of the month... and the constant sound of braying donkeys was a welcome break from the screaming cars of Kuwait.
By the end of the day I was tired and the next morning was a 3.30a.m start and my first ever balloon ride...... over Luxor and the Nile Delta.
It was wonderful--- those gorgeous young men who were helping get the ride organised picked me up and placed me in the basket!!!! Just like a slab of meat but I secretly loved it- actually I loudly exclaimed how divine it was!
The rest of the day passed in a blur as I was tired
But there was a great swimming pool at the hotel
where I lay the next day
and it was time.... to go..... just a long weekend and a taster....
Home... well back to the sand ridden Kuwait and the constant dust....
done
and now I say
Two weeks after this week
We will be walking out of the Swiss Alps to Rome..... me and the invincible Lee( walker extraordinaire).. I will laze my days across Italy while he blazes the path the path to Rome...
Turin , on the 31st May........