By Catarina Redisch in Aswan, Egypt Aswan is a city on the Nile, and very interesting, especially if you like extremes. Did you know that Aswan is one of the driest places on earth? Aswan High Dam If you like extremes, you’ll really like the Aswan High Dam, one of the greatest engineering projects of [...]

Exploring the temple at Edfu
The Edfu Temple is the best preserved in Egypt, perhaps in all of antiquity. The pylon here is an impressive 56 metres high, taller than the one at Karnak.

High Tea at the Old Cataract in Aswan
From the Nile, the Old Cataract Hotel looks grand, perched on the granite bluff above. If you’ve seen Death on the Nile, it will also look familiar. My oldest daughter enjoys sipping tea in old world hotels, preferably while wearing a big hat, looking mysterious. Uniformed guards at the gate inform us we have to [...]

The travel ABC of Sophie’s World
Travel ABCs are all the rage in the travel blogging circuit these days. Fun idea! Here’s the travel ABC of Sophie’s World:

Reading the past with the Rosetta Stone
The British Museum is one of my favourite museums in the world. Yet, like many museums in the western world, the British Museum should probably return some of the artefacts to their country of origin. One of these is the Rosetta Stone, a stele from 196 BC. It belongs, if not in Rosetta, at least [...]

The largest ancient religious site in the world
Situated right outside Luxor, Karnak Temple is the largest ancient religious site in the world. An impressive avenue of ram-headed sphinxes connects it with Luxor Temple. Karnak is a place of records: everything here seems to be the biggest and tallest. Its scale defies description. The first pylon (gate) alone is 42 metres high (like [...]

On the road in Egypt
Getting up at 0345 is not particularly child-friendly. Luckily, my daughters are easygoing. They look forward to sailing the Nile and seeing Egypt. A six-hour flight later, we land in Hurghada. Now, I won’t knock Hurghada, because I didn’t see all of it, but apart from beautiful beaches, grand resorts along the Red Sea coast [...]

Boating up the Nile – in the 1800s and today
It’s early January on the Nile. Early morning as well. The girls are still asleep. I’m alone on deck. Going down river (north) is windier. The pages of my note pad is blowing fiercly, at times lightly whipping my face. It’s bitterly cold.


