La Perla Hurghada

... group hung out for a few hours by the pool (and Murray opened his Christmas present from Mom and Dad, a beautiful papyrus print of a ship, with his name in hieroglyphics painted on top!) while Romani waited for a phone call confirmation from his contact at the port terminal that the ferry to Jordan was nearing departure (apparently, this ferry line is notoriously unreliable – surprise, surprise). After a few hours of relaxing and having a few drinks ...

... Ramses III, the Valley of the Workers… All of the hot spots of Luxor and Thebes! We watched the sun break over the horizon and light up the mountains and surrounding fields – it was truly spectacular.

In addition, for the last several minutes of the ride, the pilot steered the balloon to fly really low, which was so much fun! We grazed the tops of palm trees as we just barely skimmed over residential rooftops, famers in their ...

Not much to blog today except that I managed to find the Singapore GP
on the TV. Unfortunately on a German station but at least I managed to
watch it at least.

Can't remember if I mentioned on the diving days I spotted an Osprey
nest on one of the marina entrance marker bouys. On the second day
both Ospreys were standing together ...

Our 20th wedding anniversary today which started with some shopping
and then the hotel offered us a free meal tonight mainly because of
the problems at dinner last night but also because of our anniversary.

Rest of the day is quiet with a relax by the pool this afternoon
because it is has been really hot today and it helped us cool off.

Dinner tonight was excellent in the hotels al la carte restaurant
which was all the better because it was free!

Meryl's Birthday and we spent the day on the dive clubs boat going out
to Dolphin Point to do snorkelling. It was pretty good to see the fish
again like yesterday plus we got to see a few dolphins as well.

Got back to the hotel around 5pm and guess what? Another cake has
arrived! Woo hoo!

Going for dinner tonight on the side of the marina with a show as well.

Wow and wow again, that diving lark was spectacular. I saw all sorts
of tropical fish including scorpian and lion, rays and moray eels, BIG
moray eels. Plus I got to swim with Nemo, a couple of clown fish came
up and said 'hi' it was truly amazing.

Had a Dutch instructor called Zietza who was just as crazy as his name
suggests but he was good ...

... I suppose fat is more bouyant than muscle.

Thankfully there was no one taking pictures of me in my outfit and
especially when I bent to take my shoes off, over balanced, fell
against my instructor and then flapped around like a duck on its back
trying to get back up. This stuff is heavy you know!

Once in the water though it was easier to move ...

... And the good thing is that because our hotel had an agreement with the nice resort hotel across the street, we could use the amenities there.
Our breakfast was included today and we went across the street for it plus we could also use the pools (yes there were several) plus the hotel had its own patch of beach along the sea.
We had the morning to ourselves with most of us taking the time to just chill out.
We left Hurghada at 2pm with a long drive ahead of us. We were ...

... but the reviews spoke of Russians. Also Germans, but we know we can get along with them and they are very friendly. The main street in Hurghada is all shops and stores with souvenirs. Lots of bling and sparkle, all the items for sale are the same in each store. It first reminded us of Las Vegas and then of Mexico border towns. The moving day went much better than I thought it would. Really glad we took the taxi and he found us the marina area and the hotel.

... saw the Sheraton). I had picked out three hotels next to each other to check out and had reservations in one of them but we were tired enough to just go with the reservation. They had the most extreme example of nicer-on-the-outside that I have seen. It was called the Royal Hotel and had an internet cafe downstairs (rare in Egypt) as well as a restaurant (not so rare). The lobby was very nice with leather couches and a pool table and marble reception ...