Pre-Trip Preparation

Since our retirement adventure began, Scot and I have traveled to five countries, switching currencies each time. We’ve taken 10 different flights, and also changed hotels 10 times. We’re currently in Auckland, New Zealand, where we’ll be for a month before heading to the South Island, where we’ll be for another month. All these changes…

Visiting the Buddhist Temple in Thailand yesterday, we were confronted with the fascinating sight of people praying in front of this crystal orb, which inverts the skyline of the city, to make it look like an inverted world- a kind of dream. Based on my limited understanding of Buddhism, I think this is meant to…

On our last day in Cairo we went to the National Museum of Egyptian Culture (NMEC). The highlight here was the display of many famous mummies including Nefertari, Amenhotep and Ramses 2, among many others On the wall was a list of their achievements, and the mummies were startlingly well preserved: skin, hair , teeth.…

December 14, 2023: Esna, Egypt On our journey through Egypt, we have heard a lot about restorations. Sculptures. Temples. Sarcophagi. Cities. It’s part of the nature of human civilization. We create. We destroy. We rebuild. As we began our Egyptian exploration, I felt the conflict between restoring and leaving intact. There are arguments for both…

Every day on the trip so far , Scot and I have been up before 6:30 a.m. One morning we were up at 3:45 in order to make a n early morning tour. Some people would hate this: they want to go on a trip and relax, do nothing. We like this to a certain…

One of the things I’ve been conscious of more than ever since Scot and I started talking about retirement is a sense of my own mortality. Especially since I hit 60, I’ve been increasingly aware that I ’m entering the final phase of my life. As we journey through Egypt and see things like the…

December 12, 2023: Luxor, Egypt We arrived on our Nile cruise ship, the Viking Ra, yesterday afternoon after a flight from Cairo and a tour of Karnak Temple, which is an enormous complex replete with sculptures, columns, temples, and Sphinxes everywhere. It’s jaw-dropping to think of the construction of these enormous structures over 4,000 years…

One of the first things that struck me about Cairo was the absence of streetlights. Cairo is one of the world’s most ancient cities, and while there is light from a myriad of shops, and untold thousands of people are thronging in the dark , there is no uniform system of streetlights. Instead of seeming…

Scot and I were very anxious about retiring. We were also nervous about the inclusion of Egypt and Jordan in our travel plans. And yet, upon landing in Cairo, all those fears seemed to melt away in the presence of this ancient, fascinating city. Indeed, upon mentioning our concern that this part of the trip…

December 8: Cairo – Citadel, Egyptian Museum, and Bazaar (Khan el-Khalili Market) Our first full day in Cairo was filled with an amazing experience at the Egyptian Museum, which was a stunning collection of Egyptian artifacts dating back thousands of years and reflecting the entire history of pyramids and pharaohs. We rose early (jet lag…