Egypt4u

I have been viewing some of my photo albums using PS Elements Organiser. For some reason my pictures look much better than when I run a slideshow on Picasa 3, so much so that I was even quietly complimenting myself on the quality of my pictures. How egotistical is that?

I ran a Luxor file and the thought occurred to me that the country and city that has been our common interest NEVER gets a mention these days. So sad! All those lovely memories of a country that me and my wife became addicted to and returned so many times but have not been back since March 2013. I still hope to go back one more time and, as we are likely to be home all weekend, I will make a selection from my Luxor pictures and share them on Youtube to make you all nostalgic

More to follow, hopefully.....

Yes it is a shame, but with a rapid loss of interest in Egypt by many people at least this forum keeps us all chatting and in touch with each other.
Look forward to your photo's

I don't think it's lack of interest in Egypt - rather a lack of the readies! The price of a two week holiday is astronomical now and by the time you've added transfers, luggage, food etc., it prices itself out of the market. I haven't been on holiday now since 2006, but given the chance, I'd head straight out to Aswan if finances allowed.

Not sure I would agree with that RS, plenty of people still go abroad for a holiday, I think the rot set in with the 1st revolution and never really recovered.

Sorry Horus. I thought you and Grandad meant holidays to Egypt.

I agree with RS that holiday prices to Egypt have risen considerably and are far removed from what we paid ten or even fewer years ago. Visitor numbers are WELL down, and as Horus says, mostly after the political unrest following the Arab Spring.

Ironically, when you get to Egypt your pound sterling is worth around 20Le which is the highest I have ever known. During our time visiting it has been as low as under 10Le to £1. I just checked flight costs to Luxor. Egyptair go direct from Heathrow on Mondays with a return service the same day. That is around £490 return, so a week in a good hotel r & b would be about £1500 per couple, 2 weeks about £2000. Is that extortionate in todays market? I think probably not but I agree it is a lot more than we paid just 5 or 6 years ago.

I think that the real reason for lack of interest is as I said, no one wants to go because of all the percieved problems there and the lack of any real promotion by the tour companies, so if no one is interested then we get no enquiries on either of the L4U sites, so its just regulars talking amongst themselves.

I have minimal to no interest in going back again - Flight costs are high, always a chance of being 'bumped' as the Airlines oversell now which also means if you have connections and don't make them you're just outta luck and pocket. Ever since the Arab Spring life there seemingly has changed considerably. With economic downturns IMO it can really play havoc on the tourism sector too particularly if there are specific goods lacking that would normally be available for tourists - in other words when I go on holiday I WANT everything I WANT. Not that I have extravagant wants but when I'm on holiday I want to be able to find what I want i.e. clean swimming pools, ample waiters/waitresses so service is decent, no hassle (which was always bad in Egypt anyway but now with a downturned economy I can imagine it could be horrid).

Well, I spent a lot of time on Sunday sorting out about 150 photos to create a slide show, and had sorted them into some logical order. This was in a Picasa album When I went to move them to a new folder on the desktop everything went awry, some moved, some disappeared, and the sequence was lost, so I aborted the operation.

Yesterday we were busy in town and today, right now, I am waiting for a taxi. Mrs G has a hospital appointment and probably eye injection so we will not be home till about mid-day.

But I will try to do what I said and put some pics together, just to remind us of what a fascinating place is Luxor and its people.

I for one am looking forwards to seeing it, shame about the Picasa glitch, nothing worse than when your project goes to pot after all the work you have put in. Funnily enough I was going to have a mess about with doing one myself if I get the time as I was trying to give Hepzi over on the Blue side some help in doing one of her own.

Grandad look forward to seeing your slide show

Well it doesn't match the finesse of Horus's slide shows but here is my selection of pictures from the years we went to Luxor. The music will do your head in so keep the volume low Hope you enjoy looking back at scenes around Luxor.

Well you have certainly given us a good selection of what a visit (or several) to Luxor is all about, great slideshow Grandad and you have also managed to get just about EVERY transition imaginable into your video except for 'fade' at the very end But seriously a good job and very interesting.

Gosh you made me homesick - but I wouldn't have missed seeing it

Quite lovely Grandad and I recognised everywhere instantly. There's even one of my Brothers-in-law in it. None the less, thank you

Beautiful slide slow Grandad. Recognized many of the places - great memories!

Great work, Grandad! (Shame it's Luxor! )

I know you are a big Aswan fan RS. We have been 3 times and I can understand why you like it, so do we. But most of our visits have been to Luxor and we really feel at home there. All the monuments are great to visit and to be AT and visualizing their time. But it is the people we enjoy most, warm, friendly, hospitable.

Great video Grandad and stirred some lovely memories.

I loved my stay at the Nile Palace (Le Meridien) also next door at the Sonesta St George, both beautiful hotels.

I often wondered what the smaller hotel next to the Sonesta would be like (forgotten its name ) never been back for a while to try it.

@Kiya I think that small hotel is The Lotus Kiya. Hepsi stayed there end of last year and was very positive about it.

This was The Sonesta in 2011 after they had removed what was on floor 10 and built a new 10 and 11. I now wonder if that proved to be a bad investment. We only stayed there once about 10 years ago.

Thanks Grandad The Lotus, I believe is right