On Armistice Day Emma and I managed to get out of Paris, driving down into the Loire Valley to take in a chateau or 2. Unfortunatley we didn't have the best of luck with the weather, it didn't stop raining once, but at least that meant the crowds weren't too bad. And the open fires in Chambord made a lovely touch.

We stopped at Chateau de Chambord, a 16th century hunting lodge for King Louis then moved on to the village of Blois. 2 fantastic stops, the buildings were simply amazing.

By the time we were cold and wet we figured it was time to drop the car back at Jill and Patrick's so headed home. It will be nice to head back there with some nicer weather.

We had a great time in Egypt, flying into Luxor then taking a boat up the Nile for a couple of days, eventually stopping at the Aswan Dam, site of the first cataract from Wilbur Smith's Egyptian novels.

The river was everything we expected and more. So beautiful once we got out of Luxor and full of life on the banks. Every now and then there would be a minerette or temple to bring us to the side of the boat to look.

We were part of a French tour, guided by Achmad, an Egyptian man who had alot of knowledge and some good stories of the sites. Unfortunatly for me they were all in French as this was a French tour, so I missed some of what was said. Emma, bless her, was really good at translating so I could get some of the gist. We were with 2 other couples, nice people, so it wasn't a problem to visit all the locations with this group.

After Aswan we took an overnight train down to Cairo where we spent 2 days visiting. It's funny how time changes perceptions. The Cairo museum seemed much smaller than in '93, but was still very cool...and full of people! But that's Cairo and you take the good with the bad.

Here are a couple photos from the trip. You will notice that Romy has a large belly. She was heavily pregnant and did so well at getting around all the sites. There's a couple more photos on facebook also.

Thanks very much to Patrick and Jill who shouted Emma and Daniel (plus lucky hangers-on Romy and I) to a week in Egypt as a celebration of various birthdays and wedding anniversaires.