It was an early morning… really early morning. TBG decided we needed to go up and watch the balloons launch. We were hot air balloon pilots (students), so we have participated in many launches and recoveries. While it would have been pretty, we decided to give our spots to those folks who weren’t as fortunate. At about 5, TBG ‘accidently’ hit the wrong button and turned the bedroom lights on. He’d brought me a cup of coffee, a double shot espresso, which means I wouldn’t need a second cup! I was in the middle of a dream and had a devil of a time waking up. He’s not usually up before me, so he didn’t really know that he needed to give me about a half hour to just wake up. Anyhow, we headed up, joined by Barbara, to the sun deck and watched them take off. The conditions were perfect and about 18 balloons lifted off the field. It will be fun to hear of their adventures when they return. Today we have a leisurely morning as we begin our cruise down the Nile. EEEEE… Breakfast was very good – Eggs Benedict (with beef ‘ham’) and then Chris got me hooked in with the ship’s high speed internet – it’s great, but I can’t receive anything on my email. I will have to rely upon my phone for that. The photos will be a work in progress as I can’t seem to get them to download at the moment. At least I got into LJ. We can hear all the happy folks coming back from the balloon trip. They had a glorious morning and some even flew over the Nile – that doesn’t happen often. Chris has invited some folks to an aeronauts christening this afternoon, although it might be this morning as we go out to tour at one this afternoon and don’t get back until 6 p.m. Maybe after that. All too soon, it was time to go up for our daily presentation - Egypt and the Nile. I didn’t realize that Ethiopia had built a dam and was threatening to cut off much of the water to Egypt – again, it’s the old theme of a war over water rights. The Egyptians are not very happy about it. If an agreement can’t be met, I wouldn’t be surprised if war broke out over it. As Muhammad talked, the ship left dock for a short trip up the river and then back. Lunch was rather early – 11 – as we had a very full day ahead. Very Full. For lunch, there was some beef soup, followed by chicken sahaka (I think) and pineapple over ice cream. We climb on the bus for a 90-minute ride to Dendera Temple and the partially cleaned temple of Hathor, the cow-headed goddess of beauty, love, music and childbirth. Over here, every time you leave one district and enter another, you have to go through a police checkpoint and over double speed bumps. What a nightmare that was. The temple was lovely and mostly covered, so it wasn’t too hot. The challenge with this one was climbing to the top of the temple, which wasn’t as hard as I thought. However, I have to admit popping a couple of aspirin once I got back on the bus. The ride back was really long and broken only by a call from our pet sitter. It appeared something got inside the house and made a mess trying to get out. She was going to go back when it was lighter to see if she could figure out what happened. She stressed again and again that the cats were all fine, so I wasn’t worried. I was quite grumpy by the time we got to the ship. It was okay, though, as we had a full five minutes before the captain’s party. Viking keeps you going every minute and I’m not sure I like that. Good thing we did our relaxing beforehand! After that it was straight into dinner. Dinner was another delight. Our app was a grilled vegetable cup and chicken roulade. Dinner was chicken broth with lamb and vegetables, then I and TBG both had an Egyptian version of Osso Bucco, followed by a milk pudding, which was very tasty. Every night we have an Egyptian menu, a standard and a daily menu to choose from. All the food has been top notch! Not surprisingly, bed was very soon after. Then Barb called. Sure enough Jack had gotten in through the cat door and I think met with a very aggressive welcoming committee, then couldn’t get out. She found him behind the sofa. She got him out and all was well. Needless to say, after that, I slept like a rock!