Last night was my last night in Luxor and as I had an early flight I moved across the Nile to stay at The Winter Palace as it is a bit nearer to the airport.....
A little bit of a wander around the East Bank and dinner at The Lantern suggests to me that there are a number of ex pats living here, or at least spending the winter here. If you want to eat at The Lantern you need to book, unless there is only one of you!
The place always seems to be full.....
We are in ''downtown'' Luxor here and there are a variety of ''foreign food restaurants in this area, although why somebody should come to Egypt to eat Chinese/Thai/Indian food beats me.... But then the same can be said in Greece where the first thing people look for is MacDonalds or Pizza Hut.
There are a couple of quite good ''spice'' shops here though, and also Arkwright's Store which I guess caters very much for the English....
Luxor airport is deserted when I get there, not even the security gate is open yet!
As I am on the early flight to Cairo there are not many other passengers and after getting my bag X rayed there is time for a cup of coffee before heading through a rather tight security screening to get to the departure gate. I have already had a word with the check in staff about my transfer through Cairo airport because I do not have a lot of time, but it turns out it is a breeze as the transfer gate is not far from my arrival gate.
With time to spare and the flight back to Athens I have time to do a bit of thinking...
When I first came to Egypt in January 2017 I was well aware that my health was not all that it could be and indeed a few weeks later I was hospitalized for a week and diagnosed with emphysema and possibly lung cancer.
After tests it turned out that there was no cancer but fibrosis on one lung...
For many years I have spent winter on the Greek island of Crete because the weather is less cold, but no less wet, than the UK, but I have realised now that even the Cretan winter does not do me any good and that my breathing during the last three weeks while staying in Luxor has been considerably better.
It is the very low humidity of course, and it rarely rains in Luxor, there were a few spots one evening while I was there and so I have decided that maybe next winter I will come for an extended stay to enjoy the warm days but sometimes very chilly nights!
The blog is not finished yet, and perhaps you can look forward to a whole new blog on Living In Egypt!!
Until then......