Hanging Church, Sofitel Gezirah visit, and a great time with cousins!

It's been a very busy week and I'm just now at a place where I have internet to catch up on things.  We had a wonderful visit with cousins Chris, Jerry and little Jonathan, then we left on the night train from Cairo to Aswan, then went down the Nile on a 3 night cruise, visited the Valley of the Kings and magnificent temples, and topped everything off with an incredible balloon balloon ride past the Valley of the Kings and crossing the Nile.  I'll be posting about all these events one by one.  For now, here are some shots from our great visit with our travelling cousins!

Chris and Jerry stayed at the Sofitel Gezirah right on the Nile.  It was beautiful and peaceful.  I joined them for dinner their first night here.

Here's the hotel walkway running alongside the Nile leading to the restaurant.

The hummus with fresh cooked pita bread was wonderful.

The second night of Chris, Jerry and Jonathan's visit, Cameron and I joined them at their hotel for dinner.

There were musicians for dinner and musicians in the lobby of the hotel.  It was very elegant.  This really is a prime tourist spot and there are still relatively few tourists here so it's a great time to visit without crowds.

I like this photo of Chris and little Jonathan.

Here we all are at the Egyptian Museum.  No cameras were allowed inside so we just have a few outdoor shots.

Next to the Egyptian Museum is the shell of the recently burned headquarters of the National Democratic Headquarters, former President Mubarak's party.  The high court in Egypt recently ordered last week that the National Democratic Party be disbanded and all their property and assets handed over to the government because of corruption during the Mubarak years.  Here's a link to article about this:

http://www.english.rfi.fr/africa/20110416-mubaraks-political-party-disbanded

The next stop was Coptic Cairo.  

Cameron and Jonathan had a fun time fooling around in the back of the van.

 Here we are at the Hanging Church.  We had a wonderful guide, Gamal, who was a former inspector of national monuments for Egypt.

 The details of the wall inside the Hanging Church were amazing.  These inlaid wood pieces fit tightly together without any nails.

 This photo is next to the Coptic Museum.

 Here we are entering the top portion of the Hanging Church.

 Cameron and Jonathan are leaving the top part of the Hanging Church, entering a lovely courtyard.

 This is inside the Hanging Church.  Gamal is pointing out how the eyes of the painting Jonathan is looking at seem to follow the viewer whether standing to the right or left.

 Chris and Jonathan leaving Coptic Cairo.

Back at the hotel, our wild cousin Chris said how much she enjoyed jumping on beds when she was a kid... so did the boys!

We all enjoyed the headet pool overlooking the Nile at Chris and Jerry's hotel.  Cameron and Jonathan enjoyed climbing on Jerry in the pool, chanting "Daddy's for dinner!"  Jerry was very good-natured about being a human jungle gym.

Chris is shivering a little as I took this photo because the air was surprising cool for Egypt when coming out of the heated pool.

We're headed to dinner in this photo.  Jonathan likes to dress up and 'look smart'.

I have a few videos to post another time but they will take some time to upload.