A Felucca sailing trip on the Nile

An Egyptian steers a felucca sailboat towards the west bank of the Nile.

In November during our trip to Luxor, we sailed a wee bit of the Nile on a felucca, a traditional wooden sailing boat. We spent the afternoon breathing in the sea wind and beautiful views of the Nile. Our hosts, Ilsa and Mahmoud of Nile Compound, packed us a tasty hot lunch and drinks. Oscar even got to "help" the sailors steer the boat. Possibly for a bit longer than they intended.

Our destination was a place called Banana Island. It has a lot of bananas. Also, it's an island. Did you know they didn't have bananas in ancient Egypt? I didn't. I even lost a bet.

After a stroll along a path through he bananas, we stopped at a restaurant/gift shop/zoo. This was a strange place. Like, awesomely strange. Particularly the gift shop. I suppose it's possible there is a market for dusty jewellery and badly preserved dead animals. With bonus cobwebs. The restaurant did serve up a jolly nice platter of fruits. And, if you got bored (or, more likely, if your children get bored), you could always check out the live crocodiles.

Not creepy at all...

As you know, I love the weird and wonderful, so I was pretty thrilled. The people were actually quite lovely. The trip back was beautiful. We enjoyed being gently rocked by the waves while enjoying the warm light of the dipping sun. Once ashore, we retired to a riverfront cafe to watch the sunset.

A super exciting rock

Stones with ancient carvings were used as construction materials after the temples were closed.

In 197 B.C., a real-life drama of conspiracy, murder and bribes would result in a decree, carved in stone, and placed in a temple, to reinforce the rule of a 12-year-old pharaoh. It was carved in two languages, and in three different scripts, so everyone would be able to read it. Millenia later, in 1799, this same stone would be discovered in the wall of a French fort in the Nile Delta region of Egypt near the present-day town of Rashid, or as the French called it, Rosetta.

The Rosetta Stone was the key to understanding ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. Before this stone was found, many historians believed each hieroglyph was a word, object or idea. The Rosetta Stone showed that words were made of hieroglyphs that represented sounds, as well as hieroglyphs that represented ideas and objects. That changed everything. The Rosetta Stone unlocked the secrets of the Ancient Egyptians, written in temples, tombs and monuments.

The real Rosetta Stone is at the British Museum in London, but this week-end, I got to see the fort and touch the wall where the Rosetta Stone was found. I visited the Rashid Museum where there is an exact replica of the stone. I marvelled at the same neat lines of Greek, demotic and hieroglyphic text that Jean-François Champollion used to interpret the ancient language.

Needless to say, it was super exciting.

There is an exact replica of the Rosetta Stone at the Rashid Museum.

The fort where the Rosetta Stone was found was called Fort St. Julien. Now it is known as the Citadel of Qaitbay and a mosque has been built within it’s walls.

In case you were wondering, there is a replica of the Rosetta Stone at the fort as well. Unfortunately, as you can see, the glass is very reflective so it is quite hard to get a good photo. If you do want a photo, it's worth visiting the Rashid Muse… — In case you were wondering, there is a replica of the Rosetta Stone at the fort as well. Unfortunately, as you can see, the glass is very reflective so it is quite hard to get a good photo. If you do want a photo, it's worth visiting the Rashid Museum, where there is a full size replica with (non-reflective) glass only covering the front of the stone.

Vacation on the Nile - West Bank, Luxor

Last week we left the city behind for a vacation on the west bank of the Nile in Luxor.

We took the overnight train from Alexandria and I remember waking up, the morning sun slanting in the window and painting the country scenes out the window in an orange light. In the patchwork of fields, men and women harvested crops by hand or plowed fields with a donkey. Every piece of fertile land was being used to grow, even the narrow strip of land between the train and the river.

Where we stayed on the west bank we were surrounded by fields and small villages. Aside from the odd car or scooter, the donkey was the main mode of transportation, both carrying people and pulling carts. In fact, aside from the occasional motor vehicle, the west bank looked like it could have been frozen in time for hundreds of years. Unlike the city, all women were veiled and all men wore a robe (I believe it’s called a Galabeya) and a head scarf.

As I strolled the streets, some women would dash away with their children in tow when they caught sight of me. Others were friendly and agreed to have photos taken. Once, a group of children crowded around chattering in Arabic and a smattering of English. Sometimes the men would look at me with vague suspicion, but a cheery “sabah el khreer” (good morning) from me would engender a friendly response, often with a face transformed, wreathed in smiles.

We got the most smiles during a slightly embarrassing donkey ride that Oscar loved and seemed to provide a lot of entertainment for the locals. We must have been a sight, a couple of slightly portly white folks on skinny donkeys, Rich with his feet almost touching the ground. Many villagers waved at us and we felt obliged to wave back from our modest steeds, like part of a funny tourist parade or a parody of the royal family.

We stayed for four nights at Nile Compound with our hosts were Elsa and Mahmoud. Elsa is German and taught Oscar how to say “guten Tag” and play Uno. Mahmoud is Egyptian and helped us sort out transportation to all of the sites and sorted trips to the bank machine and train station. Both made us feel very welcome and comfortable.

During our stay we would wake up to coffee on the patio and breakfasts of eggs, pancakes, fresh juice, fruit and yogurt. Between our excursions we would enjoy the serenity of the compound. I can recall with perfect clarity, floating on the pool in the sunshine, listening to Oscar’s giggles while Richard did etchings in his journal.

On the last day they took us on a felucca ride to Banana Island. A felucca is a wooden sail boat and Banana Island is an island with lots of bananas (more about that later). By the end of our stay, as they saw us off to the train station with a packed lunch, it felt like they were family.

For more information about Nile Compound visit their Facebook Page. I'm not being paid to promote them, honest. It is so easy to complain when something is wrong, but when you get great service it is important to be just as enthusiastic in your praise. These guys deserve it!