We start the day by checking out of the boat and get straight onto the tour bus with our "guide-for-the-day" Marco. Our bags are packed on top of the bus, much to the displeasure of Alicia, who points out how frazzled they'll get in the Egyptian sun. The driver doesn't could care less, first we tour, then we go to the hotel!
The tour starts at the Valley of the Queens followed by a history lesson on Queen Hatshepsut (pronounced Hat cheap suit): the Queen who would be King. Basically she screwed (unfairly treated) her son and took the throne for herself. After looking around her Mortuary Temple, we moved on to the main event: The Valley of the Kings, where the tempeture has risen and we are melting! You're not allowed to take any pictures inside the tombs but you'll see we've posted a few of the actual valley in one of the galleries. There's a natural pyramid at the top of the valley so you can see why this site was chosen (you know what the Egyptians were like about pyramids). The last tomb they uncovered was of course Tutankhamun's and they reckon this is the last of the kings' tombs they'll find.
With your entry ticket you can only see inside three tombs which is a bit frustrating (bearing in mind there's about 35 in total) until you realise that loads of them are shut for one reason or another. I can't remember now which three we went inside but they were of course all very impressive. In typical fashion, they have an added charge for going into the most popular tomb - Tutankhamun's - but Marco insists it's not as impressive as others and pretty much everything has now been moved to the museum in Cairo. We take this on board and decide to save the money.
The last stop is at the site of the Colossi of Memnon, which are basically two huge statues of Pharoah Amenhotep III, in the middle of nowhere. We only stop for five minutes (its too hot), take a couple of photos and then head back into Luxor, by which time it's early evening again. We check into our hotel - The Royal House - which is pretty nice (compared with some of the hotels/hostels we've been staying in). Dinner is steak and chips...mmmm (cheap, not too adventurous though).
