Homeward Bound

I know, after EVERY place we’ve stayed, I’ve said that it was the best place ever, and I didn’t want to leave, but THIS time, I really, really mean it. The Aswan Cataract Hotel made me feel like we were in an episode of Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, probably because this is exactly where the rich and famous HAVE stayed. 

The Cataract Hotel is actually made up of two separate buildings. The “old” section was built in 1899, then in 1961, the “new” building was added. In a country that has existed for more than 5 centuries, “new” is definitely a relative term.

Although our rooms were in the “new” building, we were able to tour the “old” building. Portraits of the many famous visitors, like Princess Diana, Queen Nur, Henry Kissinger, Omar Sharif, Howard Carter line the corridors. But two of the many impressive guests were special enough to have had their names emblazoned on their suite door: Agatha Christie and Winston Churchill.

Agatha Christie wrote Death on the Nile during her one year stay in “her” suite. It has all the comforts of home and then some, complete with dining room, office and chandelier over her bed.

She was so inspired by her surroundings that she set some of her novel in the hotel. I haven’t seen the recent remake, but some of the scenes of the 1970’s movie were shot at the hotel. It was fun trying to figure out what scene was shot where. Hint: I’m convinced the dance scene was shot in the room where we had breakfast.

As impressive as it was, I actually preferred the Winston Churchill suite because of the balcony. I could easily envision Winston standing on it, drink in one hand, cigar in the other, watching the sun set. That’s exactly what I did, minus the cigar and whiskey.

See that building on the left? That’s where we stayed –in the“new” building. My room is on the 4th floor, the first one, with the huge balcony. I know, it looks a bit like a Holiday Inn from the exterior, but wait till you see the interior.

The following photo is the view of Churchill’s huge “balcony” from MY balcony. His sits atop the restaurant’s terrace, which is the ideal place for sharing a bottle of wine and a cheese platter. (The terrace, not Winnie’s balcony, although both would certainly work).

That’s just what what Jeanne and I did. We loved the hotel so much we decided to skip the evening’s planned activities: a visit to the market and dinner outside the hotel. It was the right decision…perfect weather, great food, drink, and conversation, plus a wonderful night time view of the Nile.

I promised a peek at my interior, so here you go. Agatha and Winston aren’t the only ones with a chandelier above their beds. You’re looking at only about half of my suite. It took a while for me to locate the entrance to the bathroom, because it was hiding behind a huge dressing room. Honestly, at this stage of my life, I prefer something smaller, with a bathroom a bit closer. I needed roller skates to get from my bed to the bathroom!

Here are some more shots of the hotel.  Notice the painted arches? They reminded me of the Mosque in Cordoba, Spain–the one that the Christians repurposed as a church. Despite that, (and the Crusades), none of the Muslims I met appeared to have had any hard feelings toward the Christians, as evidenced by the abundance of Christmas decorations in this predominantly Muslim country.

Have you seen enough temples yet? There’s one more, located on an island in the middle of the Nile. Like the Temples at Abu Simbel, the structures at Philae were moved from their original location to save them from the rising waters of the Nile. Unfortunately, not soon enough. The structures were partially submerged by the time the rescue was initiated. 

I’m so grateful that spray paint wasn’t available in the 1800’s. If it had been, then the French visitors wouldn’t have needed a chisel to leave their marks.

Lunch was at a colorfully decorated Nubian restaurant, right on the water. The Nubians love bright colors, as you can see from the joyous decorations on the exterior.

I’m not going to lie. Getting on and off the boat was a little tricky. That low canopy meant that you had to duck your head and leap onto the slightly wet rocks while the boat was doing its own rocking and rolling. Once again, I gave thanks to the Somerset Hills YMCA for keeping me in shape.

We couldn’t get too wild and crazy at our last dinner at the Cataract Hotel, because we had yet another early morning flight. Our departure was doubly painful–we were leaving this mini Paradise, plus we had to be on the bus at 5:45 AM. On a positive note, it DID allow us to have the beautifully illuminated gardens all to ourselves. They even rolled out the red carpet. 

And now a word about airport security: in both Jordan and Egypt, you get to go through it twice. The first time, both your checked and carry on luggage are examined. THEN you get your boarding pass at the counter, and drop off your luggage. THEN you go through security yet again, with your carry on AND even if you don’t “beep” when going through the metal detectors, you STILL get thoroughly patted down, which is why women have to make sure there is a woman security guard waiting for you at the end of the line. But I will say that Egypt was much easier than Jordan. In Jordan, I was held up both coming and going, because I had binoculars, which are considered “military equipment”. It was actually worse leaving the country. One guy took my passport, photographed it, then walked around with it in his hand while he talked on the phone–to whom, we don’t know. Meanwhile another guard was switching my flashlight on and off. It looked like he was sending a message in morse code! And here I was worried that my husband’s ashes might have been problematic. They were fine–safely tucked away amidst my underwear.

Eventually we made it through and were able to visit two historic Cairo mosques. One doubles as the grave site for the former Shah of Iran. Remember him?

Are you curious about that green Jedi? So was I. I surreptitiously took this photo of the very beautiful young woman as she was photographing the grave site. Yes, I know it’s a bit blurry. That’s what you get when you are sneaking a shot. 

I’m home now, dealing with jet lag and a cold. But I won’t be here for long. I hope you’ll come along on my spring adventure — Japan.