It's been a while!

It's been a while since I last posted anything on my blog, so I thought an explanation of why, is in order for those who do not know me personally.

Sadly, I had to leave Luxor, Egypt (temporarily) at the end of last year.  The downturn in tourism hit hard and I was struggling to earn a living.  I took a decision to come back to the UK for a while, try and find work and save some money to replenish the savings that I had been living on for some time.

I am still in the UK, and probably will be for the next few months, but I wanted to share some of my thoughts and feelings about being back, what I am missing about Egypt and what I am loving about the UK.

Obviously, it goes without saying, the weather!!  Did I really swap sunshine every day for rain every day?  That is what it feels like..... rain, rain and more rain.  I had to buy boots, a warm coat and lots of sweaters! But it was a good feeling to be able to go out shopping and know that I could find exactly what I wanted in the shops.   Even summer clothes are made of cotton, not nylon and lycra, and diamante and bling are options on clothes, not standard!  Bras actually fit and can be bought by size! Knickers are cotton as standard!

Food next.  I never realised what a healthy diet I had in Luxor until I came back here. Everything I cooked in Luxor was fresh and made from scratch.  In the UK, I quickly got used to "fast food" although I have not yet succumbed to the microwave, which I never did like! The choices here are phenomenal, especially breads and cheeses!  Loving it! I do have to admit to a bit of a pork fest on my return, although that has now diminished to normal levels.

Public transport is actually a delight after living in Egypt........ yeah, can you believe it? Although I do miss being able to just get on and off a bus where I want to, not where the bus stop happens to be.

I have internet which works all the time, electricity that does not go off constantly and there is always water in the taps! 

On the downside, life here is pretty much ruled by the clock, it can be hectic and there never seems to be time to just sit and be.  Tea or juice by the River Nile is sorely missed.  There is nowhere I want to go to just sit and have a coffee and enjoy the view, at least nothing that does not involve a car drive and a few traffic jams.  TV is good though, but only because I have the full Sky package available and can watch all those amazing documentaries that I missed.  Without that, I seriously doubt I would be watching TV anymore than I did in Luxor. I much preferred people watching by the Nile.

It is green here, wonderfully green........ but no temples to wander around.  Although I am starting to attend lectures, and dayschools on Egyptology as well as bringing myself up to scratch on the spiritual stuff and there are a few courses planned.

I did have a fantastic Christmas with my family and my daughter got married in April, so I was able to be involved and do the whole "mother of the bride" thing! 

So, what do I miss? The weather, the laid back lifestyle, my friends and of course, the other half.  I miss my work very much and the people I worked with. I miss the Nile itself and I miss the temples and tombs.
I do not miss the hassle, the lack of basic necessities such as electricity and water.  I do not miss fuul!

 Short and sweet, I know, but a brief update on where I am right now.  More to follow as I begin my search for more knowledge and take advantage of everything the UK has to offer! 

Cartouches at El Kab

Just a quick post with some photos for you!  These are some rock art cartouches that we saw near to El Kab, between Esna and Edfu.

I thought I would share them..... do you know which pharoahs they are?

Spirit of the Nile

Edfu Temple and the Sound and Light Show

I spent a lovely time the other night at the wonderful temple of Edfu, dedicated to the god Horus. They have recently started their own Sound and Light show and I have to say that, for me, it is the best one I have seen so far. The lighting effects were fabulous, the stories they told were spot on and I loved it. Horus, Hathor and Seth were all spoken about, Ptolemy who built the temple and of course, Alexander the Great who founded the Ptolemaic dynasty.

Just a couple of hours drive from Luxor, through the real Egypt and we were there. A quick stop for tea on the way at a roadside coffee shop and we were all set up for this amazing show.

The God Seth

Spectacular lighting

 

At first I thought it was a bit slow to get going and was a tad concerned that I would be bored, but it improved dramatically and all of our small group were mesmerised by it. I could have stayed much longer.

Wonderful colours, magical

My only requirement that was not met was that we did not actually walk through the temple, as you do at Karnak temple, but it was still an excellent show.


 

Colourful finale

Please forgive the bad photos, I only had my phone with me.

Catching up!

And yet another week has flown by and I have no idea where the time went.

Its been a quiet week, well almost.......  I am home alone for a short while and its been lovely most of the time. A friend has been here, she left yesterday to return to Belgium, and we spent a lovely morning wandering around Deir El Medina the other day.  That trip followed our recent viewing of the BBC documentary by Joanne Fletcher about the tomb of Kha and Merit and their lives.  Well..........  I just had to go see for myself!  Didn't find the tomb although I did figure out roughly where it was. Maybe another day when there are less visitors there will find me ferreting around in peace!  We did have a great time though, and even better, we finished it off with a huge jug of fresh lemon juice at Restaurant Mohamed just up by the ticket office.

Last week also saw a visit to a friend who was hosting a lunch in aid of a local charity.The Al Bairat Family Clinic, Luxor, Egypt provides a much needed service to local families with disable children.  To be honest, I have not been, it would upset me too much, but I am very impressed with the work they do with the children. I, along with many others, are happy to support this wonderful facility in whatever way we can.  The Shepherds pie and Robin's famous chicken curry were superb!

Tomorrow sees me off working again........ Edfu temple and El Kab. It promises to be a fun day I think! I will try and remember to get some photos for you all!

Brief updates from me!

I have been very lax in updating my blog and I apologise for that.

It will be impossible to fill in all the blanks since my last post, but I will very briefly bring you all up to date.

Christmas was very quiet, and an extremely peaceful time. I actually found myself pickling some wonderful beetroot on Christmas morning. Not exactly a normal Christmas Day activity, but I enjoyed it!

Since Christmas, business has been pretty good considering the state of tourism in Luxor and I have spent some wonderful days with some wonderful people! We have had felucca sailing on Spirit, temples and tombs and one or two "off the beaten track" days, interspersed with lots of fun and laughter.

New neighbours have arrived in the flat upstairs. Fortunately they are friends and life in our little oasis promises to be pretty good indeed.

My Greek and Roman Mythology course ended, and elhamdulilah, I passed with a Distinction!  I then started an Introduction to Philosophy course, but never finished.  Work got in the way and I found myself getting further and further behind. So I let it go, and will sign up again in the future. Now I am onto my third course....... Ancient Greeks and loving it so far.

My laptop died a very sad death, but I am now the very proud owner of a new one! Much faster than my old faithful and with lots and lots of memory!

And the highlight of the last few months was a long overdue visit by my sister and her man! It was fabulous to see her, and finally meet the man who makes her happy. And we managed a whole week without fighting! How good is that!!

And finally, I have a couple of photos for you.....  

The first one is sunrise 2 days ago from the top deck of the ferry.

And the second is the following day, just yesterday, sunrise again from the top deck of the ferry.

A very different day!

And finally, one more picture at Karnak temple.....

See you all soon!!

Engagements, Red Sea and Buses

I just spent a couple of days in Hurghada with my daughter and her man. I was delighted to learn that the day before I imposed myself upon them, he had proposed to her!  Wonderful news! It's times like this that I miss being in the UK. I could have been planning a wedding with her, buying dresses etc etc and generally having a great mum/daughter time together.
But I am here, in the country that has become my second home, and I will be going home as soon as I can and will definitely be there in plenty of time to buy my "mother of the bride" outfit!

Hurghada surprised me, the hotel was lovely with a great beach right outside my balcony. I had an amazing view of the Red Sea, almost being able to dangle my fingers in the water from the balcony. We didn't do much, except spend time together, but hey...... it was all about that, not sunbathing or shopping.

I did have an interesting journey there. I decided to get the bus, but made the unfortunate mistake of booking the Upper Egypt service rather than the Superjet.

The bus left Luxor at 7am on the dot! Brilliant I thought, on time!  Hmmmm a bit presumptive of me.  By 7.45am, I could see the skyline of Qena in the distance, bang on time, and this was after we had picked up sundry bus company workers going to the depot in Qena. Then we hit Qena! A large detour around the city found us in the bus depot fuelling station, where we were filled up with fuel, with all the passengers sitting on the bus. Once we had done that, we headed back into Qena to yet another depot where we were thoroughly hosed down..... again with all of us still sitting on the bus. Once clean, we were joined by a man with an extremely large bus tyre who managed to get the said tyre on the bus and off we went..... to yet another depot to deposit the man and his tyre there.
Finally, some 2 hours after arriving in Qena, we left and headed for the Eastern Desert road to Hurghada. A brief 15 minute stop for toilets at 85kilo cafe, and we were off again. My nearest neighbour passengers were 4 German people who were heading for Safaga.  Why did I get a bad feeling about this?
We reached the end of the desert road, with Safaga directly in front of us, but we turned right and headed towards El Quseir, drove for about 20 minutes before taking a small road which doubled back towards Safaga. Ok I thought, the bus station must be this end of town. Minutes later we were in yet another bus depot being refuelled and hosed down. The nice German people asked if that was where they needed to get off the bus........they got an emphatic "no! Stay!"   So they did.
We returned to the main coast road, fully expecting to turn into Safaga itself but the bus bowled its way past Safaga towards Hurghada. I was a tad concerned, so spoke to the Germans, who had no idea of where they were, and they spoke again to the driver. He had forgotten them! And then he wanted to just leave them in the middle of nowhere so they could take a taxi back to Safaga.  Eventually, we turned around and took them to the outskirts of Hurghada and left them to get a taxi from there.

I eventually arrived in Hurghada at 2pm, some 7 hours after leaving Luxor!  Needless to say, I returned on the Superjet bus, 4 hours door to door almost!

Just one of those stories that we just shrug off here in Egypt,  We would go insane if we didn't learn to just "go with the flow"

Feluccas on the Nile

This week has been another busy week, but a fun one!
During the past week, I and my regular Egyptology guide have become more than a familiar sight at various temples and tombs, but I missed out on sailing as I got double booked and had to do Karnak Temple instead of sailing the Nile!  What a choice to make....... both are experiences I love, but needs must and one set of guests happily sailed on Felucca Spirit without me, and the other guests spent a happy afternoon in Karnak and Luxor temples.
Of course, I was pretty happy too!

So because I had to miss out on sailing, I had a nosey around my pictures and found a small video I made some time ago and I would like to share it with you now.

Mythology in Egypt

I am currently over halfway through a course in Greek and Roman Mythology. I am doing it for fun as it is something I am very interested in.  It's hard work getting back to the whole study thing, and having to write an academic essay for the first time in over 40 years really tested me to the limit! But I did it, and did well!

During this course there have been lots of things that I have learned that link in very nicely with my love of Egypt and the religion and rituals of the Pharoahs.

As we all know, gods and goddesses abound in Ancient Egypt, and I was very surprised at the number of myths, such as the creation story, that are very similar in Egyptian, Greek and Roman myths.  Amazingly so!

Not only Ancient Egyptian myths are cropping up time and time again, but also many of today's traditional and cultural practices here in Egypt. Greek traditions of Xenia (hospitality) is widely practiced here in Upper Egypt, even to this day.

So my mission once I have finished this course is to spend some time learning more about the similarities and seeing how I can incorporate all this into my tours and into my spiritual practices here in Luxor.

So be prepared to be bombarded at some point with some extra titbits of information about Ancient Egyptian myth.

Yesterday was amusing, my guide and I were back at Hatshepsut temple and Deir El Medina for the second day in a row! I am having so much fun though, and I am learning a lot from the excellent guide I am now using on a regular basis. Well, I do use other excellent guides, but like all of us, I have my favourites. I am even understanding hieroglyphics and can read one or two as well!  Before that we had a wonderful discussion with another tour guide about the work of David Rohl and the Exodus! Our guests loved it, 2 egyptologists and me having a major debate outside the tomb of Ramses 3.

Now, its back to work! Karnak temple in the morning with lovely guests!
See you all later!

Where did the time go?

It's now almost the end of October 2012 and I am wondering where this year has gone?

Its been busy year, in one way or another, some good, some not so good, but hardly ever boring!

I do apologise for being away from blogging for the last few months, I have no excuse.

So, a brief rundown and catch up on me and my life in Luxor.

The new apartment is lovely, I am very happy here and finally the weather is cooler so I can get out into the garden. This week has been a busy week, with lots of clearing, strimming and pruning. Its looking good out there, and hopefully the work will mean the trees and plants will become much lusher over the next few months. Dead wood gone, bare branches pared back, grass cut and the palm trees got a haircut!  Hard work but very satisfying.

Business has been hit and miss, but the guests I have had have all be absolutely fabulous! I have had a lot of fun with all of them and hopefully made a few new friends.

Some friends have visited, and I have thoroughly enjoyed myself with them. Great times!

My broken wrist is all healed, except for a bit of soreness from time to time. It was fun trying to do everything myself (stubborn so and so that I am), but I also want to thank everyone who helped me out in many different ways. I had one treasure in particular and my heartfelt thanks go to him, even though he will never read this.

Ramadan came and went. That was hard, business was non-existent, so money was tight, but we got through it and came out of the other end fighting.

I have to admit to getting extremely bored while there was no work, so I signed up for an online course in Greek and Roman mythology. I am halfway through it, and I have read the Odyssey for only the second time in my life, written an essay for the first time in 40 years (still waiting for evaluation on that one lol) and I am now about to start reading Hesiod's Theogony.  Its all fascinating stuff, and I am learning a lot, and its great to be able to link the Egyptian myths and legends, gods and goddesses with the things I am learning now.

I have one more week of the luxury of taking my time over the study, then I am busy again with work for a little while

I am looking forward to the Winter Solstice, when I hope to be at the amazing Karnak temple, and I am thinking about 12.12.12 and what to do to mark that auspicious occasion. Suggestions on a postcard please lol.

So on that note, I think I have brought everyone up to date and I promise to try to update my blog more frequently.

(Note to self: Get batteries for the camera in order to post photos!)

And finally I want to say Happy Eid to everyone! Muslim or non-muslim. A celebration is for everyone to share and I hope that tomorrow's muslim feast helps to bring peace to the world.

Rababah Community Centre, Tod, Luxor, Egypt

Although I have not yet been to look at this great project, I love what I have heard about it. They are currently looking for books to stock their brand new "public" library. English, Arabic, dictionaries, fairy tales, childrens books, adult books......... anything and everything.  So this is a plea for help,donations of any books you don't want anymore, or cheap second hand books that you would be happy to donate.

Below is a precis of the work Rababah are doing (Rababah is run by Kris and Lydie Huybrechts of StarGazing, Luxor)

About

Rababah Community Centre - Tod, Egypt

Description

Established in 2003, Live is Beautiful was started with the intention of helping the people of Egypt. Together with the local community we decided to open a school in Tod, because we believe that education is the key to a better life. We rented a house and volunteers made three classrooms in which we offered free extra lessons to children and adults. The classes were such a success that the bui

lding soon became too small so we looked into the possibility of building our own place. The city of Luxor donated a plot of land and Belgium Architecture students drew the plans for a school/community centre. In 2010 we layed the first brick of Rababah.

Today three classrooms are ready and Rababah is a warm inviting place for the whole community of Tod. In the early morning there is a kindergarden which is run by mothers. During the afternoon the school is open for all children up to the age of 14 who can get their extra lessons in Arabic, Mathematics, English and History. In the evenings young adults have their English classes.

On the 1st September 2012 we will open, together with Planaterra Foundation, a public library which is the first of it's kind in Upper Egypt. Apart from books, it will host a quiet area and it will offer reading classes.

There is a Facebook page and it would be great if anyone using Facebook would "like" the page

https://www.facebook.com/liveisbeautifulinEgypt

Catch up

So, it's been a while and lots has been happening here in sunny, hot Luxor!

I guess it all started when I broke my arm....... now that kind of put me out of action until I got the hang of doing things one handed. I got quite inventive too!

Just a couple of weeks after I had the accident, I was offered the chance to move into a lovely apartment. In the space of a week, I accepted, packed, moved and began the one handed unpacking. I impressed myself! I say began the unpacking, because it has taken me a month to actually open all the boxes, some of which had not been opened when we moved to the last apartment. Lol, that was only meant to be for 3 months, so I only unpacked the necessities....... that 3 months lasted just over a year!

I am sure sure anyone in Ramla will now know me as the crazy lady with a left arm plastered from shoulder to fingers, dragging a heavy suitcase in her right hand, a large holdall balanced precariously on said suitcase and a large bag slung over her right shoulder......  It was fun! I had to bring stuff to the new place (fortunately just around the corner), empty it and take the cases back to be refilled. The 2 of us moved pretty much everything except the big furniture this way!  The furniture came on the ubiquitous donkey and cart!  Loved it!

The day before we moved, a friend arrived from the UK. Needless to say, he was co-opted onto the "moving team"....... Thanks Lee!! Love ya loads!  Luckily he was here for 2 weeks, staying at the Hotel El Mesala and once we were actually in the new aparment, I could spend some time with him sightseeing.  We didn't do too much as it is very hot now, but we had a great day in Abydos and another day we went to Esna temple and managed a pyramid hunt as well.  Yes Suzie, we saw the Al Khula and Edfu pyramids!  Shame we never looked for the Abydos one.
We also had a great day watching the Abu Haggag moulid from the comfort of the Snacktime balcony... decent food, cold drinks and the fun of the moulid!

Things are quiet again now, the plaster is off my arm, although almost 2 weeks later and it is still swollen and sore,  but every day sees an improvement and I can do most things now.

We are now just over a week into Ramadan, and I am enjoying it, although not fasting myself. In many ways, I like Ramadan, the streets are quiet during the day, and there is a great atmosphere in the evenings after iftar.

So, that's my quick catch up!

Just one picture to show you.......... yes, its a pyramid that is not in Lower Egypt!  Its between Esna and Efdu at Al Khula....... and of course, that's me with my wonderful blue sling!

Trials, tribulations and tears of laughter

A few of you may know that I recently managed to find the only puddle of water laying on the floor of a local restaurant, resulting in one of those cartoon-like scenes where the feet decide they would prefer to be in the air, but fail miserably and only manage to reach knee height while sending the rest of the body slamming to the ground backwards.  Elhamdulilah, I only broke my lower arm, and the treatment I received at the hands of the local Egyptian hospital was second to none.

I would like to say, at this point, a huge thank you to one of the felucca boys, who never left my side the whole day long, the taxi who drove me to the hospital leaving without my knowledge and without asking for one piastre, and a good Egyptian friend who took such good care of me, even after the "other half" had been tracked down.  The said "other half" has also been amazing, but I think he struggles with the independent "I can do it myself!!!".

This last couple of weeks have been a huge learning curve. Mosquito bites on my upper right arm, a left arm totally encased in plaster and physically impossible to reach the bites to put cream on, resulted in some amazing contortions but I did it!! Folding sheets to put on the drying rack took forever, but I did it!! I have yet to figure out how to light the gas, but I will! I was defeated though, when trying to open a new bottle of Sprite, but I will prevail!
Washing dishes has become an art form, and putting a clean fitted bottom sheet on the bed this morning was accompanied by lots of grunting and groaning.  Pillow cases are blooming hard too!

Anyway, now that the bottom of my back is no longer hurting so much, and I am getting used to the weight of the cast, I have realised that we can do anything we want to do, and do it with gales of laughter.........  as I have many times over the last 2 weeks.

That old saying, "if at first you don't succeed, try,try and try again" is so true!

So, should you see me out and about.........walk past because I truly CAN do it myself! And if you see me crying, its only tears of laughter at some of the inventive ways I am discovering!

Healing and Therapy Day 25th May 2012

• • 
    Friday, 25 May 2012
  • 11:00 until 19:00 in UTC+03

• Near Gezira Garden Hotel, Ramla, West Bank, Luxor, Egypt

• I am having another Therapy Day on Friday, 25th May 2012, between the hours of 11am and 7pm, at my home. I will be offering the following: Reiki treatments Crystal Healing Indian Head Massage Hopi Ear Candling In addition I will have my "cards" around if anyone wants a mini reading. I am also hoping that a good friend of mine will be here. Jon, who lives in Dahab, is hoping to be in Luxor in the next few days, and will offer help and advice on yoga, as well as talking to people about his work with sounds and toning. He would love to meet any of you who can come. Once again, I am making no charge for anything except a charge of 60EGP to cover the cost of the Hopi Ear Candles. However, there will be a confidential box available if anyone would like to tip the therapist! I do hope that you can join me (and Jon, hopefully). If you wish to attend, it would be useful if you could email me with an approximate time that you would like your treatment. It just saves you having to sit around waiting if someone pipped you to the post! hazel.isis@googlemail.com Hope to see you all https://www.facebook.com/events/255551667885800/

Healing and Therapy Day 25th May 2012

https://www.facebook.com/events/255551667885800/

I decided to hold a Healing and Therapy Day at my home, last week. But it seems I did not advertise it well enough. So.......... I am going to try again and I am having another Therapy Day on Friday, 25th May 2012, between the hours of 11am and 7pm, at my home on the West Bank of Luxor, Egypt. I will be offering the following: Reiki treatments Crystal Healing Indian Head Massage Hopi Ear Candling In addition I will have my "cards" around if anyone wants a mini reading. I am also hoping that a good friend of mine will be here. Jon, who lives in Dahab, is hoping to be in Luxor in the next few days, and will offer help and advice on yoga, as well as talking to people about his work with sounds and toning. He would love to meet any of you who can come. Once again, I am making no charge for anything except a charge of 60EGP to cover the cost of the Hopi Ear Candles. However, there will be a confidential box available if anyone would like to tip the therapist! I do hope that you can join me (and Jon, hopefully). If you wish to attend, it would be useful if you could email me with an approximate time that you would like your treatment. It just saves you having to sit around waiting if someone pipped you to the post! Contact me at hazel.isis@googlemail.com Hope to see you all

Thrive

Today I watched a movie called "Thrive - What on Earth will it take?"

Amazing movie. Basically the movie is about big business, banking, global domination and suppression of the masses. Scary stuff in there. It also concentrates on sacred geometry, a subject I would love to learn more about.
The Flower of Light in the Osirion at Abydos in Egypt is clearly part of this sacred geometry and the ramifications of allowing sacred geometry into our lives is immense.

There was far more than I could possibly talk about in a blog, but I would highly recommend anyone to find this movie and watch it! It will give you more food for thought than you could ever imagine.

They do have a website, which goes into much more detail than the movie had the scope for...... I am about to start reading!

http://www.thrivemovement.com

Please find the time to take a look

The Inner Temple - Initiation: A Yoga Journey upon the Inner Nile

We now have our dates for the November dahabiya cruise "The Inner Temple - Initiation: A Yoga Journey upon the Inner Nile".

This fantastic week long, private dahabiya cruise promises to be the voyage of a lifetime. Yoga and sound, healing and therapies.  Classic travel on our very own traditional dahabiya. Temples, tombs and all that this amazing land has to offer!

Join us now!  November 21st to 28th 2012

http://jonathanorchard.wordpress.com/nile-cruise-luxor-to-aswan-november-2012/  for more information!

If you require an information pack, please email either me, hazel@spiritofthenile.com or Jonathan ptaah1111@yahoo.co.uk

David Rohl in Luxor!

David Rohl has just been in Luxor filming for his next film about the Exodus. It is due for release in 2013 in the US and will then be released for television internationally.  Its a long time to wait!!
I love David's work and have been lucky to hear him speak about Ramses and the Battle of Kadesh. I have read almost all of his work, and watched as many of his television programmes as I have been able to watch.

Thanks David for sharing these photos of the film session in Luxor, Egypt. I hope I do not have to wait too long before Luxor actually gets to see the end result!


http://davidrohlontour.blogspot.com/2012/05/filming-in-luxor.html?showComment=1336820736603#c6152066543418924384

Summer Specials!

Summer Specials start with our May 2012 offer!

Book 2 half day tours or 1 full day tour and get a free sunset felucca sailing!!

We hope to see you soon!

The Voice of Yoga

Just an update to my friend Jonathan's blog.  We are looking for followers and I am sure that anyone interested in yoga and everything associated with it will find his blog really interesting!

http://jonathanorchard.wordpress.com/blog/

Enjoy!

Visiting kids!

Last week was a great week. Both of my kids were here at the same time!

Unfortunately, their flight was delayed because of the huge sandstorm we had. While we hung around Luxor Airport the kids were happily drinking coffee in Marsa Alam, where they had been diverted to, before the plane finally arrived in Luxor some 5 hours late!  But it was still a fantastic feeling to see them both walking through arrivals!

View at dinner

 We did not have a strenous week, a week is too short, so it was good to just catch up and spend time together.

We did, however, manage a fabulous day at the Red Sea and had some seriously good beach time.

Balloons on our early start

Red Sea, Hurghada

The drive back was a tad scary though....... Western Desert Road, in the dark with most Egyptians never using any lights!

Mini sand storm in the desert

Sunset over the desert

Sightseeing was minimal this time, although we did spend a great afternoon at the Valley of the Nobles, before heading to the Ramesseum Cafe for a beer.

Sailing of course........ and the last afternoon was spent on the river. Perfect wind, very relaxing and a gorgeous sunset.











We had lots of eating out and I was especially impressed with Pizza Roma. Great Italian food at reasonable prices.

Sadly, the week passed far too quickly,  and it was time to head back to the airport.

But I loved having them both here and I am hoping its not too long before they are back!