I never was one for journal writing. I figured that most people aren’t really that interested in what I think — I’m certainly not anyone important, and I know that no one is waiting with bated breath for any pearls of wisdom to drop from my mouth.

But, one of the ways that I’ve always done travel planning is to read other people’s recollections of their travels. Travelogues, travel articles, slide shows, even the contents of travel guides. I’m a huge “armchair traveler”. If I want to get a feel for a place, I want to read the adventures — and misadventures — of people who’ve actually been there.

What is this?

A day-by-day account of our trip — twenty-five days traveling around Egypt with a guide and a driver, a very optimistic itinerary, and not much luggage.

I’ll warn you now that I can be…well, a wee bit verbose (have you guessed that yet?). Mark contributes to the notes and memories, but he leaves the writing to me. You’ll usually find me after dinner sitting in the hotel room trying to get my impressions of the day down on paper, or madly sorting through notes and receipts to reconstruct what we did all day when I can’t even remember what we had for breakfast. I learned the hard way to keep up each day, even if it was only to write a sentence or two to jog my memory later.

I have no illusions that my thoughts are such precious gems that everyone will want to read them after I’m gone. But, for traveling, the best inspirations and ideas have always come from someone else writing about their travels. So, here you go. Let me know if I’m inspiring or insipid, eh?

Hey! Where are the Photos?

In the Travelogue that follows, I’ve provided links to the photos that we took (don’t worry, even though we took 3600 pictures, I’ve sifted through them for the best ones!) and links to the pages for each of the monuments and sites we visited. These are linked in the text to the “photos” pages, and in the right menus of each page. Also on the right are other useful links to pages outside of this site.

If you just want to wander through the pictures and commentary (remember when I said I was verbose?) just click on Photos in the toolbar above and cycle through them by site, by day, or in an alpha list.

Context

Just so you have some idea where this is all coming from: my husband, Mark, and I are both in our mid-30s. I’m a database consultant and he is a critical care nurse. We live near Boulder, CO. We’re traveling with a private guide and driver arranged through Ancient Adventures.

Here are my experiences: The month of February 2003 spent in Egypt, one of the oldest civilizations on earth.