Much of what we did in Aswan involved a boat trip on the Nile. We were glad for that since it was much cooler on the river. On this day, we went to an island in the Nile for lunch. The first two photos are us on our way to lunch. In the third photo, you can see the restaurant’s “landing crew”. The island didn’t have a boat dock, just a spot near shore. So these guys put out a gangplank (at top of steps) and helped people off the boat.

We ate most of our meals indoors, but a few were outside. You might think it would be awful to eat outside since it was so hot, but it was frequently more pleasant outside than inside – with all the cigarette smoke, noise, and stuffiness. The couple sitting with Vicky in the second photo are our good friends and long-time travel companions Patty and Ron Weber. It was a very exotic setting for lunch.

Most lunches and dinners included fresh baked pita bread (or occasionally another fresh made bread) served first with three ‘sauces’: hummus, baba ghanoug, and a cucumber dip. I could have made a meal out of the fresh bread every time. We always had fresh veggies like carrots, ripe tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, okra, beets, potatoes, eggplant, green beans, celery, onions, etc. We also had more prepared dishes like chicken salad, tabbouleh or musaka. Main dishes included lots of falafel, roasted chicken, kabobs, kafka, beef, lamb, and goat. Desserts included lots of baklava (any baked good made of filo dough, honey and nuts), fresh fruit like mango, watermelon, cantaloupe, bananas, plus flan, dates, rice pudding, and peanut pie. Drinks included beer, tea (hot or cold), mango, orange or guava juice, a lemon-mint drink (excellent), ginger tea, mint tea, and Turkish coffee.

The last picture is the chef and BBQ for lunch. BBQ included barbecued fish, beef and goat – and all were very tasty.