Viewed from McDonalds - Luxor Temple

Taken on a trip to Egypt in 2017. Guess they have more to worry about in Luxor than planning laws.

My last visit to Egypt was Cairo in 2019. I was supposed to return in 2020. I have no idea when I'll next be able to go back, but I hope it won't be too long.

 

Guess where I am in the world?

Everything is the same. What happened to being different?

Take a look at the images below. They will all be familiar to you. If not the brand, but as food items, or shops.

These photos have been taken over a 5 year period. In the UK, Dubai, South Africa, Canada, Egypt and Germany. Later on this year I will be visiting Australia and will be no doubt having similar observations to you.

Nothing is different.

Everything is the same.

Is that Waitrose in the UK? and Tesco? of course, they're British companies. Think again. The Waitrose is in Dubai.

Halloween and Christmas images, can't be Dubai, can it? Yes it's Dubai.

Foreign food aisles. When you leave the UK everything is foreign food isn't it? 

Tim Hortons? Easy in Canada - Dubai

Red bus? Must be London - Canada

Wimpy? That's South Africa surely - Canada

Large Malls? Again has to be Dubai - Canada

Apart from buildings, landscapes, currencies, languages and accents, there is little different to see around the world outside of the tourist areas. Yes there's game drives in South Africa, the Niagara Falls in Canada, historical buildings, castles to explore in the UK and Germany. 

But outside of that, there is fuel to put in the car, coffee to be drunk, food shopping to be done, clothes to be purchased.

I remember as a teen going into H&M, it was in France, it was glamourous. Visiting a foreign supermarket and trying all the different foods. Having a special treat by visiting a coffee shop.

But now everything is everywhere, you can buy anything wherever you go and if you can't buy it, you can order it online.

The magic of travel for me is narrowing.

A visit to the Pyramids, Cairo.

Well this is probably one of the greatest construction projects in the world, ever. It took 20,000 people 20 years working 24/7 to construct the Pyramid of Khufu also known as the Great Pyramid and Pyramid of Cheops. It's the only remaining Seven Wonders of the World.

I've been fascinated by the Pyramids in Giza since I was a child, when my father visited there with work and somewhere there is a photo of him sat half way up, in the days when tourism wasn't as prolific as it is now and one was free to wander and climb. I was surprised to see we could still climb certain areas and steps had been cut into the blocks to allow us to do so.

It was a very emotional trip for me also, as I can no longer share my travel adventures with my father of places both he and I have visited separately. As with all places we visit for the first time, until we get a feel for a country that is considered dangerous for tourists, we opted to book a tour guide and transport. I wasn’t impressed with our tour, it seemed a bit rushed. There were several fees to be paid, the tour itself that collected us from the hotel, entrance fee and the choice of entering the chambers of two of the pyramids. Our guide told us there was nothing inside to see and it was hot and difficult to get in and out, but seeing as we were here we should go in the 2^nd pyramid as it was cheaper.

I’m glad we took the tour though it would have been a long walk up to see the panoramic view or get a horse and carriage ride up there which didn’t appeal.

On leaving the bus stopped briefly for a quick photo of the Sphinx at which point we opted to get out the bus to spend a bit more time there and get an Uber to meet friends later. We were warned none stop that we would get harassed by vendors, but our biggest problem was locals who wanted their photo taken with us. It was time consuming only, everyone was super friendly though.

We arrived around 10am and spent about 2 hours there, there was a distinct lack of tourists, I’d expected it to be very busy.

We've visited Luxor twice now, Valley of the Kings, Karnak and Luxor temple and have been to the Louve in Paris to see many ancient relics from this period. But this is my first visit to Cairo and I’m in love.

You can see on the other construction photos I've been taking around the world and in Dubai by clicking on the links below:

Week 158 Dubai Bluewater Islands and Dubai Eye. Man made island a 210m high Big Wheel
Week 159 Dubai Dubai Marina - Reflections
Week 160 Dubai Dubai Frame. A window between the Old and New Dubai and a 150m high glass floor.

Week 161 Dubai Dubai Marina 3 years apart.

Week 162 Dubai Dubai Water Canal Bridge Construction and reconfiguration of roads

Week 163 Dubai New Metro Line for Expo 2020
Week 164 Arizona and Nevada Hoover Dam 2002 - 2010
Week 165 Dubai Dubai Opera House What a difference a year makes
Week 166 Dubai Unfinished buildings. The Pentominium
Week 167 Coventry Mixing the old and the new. Coventry Catherdral
Week 168 Dubai New Dubai Metro Station 
Week 169 Dubai The new extension of the Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa 
Week 170 Dubai Hotel fire After the Address fire 
Week 171 Dubai Unusual designs The Opus Building
Week 172 Dubai District Cooling. Keeping the desert cool.
Week 173 Dubai Can I visit the Burj Al Arab
Week 174 Dubai The Almas Tower
Week 175 Dubai The Cayan Tower
Week 176 Toronto The CN Tower
Week 177 Nevada The Paris Hotel 
Week 178 Dubai Ibn Battuta Gate
Week 179 A Wedding Our first child got married
Week 180 Dubai The World's Tallest Tower
Week 181 Dubai and Wales Al Fahidi Fort and Chepstow Castle 
Week 182 Dubai New Metro Station in Al Furjan 
Week 183 Dubai Ski Dubai
Week 184 Another Wedding
Week 185 South Africa Life in a township
Week 186 Austria Ski Jump 
Week 187 Dubai Green Plant Bio Dome 
Week 188 Dubai Update on the Metro Station
Week 189 Dubai My view from the balcony changed in 8 months
Week 190 Greece Just how instagramable is it?
Week 191-192 Dubai Before and After. 3 months out of Dubai
Week 193 Dubai Building a boat in the sky
Week 194 South Africa An African Sunset
Week 195 South Africa Building with boxes Charity work in South Africa
Week 196 Another family wedding and a year of travel
Week 197 Dubai What are they building now? World Trade Centre
Week 198 Monmouth Building work in South Wales
Week 198 Dubai The cladding is going on, on the metro station
Week 199 Dubai They're building on the beaches in Dubai
Week 200 Hong Kong Building with Bamboo
Week 201 Dubai My Week as a volunteer on the European Tour

One Daily Positive Week 47 From the Race to Dubai to Cairo

I'm linking up this week from Cairo, I flew in on Thursday to join Peter for a few days at the end of a business trip. I've wanted to see the pyramids since I was a small child. We've visited Luxor twice and the Valley of the Kings.

I started the week absolutely shattered from marshalling the golf for 4 days already. It's been around 32c and really humid.

322 Sunday The final day of the European Tour, starting by managing the crowd on the 1st tee from 7am till 12pm then lunch followed by crowd control on the 18th leading up to the green. We sat on the edge of the green to watch the final winning putt by Danny Willett, there was an after party, I got home, had a bath and was asleep within 30 mins.

323 Monday The house has been neglected for a week so I started with tidying around and giving the windows a clean. That was as far as I got though, decided just to have some quiet time. Took Peter to the airport and had an early night.

324 Tuesday Dog park and catch up with friends over coffee. Went for a bike ride in the afternoon and accidentally stopped off to get my nails done and have a hair cut. This was the only photo I took today.

325 Wednesday Dropped the cat and dog at boarding and finished cleaning the house.

326 Thursday Packed hand luggage only and flew to Cairo, was collected from the airport to meet Peter at the hotel. We had dinner out and a late night, feel shattered.

327 Friday An early start to the pyramids. Deptie the blue skies it was chilly and we'd had a torrential storm in the morning. We got an Uber to meet a friend and spent the afternoon with his Mother and Sister in their home, had dinner in a local restaurant and it took almost 3 hours to do a 45 minute trip back to the hotel across the city, due to volume of traffic and flooding.

328 Saturday Had a lie in, a leisurely breakfast poolside and then got an Uber to visit to the Cairo museum. Meeting another friend in the late afternoon for an early dinner near our hotel as neither of us could cope with the traffic.

On the blog this week:

Read how I got on as a volunteer on the European Golf Tour

An InLinkz Link-up

The Winter Palace, Sofitel. Luxor

We spent 4 days in Luxor in January. Peter had spent the weekend there at a conference and I decided to join him for the weekend. We last visited Luxor in 2008 and as you'd expect not a lot has changed other than the alarming decline in the economy after the revolution in 2010.

We visited the temples and the Valley of the Kings as we'd done previously. On this trip our hotel was central to the main part of the city so we explored a bit further on foot, rather than whizzing past places in a taxi.

Struggling to find anywhere that served a decent cup of coffee we decided to visit the Winter Palace to try our luck there. We will definitely be staying their on our next trip, it was splendid. I think the reason we hadn't looked at this hotel is because it's not on the Nile and a Nile view is something to behold when you look across in the early mornings and see the balloon flights and can sit on the banks in the evening enjoying a drink watching the sunset.

The Winter Palace was built in 1886 and now owned by Sofitel part of the Accor group. It is where Howard Carter stood on the steps to announce the find of Tutankhamen's Tomb to the world.

Since then many other famous celebrities and heads of states have visited, including Agatha Christie who wrote 'Death on the Nile' while she was a guest there in 1937. But sadly the hotel from the front does not hold the appeal of luxury travel as it would've done in it's glory days.

The red carpet was out, but has seen better days and the paint was flaking on the outside of the building. The reception hall hadn't been modernised and that was lovely to see how it would've been back in the day.

However all the flaws were forgiven the second we stepped out onto the terrace. The gardens were spectacular and it took me a while to see the additional accommodation buildings, with balconies and an amazing outdoor pool and restaurant area.

View from the terrace

Looking back

New accommodation and pool, viewed from the restaurant.

The garden was full of trees, cacti and succulents.

Living in Dubai, I miss seeing trees everywhere, although there are palm trees and native trees in the UAE, they are not as tall and as spectacular as the trees here in Luxor.

The tress and plants were labelled to help with identification, which country they were brought in from and the date they were planted.

The gardens were empty and we sat in blissful silence drinking our coffee, which was OK and then enjoyed a stroll around the gardens, in addition to the trees there was a small aviary and lenity of places one could sit and just in quiet for a while.