It started with a bike tour through Tuscany. Doesn't that sound amazing? It does.
I get these emails from a company that hosts designer sample sells, and they also have a travel section. That should have been my first clue that this trip would be waaayyy out of my price range, but I saw the words "wine" and "gelato" and my mind was gone.
The trip sounded amazing. You bike all day, with stops for wine tasting, gelato tasting, picnics, tours, and end each day at a luxurious 4-star hotel or B&B's (not my thing, but whatever). The pictures look incredible and I was in love.
I went to the website knowing full well that we aren't going on any other vacations this year and probably no vacations next year or the year after that. But, you know, it doesn't hurt to look. Anyway, I clicked on over to the Ciclismo Classico (in case you were wondering), and saw these trips run about $4,000. Each. Per person. Oh sure, let me just reach in my pocket here. Whoops, I must have left four grand in my other jeans.
So, hell no was my answer there, but it was late at night and my time was just begging to be wasted, so I started searching around for other bike tours and found many in Ireland, which I think would be a beautiful country to see by bike. I saw more awesome trips, looked at more gorgeous pictures, and gasped at outlandish prices.
I filed those trips in my mind to be checked out again for maybe a 10th year anniversary trip, when a giant trip catalogue landed on my front porch. I flipped through and saw another dream: a trip through Egypt with a cruise down the Nile. Again, it looked amazing and the itinerary was really a one of a kind. But the crazy thing was that they wanted me to give them money in order to take part. Of course, that just won't do. Another trip on the back burner.
Those people must be in my mind, because I just got up to go check the mail and there was a more detailed itinerary of the Egypt trip. They know.
Technically, most Egypt package tours would sail you *up* the Nile, since the Nile flows north to the Mediterranean. Decades of agricultural development and population growth have had the effect of making the Nile narrower and shallower in the environs of Cairo, so most cruise ships set sail from Upper Egypt, in Luxor. Also, the cities get prettier the further south/upriver you go, so your excitement builds at each stop.
ReplyDeleteYou will go someday, and you will see for yourself. :)
Dr. Koshary- Yes, I just looked at the itinerary and there are two options, one being starting at Luxor, like you said, and going to Aswan.
ReplyDeleteI've actually heard not so great things about the preservation of some of the sights, which makes me slightly anxious to go sooner rather than later!