Crocodiles and Bananas

Hello back home, and around the world.  I hear the weather in New England is starting to feel like spring.  Congratulations.  I am writing from Luxor, Egypt.  Today we visited some of the tombs in the Valley of the Kings, the Funary Temple of Queen Hatshopset, and the Collossi of Memnon.  In the afternoon we spent a liesurely three hours cruising the Nile on a Felluca.  Napping on the leeward side of a Felluca is probably the best therapy in the world, besides riding a Harley.  It was almost enough for us to scrap our plans for the Great Pyramids and do a multi-day trip to Aswan by boat.  Alas, our prudence got the better of us and we booked a ticket on the overnight train tomorrow to Cairo.  Before we depart we will visit Karnak and Luxor temples.  In Cairo we are hoping to pick up our waiting netbook, and we will be able to upload some long-awaited photos.  I have only taken about 900 so far, so it should be a pretty quick process.  I think we are both looking forward to punching the tourist tickets in Cairo and leaving the Middle-East behind.  It has been great, but there is so much to see, and we had a limited time.  It has felt more like a tour than a leisurely globe-trotting backpacking trip.  Hopefully Turkey, and the rest of Europe will let us ease into things a little more, and have a little more relaxation and living in the moment.