The Botanical Gardens

After Abu Simbel, we headed to our cruise ship, the lovely Lotus, where we had lunch. Then we headed out to "sea" again on a felucca boat ride to the Botanical Gardens. It was sweltering hot and there was no breeze, so our felucca was actually pulled along by a motor boat. The Botanical Gardens are on Kitchener Island, one of the 11 islands plus the mainland that make up Aswan. From the Botanical Gardens, you can look directly across the river to the hotel in which we had stayed the night before (note the tall structure behind Muzz). On the way, a couple of Nubian boys paddled up to our felucca using pieces of cardboard, hung onto the sides of the boat and sang us songs like "Frere Jacques" and "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" until we rustled up a little baksheesh and sent them happily on their way. The gardens were beautiful, but the signs were all in Arabic, so we didn't really know what we were looking at. I do, however, share a sign with you that you can figure out even without any Arabic in your lectionary :).