Lest you think our tour of Egypt was all serious archaeological stuff all the time… I present to you our time in hot air balloons at dawn and on a faluka as well.  All this transpired at Luxor.  The balloon ride takes place on the west side of the Nile and you have to get going at 4 a.m. but it is totally worth it. In part you fly over the valley of the Queens and of the Kings The... Read more

The closer one gets to the burial chamber, which remember, will have been decorated first, and then the hallway to it, the more intense the images become, the more representations of gods demanding the truth (holding the feathers in their hands) the more even the pharaoh needs the wings of protection over their heads to make it to the positive afterlife, and finally the more we see the images of slaves bringing food, and of course doing the heavy lifting... Read more

For the ancient Egyptians, various creatures we might not care for, were sacred to these people and frequently show up in the images in the tombs– scarabs (i.e. beetles), snakes,  alligators, cats, wasps, even baboons did not have any negative connotations for the Egyptians, theological or otherwise. See how many of these critters you can find in the following tomb paintings… Read more

This we visited three major tombs in the Valley of the Kings— first Merneptah’s tomb,  then Ramses III, and Ramses VI.  These are all spectacular tombs.   Here is a schematic of the tombs in the. Valley of the Kings. As I mentioned, Merneptah’s tomb is one of the deepest ones. What grave robbers were looking for is not just the sarcophagus, but they knew there would be valuables in it, but also for the things a king was buried with. ... Read more

Going to Egypt can be overwhelming in many ways. Your initial reaction to something like the tombs of the Pharaohs in the Valley of the Kings (and Queens) at Luxor may well be one of astonishment…. like Joshua’s here who went on our Genesis to Revelation tour last summer… I know how he feels. Visiting the tombs of the Pharaohs is mind boggling. You see images carved and painted 3,000 years and more ago, and some of them look like... Read more

There’s plenty of shopping for Christmas that can be done in this town.  For example….   Local music is a good option. Or you can just take home some indelible memories for instance of the original mill still in town… Or how about the river, or the castle on the hill…..   But the realm of Mozart is well worth the visit, however you get there..               Read more

The food in Saltzburg is quite excellent.  And there are some specialties…. for instance The Saltzburger Nockerel, which basically is a giant puff pastry, sort of like a meringue, but filled with cream.   We saw this attempted at the little pub we ate at. This is not a sign for the rock group…   Did I mention hot soft flavored pretzels again?   But how about 50 different flavors of marmalade?   Yikes! There are of course more conventional... Read more

The portion of the city where the Sound of Music was partially filmed is in the central park/garden.       All this walking makes one hungry, so the giant soft pretzel stand in many flavors (we got cinnamon) was worth a stop.     Read more

Saltzburg has churches a plenty, and it’s time to have a look inside of several of them, especially the two giant ones that dominate the central square. This is St. Peters, as should be obvious from the entranceway, although the statue of the man makes him look like he’s trying to give back the keys to the kingdom to the Almighty. This cathedral is incredibly ornate as we shall now see.     Around the central dome are paintings of... Read more

There are many fascinating aspects to Saltzburg, one of which is the signs of the merchants which indicate their products or wares, or sometimes their names.   Here are some of them….   Colorful church day umbrellas anyone? Is this a music shop, or does this merchant just like to toot his own French horn? Whatever this advertises, they want you know they are merchants to the crown since 1720. Cloth merchants perhaps?  Probably not basbers.   Top quality Austrian children’s... Read more