Adventure on the Nile: ancient civilizations, river swimming and 107-degree temple exploring.
While September isn’t necessarily the time of year that screams “visit the blazing hot desert”, with Cairo just an hour hop away from Athens by air, the allure of mummies, gold and ancient pyramids was enough to entice us into a weeklong exploration of the awe-inspiring place that is Egypt. We decided on a few days in Cairo and Giza to see the Great Pyramids and Ancient Egyptian Museum, then headed to Luxor where we boarded a Dahibaya (a traditional Egyptian sailboat) that slowly sailed up the Nile to Aswan over the course of 5 days. I honestly don’t know how to encapsulate the week, distilling down what to share and describe. The depth of history and scale of what the ancient Egyptians invented, built and created 5000 years ago is hard to comprehend, and even more so after seeing it first-hand. Cairo was a whirlwind of heat, history, trash, sound, culture and differentness. We visited the step pyramid, the first pyramid to be built in 2670-2650 BC by Imhotep, a brilliant ruler, doctor, visionary and inventor. We climbed down into a burial tomb covered in the most beautiful, detailed, and ornate hieroglyphics. We visited a Papyrus factory and drank sugary coffee and hibiscus tea while learning how to make papyrus, and then promptly were systematically guilted into buying traditional papyrus paintings with the boys’ names in hieroglyphics;). We rode camels in the 106-degree sun around the Great Pyramid with a hilarious Egyptian guide who wrapped the boys heads in turbans and made us take goofy photos with our camels (the highlight of Huxley’s life so far, I’m pretty sure J ) . We braved the throngs of people and sweltering heat to climb up up up to the burial tomb at very tippy top of the Great Pyramid, and then speed museum-ed our way through the Ancient Egyptian museum, seeing the gilded wonder that was King Tuts burial stash and super creepy super cool thousand year old mummies with hair still intact. The boys tried their best to take it all in; the magnificence of it all alongside the intense poverty of Cairo, the absolutely insane amounts of trash that clogged every street, river and sidewalk, the begging, the hassling and the haggling, the heat, the smells, the inability to use a restroom or take a photo without paying someone somewhere something, never knowing what was right. It made you feel uncomfortable. It made you feel sad. It made you feel grateful, and it made you think. It was definitely a “Dorothy we’re not in Kansas anymore” kind of a day and I was so impressed by how thoughtful, kind and observant the boys were in their little 6 and 8 yr. old ways.
The next day we headed to Luxor, with a quick 6-hour delay at the Cairo airport and an introduction to the complete cluster that is EgyptAir;) where we boarded our dhibaya and started our journey up the Nile. When you’re traveling with kids you quickly get used to the terrified faces of fellow travelers as you board a plane, sit down at a restaurant, plop down by the hotel pool or, in this case, board a 16-passenger boat for the next 5 days. You can feel everyone tense, calculating if their vacation is set to be ruined by noise and chaos, and you can’t help but wonder if you made the right choice, committing to 5 days on a boat in the Nile river with no real movement outlet other than 110 degree visits to old ruins and temples. Lucky for all of us, the boys once again exceeded both our and the 12 passengers expectations out of the water and by the end of the trip they had a dozen new friends and admirers, aged 20-80. We’re quickly being reminded that the most brilliant part of travel, especially travel as intimate as a boat trip, is the cast of characters you meet along the way. There was the wonderful Italian artist Marcello and his high fashion photographer wife who had been married a week before. There was the British broadcaster who just days before had been sending in audio clips around the death of the queen. There was the Egyptologist who, the very first morning during our visit to a temple in Esna, discovered proof of his long held theory that ancient Egyptians utilized pictographs to make diphthong, which he photographed in a cartouche spelling ‘Autocrat Caesar’ on one of the pillars. His wife who was an author, poet, television producer and also happened to work in AI development. There was a Portuguese family that we fell in love with from day one; a beautiful, brilliant mother, Michelle, and her 3 children, aged 19, 24 and 27, who were the kind of kids I can only hope the boys grow up to be like. Each was so kind, engaged, intelligent, respectful and oh so much fun. I’m not sure if the boys were more in love with the beautiful Maria, Martim, who would spend hours playing games and joking around with them on deck, or Joao who loved football (soccer) as much as Holden and would kick the ball around on the boat and then join us and the crew for pickup games whenever we could find a spot of land. That spot usually consisted of a spit of sand on an island in the middle of the river, surrounded by grazing water buffalo and donkeys and inevitably covered in water buffalo poop, trash and mud…but it didn’t matter because everyone was so happy to be at play. And then there was the crew. Oh yes, and the dozen Egyptian boys and men (women aren’t allowed to work in Egypt) who had the best smiles, biggest hearts and goofiest, playful underside that the boys brought out.
We boarded the boat on Huxley’s birthday and while the idea of turning 6 on the Nile River sounds pretty amazing, we couldn’t help but worry that he would miss his friends and family, a big birthday cake and honestly that he would be sad not to have any presents (we’ve shifted from physical goods to experiences this year due to the carry-on bag and not having a house anymore situation 🤣. We couldn’t have been more wrong. First off, it turns out that having your own room with your brother on a boat is pretty freaking cool. Then when the crew adds twinkling Christmas lights to your room, you’re pretty sure it can’t get much better. Then, when after dinner you’re about to head to bed and you hear a drumming sound and are all of a sudden presented with a giant birthday cake and the entire crew drumming and singing and dancing. Everyone had belly dancing jingly scarves tied around their waists and Huxley was at the center of it all, put in a chair and hoisted in the air, passed form the arms of one crew member to the next, pulled into the middle and taught a traditional Egyptian dance, trying to shake his little hips and mimic it all. I would have run away and hidden in the corner, but sweet, amazing, confident, fun-loving Huxley was in for all of it, finally collapsing at 10 pm begging to come back for his 7th, 8th and 9th birthday, officially declaring it the best ever.
The next 4 days unfolded with a very chill rhythm; we would wake up, have a bizarre breakfast with some combination of falafel and beans and Egyptian eggs and crepes, then venture into the heat to visit temples, burial sites and tombs (sometimes riding donkeys, sometimes in extremely sketchy rickety horse drawn carriages, sometimes walking for what felt like forever though the heat and sand) before returning to the boat for a giant lunch followed by an afternoon of sailing, homeschooling and swimming in the Nile. We would find the spots where the current was strong enough to keep the water clean, take a small boat upriver, jump in, and float back to the sailboat. Evenings were spent learning the stories and lives of our fellow passengers before giant feasts for dinner that truly tested the boys adaptability as there were no options, no customizations, and typically giant tagines filled with various fish stews, spiced vegetables and duck or beef simmered in tomato broth and wild spices, tahini and aubergines. We would drink truly awful Egyptian wine and they boys would relish a Sprite that the crew would spoil them with every night. Our itinerary took us up the river before ending in Aswan where we disembarked, hearts full, brains inspired, bodies a few lbs heavier, and headed to the airport for a couple of flights that would end in Barcelona in a mad-dash attempt to catch an FC Barcelona football match at Camp Nou. We are currently about halfway through our flight, boys passed out, exhausted from their pre-dawn wake-up and the nearly 100 jumps off the top deck of the boat with the crew yesterday, beyond excited for the next step of our journey. This time we’re headed Girona to show the boys where we used to live, reconnect with old friends, drink good wine (finally!!!), explore our favorite old towns and beaches, have a kitchen and the ability to cook for ourselves for the first time in 3 weeks, and to frequent the Rigo, the specialty food store that was the inspiration for Cured. Last but not least, we’re darn excited to be able to exercise for the first time in nearly 3 weeks (not going to lie, covid followed by science camp followed by 110 degree heat and living on a small boat has been a crazy adjustment for two humans who are used to moving their bodies a whole lot every day). Oh yes, and also to get discover all the new places to eat and things to do that have popped up in the 10 years since we were last in Girona. But first, a mad dash to make the football match!
Random Recs
We stayed at the Four Seasons in Giza and highly recommend it as it was only $140/night. There was a great pool, a wonderful spa that was also shockingly cheap (we got the boys “Little Kings” spa treatments which included massages, body scrubs and snacks, all for $30 and they were in HEAVEN) and bunch of good restaurants attached to the hotel. We appreciated the ability to retreat into calm and quiet after the craziness of Cairo. (There are two in the area, one in Cairo and one in Giza. The Giza is said to be better for families so we ended up there)
We hired a driver and tour guide while in Cairo and very much appreciated not having to navigate Cairo roads ourselves!
Our boat trip was through a company Nour El Nil, owned by a French woman and Mexican man who split their time between Luxor and Paris. I could not recommend it more. The boats were beautiful, the food delicious and the crew exceptional. We loved the intimate nature of the boats and appreciated the small group size when visiting the temples.