Travel – Page 27 – David and Yanmei

May 29, 2015May 29, 2015

Zurich

We were going to take it easy today, to relax after Egypt, but we ended doing quite a lot. We're staying in a town called Thalwil, which is a suburb of Zurich located on the west bank of Lake Zurich. Zurich downtown is located at the northern tip of the lake. The house we are in has a great view.

I seem to have lost my ability to sleep in because I woke up early as usual even though I was very tired from the previous day of travel. First we went to a nearby grocery store to get a few supplies. The morning weather was lovely, clear, cool fresh air and sunny.

After breakfast we decided to take the ferry to Zurich. The ferry was scheduled for 9:50am and we planned to leave the house at 9:20am, but somehow ended up leaving at 9:30am. This resulted in us running a good portion of the way to the dock, luckily it was all downhill. We made it with about 30 seconds to spare, and fortunately you buy your ticket on board.

When we got to Zurich we headed a few blocks in to where there was a free city walking tour at 11am. There ended up being a large crowd of people for the tour. I guess that is what happens when you are one of the top ranked things to do in Zurich on tripadvisor.com and free.

The tour was pretty informative. I like this more than just wandering around ourselves because you get little tidbits and anecdotes about the locations that otherwise you wouldn't necessarily know about. One thing that surprised me was our guide said women only got the right to vote in Switzerland in 1971. Seems a little late for a country that is supposed to be a human rights advocate.

Zurich was actually governed by women in the 11th to 14th centuries when the abbess of Fraumünster abbey was the ruler. She was overthrown by an alliance of trade guilds when they became powerful. The 13 guilds and their guild houses remain today, and although they no longer have monopolies the guild families remain wealthy and influential.

Clock tower on St. Peter's church from Lindenhof hill

A guild house with guild flag, opposite Starbucks

After the tour we went to a restaurant called Hiltl for lunch. It was recommended by our Bnb host as well as the tour guide. It is a vegetarian restaurant that has been in business since 1898. They have a buffet or a la carte, and we decided on the buffet, which was quite extensive. The food was very good.

After lunch we decided to go up Uetliberg mountain, which is a small mountain overlooking Zurich. It was about a 20 minute train ride and then a 15 minute hike to the top. The view was pretty spectacular.

Finally we took the train back to Thalwil.

-David

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May 27, 2015May 27, 2015

Out of Africa

Tuesday we flew from Luxor back to Cairo. Originally we'd planned to take a train for that leg too, but it is much longer, about 9 hours, so we changed our minds. I'd previously taken advantage of having internet access while in South Korea to book the flight from Luxor to Cairo so we didn't need to take the train.

Wednesday we had our flight from Cairo to Zurich, Switzerland. The full heatwave hit Cairo and it was 114F when we left. It was a pleasant 61F in Zurich. I think Yanmei was happy to be out of Egypt. As the plane started descend to Zurich, she looked out the window and announced she likes here more. We were still at 25,000 feet. 🙂 Our flight was late so we didn't see much of Zurich today, we'll explore tomorrow

This concludes the planned parts of our trip. We have no further flights booked, although we'll need to book the flight to Canada soon before it gets too expensive. We're considering skipping Iceland now. Yanmei's Schengen visa is good for 41 days, and that includes Iceland, so if we don't go there we have more time in mainland Europe. We have Eurail passes for traveling around Europe by train. Now we are hoping to just float around, if we like a place, stay longer, if not move on.

-David

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May 26, 2015May 26, 2015

Luxor

From Aswan to Luxor we decided to take the train. This way we could see the countryside along the Nile. Some people recommended against this. One guide recommended we hire a car and drive to Luxor. In fact Egypt Rail will not sell tickets to foreigners for most trains. We arranged for the hotel to buy tickets for us, 1st class. We had two options 7am or 3pm. I voted for 7am because I thought Luxor has more interesting stuff. Yanmei agreed to go on the 7am train, only later did I find out she really wanted to stay in Aswan longer. 🙁 Anyway, 1st class from Aswan to Luxor is only 40 Egyptian pounds (~$5.30 US).

The train was old and dirty, but the first class seats were roomy and the car had air conditioning, which is important. Yanmei took some great pictures. The train is nice because you can see the scenery and normal life along the banks of the Nile, outside the tourist spots. The donkey is still a popular means of transport outside the cities. Yanmei was having fun counting the donkeys.

It was about 3.5 hours ride to Luxor and the train was on time. As soon as we got off the train we were approached by what Yanmei calls a “tourist hunter”, similar to what happened in Cairo airport. She hates these guys thinking they are just trying to get our money. I see them as hustling to make a living in a severely depressed economy. We did end up using his taxi to drive us to the Luxor Hilton.

After checking in we went to one of the hotel restaurants for lunch. After ordering one of the staff came over and suggested we move to a lounge upstairs because they were doing maintenance on the dining room we were in. So we went upstairs. This wasn't to Yanmei's liking, she felt it was dirty, and to make her point she wiped her white napkin on the arm of her chair and it left a big dark streak on the napkin. I also had two dead bugs on my napkin. So we went back downstairs. By the way we were the only ones in either location even though it was right around noon. Hardly anyone staying at the Hilton. Finally they brought the food and the portions were too small. Suffice to say Yanmei was not impressed with the Hilton. She was already in a bad mood from the tourist hunter and this didn't help at all.

After lunch I wanted to take a tour. This is why I wanted the early train, so we'd have 1.5 days in Luxor instead of one. There are tons of sites to see. Yanmei wasn't interested so I went by myself on a tour of Karnak and Luxor temples.

The Karnak temple complex was build over the course of more than a thousand years. They kept adding more until they got conquered and stopped. This is why the left wall is lower than the right, it is not finished. Inside is still the remnants of the mud brick ram they used to build the wall.

Remnant of mud brick ramp, and on the left an unfinished column

The temple complex is massive and impressive.

Section of remaining roof, painted blue with stars

The Obelisk of Queen Hatshepsut is interesting. When her husband the pharaoh died, her six year old son was supposed to become king. Because he was so young she usurped him and ruled Egypt for 18 years, during which time she raised this obelisk. When she died and her son finally became king, he wanted revenge on her so he destroyed many of her works. However the obelisk is a monument to the gods so he couldn't destroy it without offending them, so he ordered a huge wall built around it so no one could see it. Ironically this is why it is the best preserved obelisk today.

After Karnak we went to Luxor Temple. My guide told me they used to have a monthly parade from Karnak to Luxor carrying an idol of the god Amun on a wooden boat down a road lined with rams head sphinxes. They are currently working on recreating this road between the two temples. It is about 2.7km and they had to demolish several buildings.

Entrance to Luxor temple, the missing obelisk is in Paris

Over the centuries Luxor temple was covered with sand. Although they must have known something was there, because the tops of the obelisks were not buried, they built a mosque on top of the temple in about 1200 AD.

Door to the mosque showing the depth to which the temple was buried

Temple wall added by Alexander the Great when he conquered Egypt

Another long day in Egypt!

I went back to hotel and we had dinner at the asian restaurant. Yanmei was not impressed by the wok fried vegetables. I think the hotel staff was becoming afraid of her because they brought out a second serving for free.

-David

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