Egypt and Libya, March 19 - April 2, 2006 / 001_EgyptTitle
Ruth Milner, rmilner plus web at bookofmarvels dot net
In July 2005, Dale noticed that there
would be a total solar eclipse crossing the eastern Mediterranean in late
March the next year. We decided this would be a great vacation. By all
accounts a total eclipse is an amazing experience, and there would not be
another as readily
accessible until 2017, when one crosses the U.S. By then our children will
(probably) be in college and a family trip might not be possible, so this
struck us as a great opportunity. The venture would cover a lot of ground:
history, geography, culture, and science - with even some fun thrown in!
We settled on Libya for viewing the eclipse because of the
high probability of good conditions there (95% vs 60% for Turkey),
and decided to combine it with a visit to Egypt. The latter would have to be
short because the timing missed the kids' spring break, and we didn't want
them to be out of school for more than 2 weeks. To ensure that we could
pack as much into our brief time in Egypt as possible, I contacted
Misr Travel
who, for what was in my opinion a very
reasonable price, used my sightseeing requests to put together a 4-day
itinerary including a guide, accommodations, major sights in Cairo and
Luxor, and transportation both while sightseeing and between those two
cities. For Libya, which most foreigners currently may
not enter without sponsorship by a Libyan travel company or government
agency, we went with Travelquest, who
offered a great itinerary and were willing to accept the kids on the tour.
This album describes highlights from that trip,
taken March 19 - April 2, 2006. Enjoy! (Tip: It will look best if you
set your computer screen to its highest resolution and make your browser window
full-screen.)
