Most memorable Christmas Day? Luxor, 1974. Up very early to hire bicycles and cross the Nile on a rickety ferry. Leisurely cycle ride across the fields, past the Colossi of Memnon, the Ramesseum and Hatshepsut's Temple, and up to the Valley of the Kings. It was sad to see how tour groups are taken to see only the tombs nearest to the entrance, leaving out the beautiful tombs of Amenophis II and especially of Tuthmosis III, tucked away at the very top of the valley.
Back to Luxor for a Christmas dinner of bean stew and local beer in a "Student Mensa" on the street leading to the railway station. An Australian couple dining there on Christmas Eve left this memorable ditty in the visitors' books:
"There ain't no chimney for Santa to down,
Nowhere here in Luxor town.
But if there was, he'd never be seen,
The baksheesh brigade would wipe him clean!"
Author: Margaret Ross
Date: 1 December 2001
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