When Covid cancelled my school tour of schools across China in 2021, I was doubly disappointed since it would have been the first time that I was able to bring my grandson along. Nico was 10 then. Ever since he was born I dreamed of showing him the world. When our time in China was cancelled, I felt I owed him a trip. “Where would you most want to go?” I asked him. “Egypt!” he answered immediately.

Kees and I had recently visited Egypt when I was invited, as visiting author, to Cairo American School. I loved the country, its incredible sites and its hospitable people. So as soon as Covid and our savings account allowed it, I booked a trip to Egypt.

Traveling with a 12 year old was a different ballgame from traveling together. Normally I book all of our own flights and accommodations myself. But going to the Middle East with a kid, it seemed easier to book a tour. I was worried about being part of a group. How many people? How does that work? And I definitely had a set of expectations about seeing specific sites: a Nile cruise, the pyramids of course but also a sail in a falucca, a traditional Nile boat, and other side trips.

We flew from Cairo to Luxor and traveled south, upriver, to Aswan to this longest river in the world.

I found the perfect itinerary from an online travel company called Exottica. The cost was reasonable considering it included everything I was looking for, all flights, admissions, accommodations, transportation, a guide and almost all meals. Booking our desired trip on the dates we wanted was easy. After that, communications slowed down. Whenever I had a question it might take 4 or 5 days before I received an answer.

I received updated itineraries regularly which showed me which hotels had been confirmed. I did not get a say in flight routing and the routing from Vancouver to Jordan (which we visited before Egypt during our 18 day trip) was terrible: from Vancouver we had to fly to Seattle, then to Washington DC and then on to Amman. I would have booked a much more direct route. On the return trip we did go fairly direct: Cairo, London, Vancouver.

We flew to Cairo from Amman, Jordan after our first 8 days of wonderful sightseeing. The plus side of being part of a group was that we got to know people and that Nico had more freedom because others were also looking out for him. The drawback was that we had to wait everywhere for everyone’s checked luggage to arrive while we only carried a daypack each.

In November, Cairo was much warmer than Amman had been. We spent the first night in Egypt in a hotel along the Nile in Cairo - a city of 10 million! That one night was very special because Rejan, a girl I featured in my newest book Where We Live, came to visit us with her mom. Nico and Rejan are both in the book so it was fun to meet each other.

Early the next morning we flew to Luxor, from one crazy busy airport to another with people everywhere who seemed to be arguing but were just talking to each other.

Our guide, Mohammed, stayed with us for the entire time in Egypt. Upon arrival a bus took us immediately to Karnak Temple. This is a vast temple complex in Upper Egypt, on the east bank of the Nile, dating back to around 3,000 BCE. We strolled past the impressive entrance way among towering pillars through the vast temple area. Nico touched his hand to hieroglyphs carved thousands of years earlier in this very stone and we marvelled at the fact that you can still touch them - that it is not blocked off by plexiglass or ropes. Being here literally allows you to touch history.

Huge rows of sphynxes line the entrance way of Karnak. Hieroglyphs extoll the virtues of gods and tell the stories of long ago. Nico had read books and watched documentaries on the history of Egypt so he knew and recognized much of what we saw.

In Luxor that afternoon, we checked into our floating hotel: a Nile cruise boat. When Kees and I were here only a few years ago, tourism was at an all time low and there were only 40 people on our boat which could have held over a 100, and almost no other cruise ships on the Nile. This time, all of Europe seemed to have descended on the Middle East. Busses were packed with tourists at all sites and cruise boats moored tied to each other in rows 4 or 5 deep and several along side. Business for Egyptians was booming again after some very lean, difficult years during Covid.

Small ferry and a Nile cruise ship in front of Luxor Temple.

These Nile ships are not like regular cruise ships. They look like floating wedding cakes, in 4 or 5 oblong layers. The rooms are much like hotel rooms, often with a small balcony. Nico and I each had a bed, there were chairs, a TV (to watch Fifa world cup soccer!) and our own bathroom.

On the top floor of the ship was an outdoor and covered sitting area, and a swimming pool with water filtered from the Nile. On one of the lower floor was a large dining room with breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets.