It seems as though Egyptian officials decided to go back to having a national daylight savings time. Apparently, it had avoided changing the clocks for many years. So we walked down for breakfast exactly in the middle of what we thought was today's 7 to 9 serving time. The problem was nobody had told us about last night's time change. We missed breakfast. That was annoying as it’s one of my favourite meals on the M/S Miss Esadora.
We walked around the large temple we're docked in front of. This is the commercial side of the river and consequently the souk is just behind it. As it is Friday, not much was open though. We did find a bakery and bought a bag of Danish and bread rolls. We came back to the boat and ate in the cabin watching the motor taxis plying their passengers back and forth across the river.
It may be about 38c today, but it doesn't feel that hot with such a low humidity. The water in the pool seems almost too cold but once in, it is fine. We didn't do much of anything until lunch: just read brochures and guide book information about the area and chatted in chaise lounges. We generally travel as backpackers but must remember to add nice respites in the middle of trips. The short time in this boat has seemed like a little piece of heaven.
After eating lunch, we walked to see if we could get to our next accommodations on foot. A few days ago, we made reservations on booking.com. Months prior to the trip, the Cleopatra Luxor Hotel had come up among positive Internet reviews. We took a tattered, big, government ferry across the river for a mere pound. Within 10 minutes we came across the hotel and met the family owner. We now plan on staying there three nights before heading towards the Sinai, and subsequently, Jordan.
Towards evening, we walked around the Luxor Temple that we will probably visit tomorrow. We found the souk is just one street in runnning parallel to the river.
We still travel as we used to. We pick major time-frames and locations, but try to stay flexible. We are pretty sure that after we leave here, it'll take a few nights to get to Jordan between buses and ferries. Yet, if necessary, we could look into a short flight. It's better not being tied down to too severe of a particular itinerary. Flexibility allows us to stop longer in places we like or minimize stays in ones that don't turn out as expected. We were weaned on travel in the 1980's when this type of travel was more of a necessity. Frankly, there's little adventure in having a slew of advance reservations. A trip then simply ends up being a negotiation of predetermined, and perhaps erroneous, ideas.