London Luxembourg and Paris

Back to the civilized world.  What does one say that can be entertaining or intriguing after spending 4 months in the relative bush?  While there are a few subtle attempts at humor, for the most part our last few weeks have been delightfully boring and civilized.  The Janssen family caravan arrived at London Heathrow on a late flight from Cairo.  After 4 months on the road it was an amazing treat to be in an English speaking country, or “fancy English” as Halle calls it.  We were able to easily find a train, our hotel, etc., and all by ourselves.  Ah the joys of independent travel.  A great friend once described his “top 10 showers”, made memorable by being at the end of particularly long hike or other situation where one is lacking the opportunity to bath for days or weeks.  Much like a shower after a 3 day climb of Mt. Rainier, the shower in our London hotel after several days on a fishing boat in Egypt was absolutely exquisite and definitely a lifetime top 10.

I’d been to London on many occasions, having worked for 4 months about an hour west of London early in my career.  Still I was absolutely enthralled by the city.  Rather than my memory of most Brits being pessimistic and complaining, I was shocked at how incredibly nice every person that we met was.  People went out of their way to be helpful, compliment the kids, offer us advice, etc.  Absolutely unbelievable.   The kids loved taking the Tube (the London subway) and mastered reading the maps and catching the correct train.  We walked for miles on several sunny days with temps in the mid 50’s.  We met up with several friends (The Malone family living in London for a year) and Greg Chapman who is working for Amazon in Luxembourg and was in London on business.  It was great seeing these folks, especially since they must have taken pity on our traveling circus and treated us to great meals, wine and some adult conversation.  It was so great to see Christmas lights, get a coffee at Starbucks, shop for basic supplies at known stores, and have confidence in knowing we were ordering.  In addition to enjoying the small pleasures of life, we were also treated to two incredible guided tours.  The first was at the British museum where our guide Lawrence (a 6’7” archeologist) enthralled the kids with animated stories of ancient civilizations throughout the world.  Using artifacts from around the world, he explained how different early civilizations were, but how alike they all were too, especially when it came to violence.  We decided that the worst culprits were the Aztecs.  They loved to sacrifice and torture.  If you get stuck in a time machine don’t dial in the Aztecs unless you’re extraordinarily well-armed.  Our second tour was a fabulous 3 hour history of the Tower of London by a woman named Viv.  It was a pleasure learning so much from 2 people who absolutely loved their work and were able to share their knowledge with the kids.  The museums have provided great insight into the benefit of our kids directly experiencing many places in person.  They have a fascinating recall of Greek and Roman and Egyptian gods.  The guides have been impressed and each museum visited reinforces what they’ve seen. 

London really delivered for us.  The kids loved their first theater experience (The Lion King).  It was a good safe bet and it was magical for Traci and me to see the unbridled joy on their faces at some of the amazing scenes and music.   Hayden and Halle joined me for a trip on the London Eye, the world’s tallest ferris wheel.  The lions were inappropriately tackled and touched at Trafalgar Square (Oh that little fence is made to keep kids out?), Westminster Abbey was fascinating with its rich history and graves of so many makers of history, the security in front of 10 Downey street was impressive (yet the guards were super friendly), and an old lady walked out of the front of Buckingham Palace escorted by a guard and I told the kids it must have been the queen although at a hundred yards away it almost certainly wasn’t (unless she travels incognito in a Toyota Rav 4).  At the end of 4 days we could have easily stayed and enjoyed another week.  Fabulous, fabulous town.

Next stop was Luxembourg to visit with our great friends Greg and Erin Chapman, with their kids Mackenzie (12), Sam (10) and Ben (9).  Greg is working there for Amazon and it was great to see them all again.  Hayden was in hog heaven, hanging with 2 boys and enjoying at least 4 hours per day on a rip stick or razor scooter.  The Chapmans were delighted to receive gifts from Venice, shorts and aprons depicting specific anatomical features from famous statues.  We walked, talked, watched movies, took long runs, played with their dog Oprah, and laughed with the kids.   After 2 days and 3 nights, we snuck out in the morning and left their house in pure disarray.  Under the cover of night, like fleeing hobos, we jumped a train to Paris.  It was a high speed train which was pretty cool.  I’m guessing we were traveling around 150mph and we arrived in Paris in 2 hours. 

In Paris we stayed in the fabulous apartment of the Frink family.  The apartment is located in an incredible, central location off the Luxembourg Gardens, and there we were joined for the week by Traci’s parents.  As in London, we pretty much enjoyed a lot of places that were the appropriate combination of activity and kid-centricity. We climbed the Eiffel tower, Notre Dame, and the Arc De Triomphe.  We walked dozens of miles along the Seine, did some simple shopping on the Champs  Elysees.  We toured the Louvre, Hospital Invalides, the catacombs and Sacre Coeur and its adjoining streets.  We also enjoyed home cooked meals most nights.  I think the highlight of our week was being invited to the home of Heather and Peter Knox for Thanksgiving dinner.  Traci and Heather have been friends for what I shall very delicately say is about 4 decades.  While looking forward to the traditional meal, I was dreading trying to help procure the essentials when I am such a French language neophyte.   After a quick perusal of the local grocery store and several meat markets I came to the conclusion that Turkeys are outlawed in France, probably because of a very strong Duck and Chicken unions.  I was pretty much set on pizza or chicken for Thanksgiving dinner.  Then Traci scored an invite to the Knox’s.  That was seriously good work.  Peter is a gourmet chef and while I don’t think he would admit it, he prepared a spread that had to have taken several days, and having been in Paris for a few years he had obviously learned how to say “turkey” in French and more importantly learned where to procure said bird and even more importantly knew how to prepare it along with about 15 other dishes and every conceivable beverage that was never in lack of going dry and all were kept warm in one oven and presented and displayed perfectly.  Wow.  Super fun to see them and their kids and to be the recipients of such amazing hospitality.

Off to work off some of the calories from the past week by escorting Traci on a run along the Seine.  Not bad living.  November 30^th we depart for our winter haven in St. Anton, Austria.  Our current plans are to spend 3 months there before heading east in March.  That may change a bit depending on the weather.   La Nina is a nasty little brat from my current perspective.  While I loved her last winter, it seems that while the pacific NW mountains are getting buried, Europe is suffering for snow.  Currently there is no snow but the forecast next week looks promising.  Regardless we have a great apartment rented and are looking forward to life in an alpine ski village. 
 

We’ve been fortunate in the timing of our travels.  We escaped Greece just as major public employee strikes started happening.  We left Rome the day before the Italian equivalent of the occupy wall street protesters looted and burned areas around the Colosseum and then days later Rome was hit with horrendous floods.  We left Egypt a week after riots re-erupted and 40 people were killed (although I’m sure that had we been there it would have been safe anywhere away from Tahir Square).  I’m not a believer in cultural equivalency;  I’m glad that we were able to experience to wonders of many of the places we’ve visited but I’m looking forward to at least 3 months of the wonders of western civilization. 



Happy Bus in London with Nelson's column at Trafalgar Square in the background




Building we passed on the way to the British Museum where Anesthesiology was started



Our guide Lawrence at the British Museum, explaining how Aztecs disemboweld their victims



Rosetta stone at the British Museum



For the Harry Potter fans



Inside the Tower of London where Anne Boleyn, Jane Grey  and several others who weren't the correct flavor of the month were beheaded



Tower of London and guide Viv

Tower guards and their new prisoners



On the London Eye....the huge ferris wheel.  Where's Sydney?



Trafalgar Square.  What fence?



Lessons learned from Africa



What's a phone booth?  Thought I'd get a picture of these famous antiquities before they are completely irrelevant



Diagon Alley or a likely source thereof



Westminster Abbey and the rewards of their scavenger hunt

The Chapman family in Luxembourg sporting our gifts.  They are so proud



Sam, Hayden, Oprah, Ben and Halle.  Luxembourg is dog crazy. This is on the way home after lunch at a restaurant (and of course Oprah joined us IN the restaurant as well)



"That was funny....that car just about hit us!  Huh huh huh let's do that again"



Greg and Mackenzie taught Halle and Sydney how to play Lacross



Movie night

In Paris.  Notre Dame in background.  60 degrees and sunny.  Not bad for late November.



Doc White.  As a father he taught his kids about spitballs. As a grandfather revenge isn't so sweet.



With Traci's parents at the entrance to the Louvre



Mona something



Scarred for life visiting the bones of 6 million Parisiens in the Catacombs



Uncanny resemblance

Janice trying to figure out the public toilet, then being helped by Travis.  Toilet 1, Grandparents 0.



Peter Knox as Hayden and Halle go for seconds on Thanksgiving



Zander, Hayden, Halle, Sydney, Heather and Allegra



Our Hosts Heather and Peter Knox



An after dinner Thanksgiving walk along the Seine



Napoleon's Tomb



Traci and skippy cleaning dog poop from their shoes.  Halle finds happiness in everything.

Egypt

Back in Africa.  A few hours in an airplane and one goes from the modern world and all of its conveniences to the chaos that is Africa.  Given the unrest in Egypt since January’s revolution, we decided to take a sheltered view of Cairo. This was not to be the place where we would go native.  Official reports say that tourism has decreased by 40%.   In reality it is probably closer to 80 or 90%.  Tourists are likely outnumbered by the vendors and those dependent on tourism.  Mustafa, our wonderful tour guide met us before we even went through passport control, with visas in hand and guiding us through the maze and getting us to our minivan and to our hotel.  I’ve never stayed in a five star hotel in my life, but we decided on the 4 seasons Nile plaza as it was secured like Fort Knox.  Upon arrival, we immediately headed to the swimming pools (note plural) and enjoyed a poolside dinner.  Nothing not to like about this place, except that our basic dinner cost more than a Cairo police officer makes in a month ($80).

Day two we had a blast.  There is nothing quite like seeing something for the first time in person that you’ve seen thousands of times in books and movies.   Be it the Acropolis, Parthenon, Colosseum, Pantheon, Eiffel Tower, the canals of Venice, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, etc. The Pyramids of Giza are simply stunning.  We visited the Pyramids early in the morning, with the blinding light from the desert sun and sands shocking our pale faces and my robust scalp.  Normally there are 25,000 visitors each day at the pyramids and on this morning there were only a couple hundred.  We were easily outnumbered by vendors selling postcards, camel rides, tee shirts, cheap souvenirs and jewelry, along with multiple flavors of the Yassar Arafat type Bedouin head-dress.  The pyramids are simply an amazing site to see.  They are absolutely enormous, and are in remarkably good shape given their age of 4,500 odd years.  Interesting tidbit is that they used to be covered with a very clear, hard, smooth polished limestone so that they would shine like a mirror to their sun god Amen-Ra. Over the years this finish broke off (except for at the top of the second pyramid) and they are now the familiar stepping stones.  One used to be able to climb them but that was banned in the 60’s after several accidents where one falling from the top tended to bounce all the way to the bottom.  Bummer as climbing would have been a Janssen family trip highlight.  We then had a few tourist adventures.  A brief camel ride was really fun until the halfway point when the “drivers/walkers” out of sight of their boss, asked to take our picture on the camels and afterwards accosted me for tips.  On a walk around the pyramid we came upon a very nice police officer who expressed his thanks for our being in his country and posed for a picture.  Unbelievably he then asked for a tip and he wouldn’t give up despite my protests and those of my guide.  After two blocks, since he was so persistent and more importantly since he was carrying a gun, I relented and gave him 1 euro (about $1.40).   It was interesting and shed a lot of light on the police in Egypt.   So much corruption, so much disorganization, so little respect for those they so feebly attempt to protect and to serve.  Our guide told us that there were many great police officers but many bad ones.  I can see that earning $80/month that if this guy found one sucker per day like me he could double his monthly income.   We also saw the “Cheops boat” which was a boat that accompanied the Pharoah Cheops (his Pyramid is the largest).  This 140’ boat was built from Lebanese cedar, painstakingly put together with ropes, equipped with oars, and never saw the water.  It was scrunched into a pit and buried beside the pyramid in brand new condition, to be used by Cheops in his afterlife for sailing through the sky.  It would be an incredible feat of engineering for an advanced woodworker today, let alone 2500 BC.  We also visited the inside of Cheops’ pyramid, climbing 1/3 of the way up to the top, inside through some incredibly tight tunnels.  I’ve never been in such a stuffy, claustrophobic place in my life.  I was expecting a cavernous cathedral inside the pyramid but it was just a tiny room in the middle about 15x30.  Of course the attendant of the room (probably a policeman), was trying to explain everything when we couldn’t understand and didn’t want him in our faces.  We departed and of course he wanted a tip for his obnoxiousness but I stood firm and we escaped.   So other than the policeman you won’t see any more blog photos with street vendors or cops.  After lunch at a local restaurant, we spent about 3 hours in the National Museum.  Reading and watching the revolution and how the museum almost fell but with only a few things being looted, I was expecting a modern building with high tech security.  Here are countless invaluable treasures and to my surprise the building was a complete dump, crammed with treasures so old it made your head spin.  The old saying that it is what’s on the inside that counts, and that was true for the museum.  The kids were engaged for at least 3 hours with the treasures of King Tut, innumerous statues and coffins, weapons and tools, and of course the royal mummies.  Shocking how the mummification of a 3500 year old Pharoah is so well done that you can see hair, complete fingernails, and on the most important kings, very distinct Morgan’s toes.  The Egyptians were incredibly wealthy, incredibly sophisticated in their use of tools, and in general incredibly civilized thousands of years before the Greeks. 

In earlier times we would have chosen to see more of Cairo but we intentionally cut short our time there and headed about 400 miles southwest to the White Desert.  This is an ancient limestone sea bed and over the past 50,000 years sandstorms have cut through the seabed, with the hardest sections of limestone left standing as pillars and mounds of every shape and size imaginable.  We camped two nights in accommodations that would generously be described as 1 star.  We ate local food (bread and vegetables) at each meal, and those who were physically able (everyone but me) sitting Bedouin (cross-legged) style at a 14” table.  The kids ate more vegetables in two days than they have in their lives, and I like to think gastronomic experience was cleansing.  The desert is spectacular.  We enjoyed warm but not hot days and cool nights.  The scenery is unlike anything I’ve ever seen except for photos of the surface of the moon.  We ventured about for most of the day in a Toyota Landcruiser and climbed small mountains and monuments, threw rocks off of cliffs, jumped off sand dunes, and of course played a lot of pass and catch with Hayden’s football.  We’ve now taught two Africans to throw a tight spiral with the football.  No small feat as our ambassadorship of goodwill tour continues.

After the White Desert it was back to Cairo for a quick flight to Luxor and a trip up the Nile.  We boarded our mini-cruise ship “Alexander the Great” and enjoyed 4 days of brief tour stops to see various temples and monuments as we traveled south “up” the Nile.  The Nile is the longest river in the world and also the only major river that travels south to north.  The Egyptian Pharaohs had enormous temples built in their honor from Alexandria all the way south to Abu Simbel on what is now Lake Nassar a couple hundred miles south of the Aswan High dam.  We stopped at 4 major temples and it was fascinating to see how exorbitant these were (and many still are).  We had a fantastic guide named Ahmed and the kids really displayed a great knowledge of many of the ancient gods and deciphering many hieroglyphs.  Sydney and Halle enjoyed mummifying Hayden, and we all enjoyed a boat taxi ride to a local “Nubian” village where we all were able to hold a small crocodile and get temporary (or so I was led to believe) hieroglyph tattoos.  All in all the boat tour was relaxing and a great way to see the sights as the country drifted by.  We could have enjoyed a week on the boat rather than 4 days.

After 4 days of great living on the boat, we ventured off to Lake Nassar for one day and two nights of fishing for nile perch.  Do an internet search on “Nile Perch” and you will see pictures of these beasts which can weigh over 300lb.  Unfortunately our luck wasn’t with us and the only fish we caught was Halle’s 2 lb. tiger fish. These are nasty little beasts.  I'd like to believe they are incredibly rare and difficult to catch and easily worth the $500 per pound we spent to catch the nasty little bugger before releasing it.  The fishing was an adventure, fishing from a small boat with a guide with very limited English and no conversation skills.  Meals and nights were spent in the hold of a supply boat, along with several hundred flies and mosquitoes and the lingering smell of cigarettes from the crew who used this room during the day.  Being out on the lake was great but after many consecutive days relatively “on the go” we were anxious to board our plane to London and get back to the small things that we overlook in the civilized world:  functioning toilets, showers, no bugs, soft pillows, etc..   I don’t want to give the impression that we are road weary; but perhaps we are a small bit.  Egypt was great to visit.  I would recommend it to anyone at this time but it takes a lot of patience. We felt safe throughout.  The people were very kind and their ancient history is so ancient yet so advanced that it is mind boggling.  It's not a stretch to say that it is not much more advanced today.  By the end of our visit, however, Egypt was becoming a grind.  I was sick of everyone expecting a tip for the smallest service that I didn’t ask for or necessarily want (I can carry my bag 100 yards to a shuttle…it doesn’t take 4 people).  I was tired of paying high prices for food and drinks in the confines of our hotel or boat when a block away the same would be offered at 1/10^th of the price we paid for “safety”.  I was sick of the aggressive street vendors that wouldn’t take no for an answer.  I was tired of poor communication and the cultural differences that are everywhere in a Muslim country.   Women are treated very differently.  Many people just wouldn’t engage at the same level with Traci and the girls.  I was tired of seeing the dirt and garbage and grime in such spectacular lands. 

The next few months will be very interesting in Egypt.  The country has such amazing assets and just about every person we spoke with was optimistic about the country’s future.  They thought the media’s portrayal of discord between Muslims and Coptic Christians was blown way out of proportion and was being instigated by the ruling military council.  It will be fascinating to observe and I am thankful that we had the opportunity to visit.



Across the endless desert lands there rode a mighty carvan



The Cheops "solar boat"



Looking up the great pyramid



Base of the great pyramid

Thank goodness the Police!  A sucker born every minute



Normally there are hundreds of people at this nearest location to the Sphinx



Traci and Halle from the balcony of our Hotel in Cairo.  From the penthouse to the..



s...house.  Rest stop on the way to the white desert...about 50 miles SW of Cairo....the best and only stop

Limestone columns in the white desert



Keeping my wife and children safe at all times...yes that other formation looks like a chicken and it was ridden hard by all the kids



Sydney has always had such amazing balance



Lucky man

Moustafa and our crazy driver in the white desert



Why walk when you can jump?



Water taxi on the Nile



At a set of locks on the Nile.  Kids cleaned up nicely for dinner!



Temple at Edfu.  Again no crowds.



Inside the world's oldest known dedicated room used as a library



Our guide Ahmed in the "pharmacy" room of the Temple at Edfu

He deserved it



dhow



Morning coffee on the Nile

Our new pet



If you give a kid a camera



Aswan High Dam.   Kids loved saying dam.  Homeschooling is going so well!



Airport shuttle buses are a big hit



Our cruise ship



Abu Simbel



Inside Ramses II temple at Abu Simbel....Pictures are forbidden but I couldn't resist this one of Traci attempting to teach the girls about the god of fertility.



Hayden in his element



..but not to be outdone by the girls