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  Petra         Cairo         Captains night            Luxor                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                
Cruise the Red Sea visiting the sights of Egypt & Jordon.

My wife and I had never being on a Cruise and never felt as if we wanted to, but our friends kept telling us what a wonderful holiday it was and that we should do it. Parallel to this I always wanted to visit the sights of Egypt but we never did because my wife was afraid the area was unstable.

One evening whilst considering our next holiday we read about a Thompson "Red Sea Cruise "that sailed the Gulf of Aqaba and the Gulf of Suez providing the opportunity to visit many of the ancient Egyptian monuments. This seemed right for us, we could try out a Cruise and at the same time visit the sights of Egypt under safe controlled conditions, so we made the necessary arrangements.

Well we are glad we did, it turned out to be a wonderful holiday experience. The cruise was everything our friends claimed it would be, the sights of Egypt are awesome and are not to be missed, at times we could not believe we were there.
Below are some of our pictures, there are better pictures in many magazines etc. but these are ours! we were there. 
Our flight took us from Cardiff to Sharm El Sheikh where we embarked the Thomson Spirit and in the evening we sailed to Aqaba in Jordan. Whilst the Spirit was at dock in Aqaba we went on a  4x4 Safari into the desert (Wadi Rum) which followed ancient caravan trails, the landscape is just magnificent.

The following day we visited the lost City of Petra, when just gaining access to Petra was an unforgettable unique journey. The Tombs and structures of Petra (carved into the rock) that supported life centuries ago is just awesome,  it is an amazing place to visit. This ancient city was the location for the Indiana Jones film "Angels of the Lost Ark".


Our cruise took us down the Gulf of Auaba to the Red Sea and up the Gulf of Suez to Port Suez, from here we visited the Pyramids and Sphinx at the Gizeh archeological site and the museum at Cairo. These Pyramids,are one of  the wonders of the world and we took the opportunity to see the burial chamber deep inside the Pyramid of Cheops  The Egyptian museum at Cairo is one of the worlds most famous museums and it houses 250,000 antique pieces including  "The Gold Mask of Tutankhamun".


                 

                                                                                                                    The gold mask of Tutankhalmun






Following our excursion to Cairo we Cruised back down the Gulf of Suez into the Red Sea to the port of Safaga, whilst at sea there was a formal evening on board the Spirit and we had the pleasure of meeting the ships Captain and being introduced to the ships officers.  We very much enjoyed this specially prepared evening.
  

From Safaga we visited Luxor, the Valley of the Kings and the impressive temple of Karnak.  
                                                                    

Here we were able to descend into the burial chambers of Tutankhamum the boy king and Ramses 1V, two of Egypts most famous pharaohs, many other tombs are open for public viewing where the decoration of the passageways and the tombs is a remarkable and unforgettable sight.              
                                               

We Cruised back to Sharm El Sheikh where we disembarked the "Spirit" for our return flight to Cardiff, we know that we only saw a very small selection of the treasures of Egypt and we hope that one day we will be able to return to this remarkable country.