Bernard Keogh - Holidays

Holidays

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This is the Holidays page for my family.

This section will relate our holiday experiences, most of which have been in "la Belle France" in tents and caravans with lots of miles driven on French roads and autoroutes. We have spent many years and memorable times in quite a few regions of France - still can't speak a lot of the language but have enjoyed trying.

Since Kevin moved to Norway we have spent some time holidaying there and venturing to other far off places.............

Keep watching as it grows.......

2009 was a very busy year for travel including 4 trips to Norway (Mina was born in June), a wedding in Cyprus (first trip there) and a fantastic cruise down the Nile from Luxor to Abu Simbel to Qena.

Edfu Temple
A farming town situated on the Nile's riverbank, the main attraction in Edfu is the almost completely preserved Egyptian Temple of Horus (the falcon god).

Kom Ombo
Previously known as Pa-Sebak, after the crocodile god of the region, Kom Ombo is famous for its unique and spectacular riverside temple.

Aswan High Dam
Built in the 1960s to control the flow of the Nile, reclaim more land around the river for cultivation and provide power through electricity, this is now a major tourist attraction and the resulting lake and fertile surroundings are extremely beautiful.

Aswan : Philae Temple
A popular attraction in the 19th century, when the construction of the Old Dam and reservoir saw the temple swamped by water six months a year and tourists had to glide around it in rowing boats, it looked destined to be lost forever with the completion of the High Dam, until UNESCO came to the rescue and moved the temple, stone by stone, to nearby Agilika Island, 20 metres higher.

Abu Simbel
This site lies 280km south of Aswan and was lost for 600 years, due to the shifting landscapes of the Nile and deserts, until the Swiss explorer, J.L. Burckhardt, rediscovered it by chance in 1813.

Luxor's East Bank
A bustling market town built around the striking Luxor Temple with its courtyard and sanctuaries dedicated to the Theban gods. The Temple of Karnak also waits to be explored here. Travelling north from Luxor on the east bank bring you to Qena - The Temple of Denderah. The edifice was built in honour of the cow-headed goddess of love and happiness, Hathor. Although the shrine appears to be ancient Egyptian in design, the Romans in fact constructed it during their occupation of Egypt. Testament to this are the highly detailed reliefs in the Hypostyle Hall which depict the Emperor Tiberius in his role as pharaoh.

Luxor's West Bank
The location of probably the best known of Egypt's attractions: the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens as well as Hatshepsut's Temple. Embark on a journey through lush green fields into the desert with its brightly coloured houses ahead, then as you get closer, you'll notice black holes in the giant sandstone: these are the tombs, a magnificent site which must be seen to be believed. Also on the journey pass the Colossi of Memnon. There was no photography allowed in the Valley of the Kings (cameras were confiscated - one guy had his mbile phone taken by security claiming he was taking pictures on it!) and so the link is to a site containing information that may be of interest.

Nile Sunsets - One of my photographic pleasures is to get pictures of sunirises and sunsets wherever and whenever I can - I have a large collection from around the town, the country and the world. The sunsets along the Nile river were quite special in that they changed profoundly within minutes in the evening time.

The pictures here are a selection of the ones I took on our journey - Many of them contain minarets as they were mainly taken around the towns and villages we passed along the river.

The Medditeranean Cruise Holiday - July 2008

Lake Garda Italy - August 2007

The Medditeranean Cruise Holiday - July 2006

The first cruise..... and very different from ANYTHING we've done before.

We went to the local travel agent to book a weeks holiday in Lake Garda (Italy) - and came out with a week cruising the Mediterranean on the Thomson Destiny and a week "all inclusive" at the Platja D'or Hotel in Alcudia, Majorca............a place we've never thought of visiting in the past.

We have to say that the experience was wonderful, and we will do it again later...... We took about 600+ photos and the link on the left (Cruise Photos) is a small selection of them to give a flavour of the holiday......

We also found you cannot go far from Widnes on your own......... there were 6 Widnes couples or families on the same cruise!!!! it was a bit like home from home but with the sun shining every day. The weather was fantastic and reached highs of 40 degrees C in Florence and Rome - too hot for comfort really, but the Italian guys looked so cool in their suits, shirts and ties despite the temperature - what is that all about??

To top it all who arrived in Alcudia the day before us - Laura and Danny..........they booked long before us and it WAS just coincidence we ended up there - NO we were not chaperoning them.......... but it was great to meet up for a few nights for meals and drinks.

Sorrento, Italy - July 2005.

Irene has always harboured a desire to visit Italy (a bit of a change from France) and we decided on a short, week long break, to Sorrento before our trip to Norway for Christmas and New Year.

We embarked on the trip from Liverpool Airport and looked forward to an interesting new adventure to a different country. And it did turn out to be a most enjoyable holiday in many ways and a place in Italy that we will return to later............ ( P.S. - the photos in the link on the left are a small sample of the 600+ I took on the holiday - hope you get a good flavour of the holiday because it was really enjoyable)

Norwegian Christmas and New Year 2005

For my 60th Birthday we arranged to visit Kevin and Monica in Norway and to spend the time in the hytte (cabin) in Gullingen (the hytte overlooks Mosvatnet Reservoir). Irene, Claire, Laura, Paul and I flew in to Stavanger and stayed overnight before travelling up to the cabin via the ferry to Sand ( the nearest ferry port to the cabin). We arrived the day before Christmas Eve and our first job after settling in was to go to the local farmers house to join him for the horse drawn carriage trip into the forest to pick our Christmas tree. It was dark, cold and snowing - the only light being the carriage headlights as we travelled the track looking for a suitable tree. Armed with head torches, an axe and a saw (and plenty of warm clothing) we managed to find a suitable tree and a joint effort had it on the carriage with us for the return trip to the farm - What a very different start to a very different Christmas for us all, beats going to Delamere Forest every time!!