MY WINTER RESIDENCE IN HOURGHADA EGYPT

For 10 years end November I have been staying for two weeks in this beautiful place just to get my energy  back which I would need for the winter. 

Now it's the third year I haven't been there and I really miss it. 3 years ago there  were travel agencies who went bankrupt and all flights to Egypt were cancelled, and the two last year it was impossible because we were all in lockdown. Maybe this year I could if there would be flights from Brussels, but everything is so unsure that I prefer to stay home. Can't go so far with a sick man at home. But I have my memories and so I just make a virtual holidays !

The hotel is quite big, but you don't have that feeling, it's cosy with many little corners to sit down in little groups and relax before supper

The highlight of this hotel is that it has a little bay which a bridge separates from the sea, ideal for people who can't swim, for children to play in the water and for handicapped people to sit down and push themselves in the seawater

it looks like a swimming pool but isn't and you can observe little colorful fishes swimming around and also those who clean your feet !

It's mostly very hot end November and the days start very early ! At 8 am the beach is already occupied because at 4 am it becomes dark and you have to leave.

and here we start our dailly "work"

The sand is soft and can get very hot

from far I can see Hurghada

Beautiful flowers everywhere which is amazing because it almost never rains, but the plants take the water they need from the ground

This was a welcome speach in a for me new restaurant on the beach

Each evening I found my bath towels folded into an animal or flower or funny human with my sun glasses and hat !

Each Wednesday was a fruit festival this time everything was in strawberries ! Delicious !

With drums and trompets the huge plates were carried over the bridge

A street in Hurghada

The mosque you could visit at certain hours

I discovered a new statue ! Hurghada has changed a lot in these 10 years ! from a little village with a few hotels it has become a diver's paradise and has extended more and more !

Here you get real organic vegetables which grow on the field of small farms.

I didn't know that area when we were on the way to the coptic church

and here it is,

after the visit of the church where women and men chatted together and  young couples were holding hands, we took our taxi back.

more participants here

A BALANCE FOR WEIGHT AND ANOTHER BALANCE

Fortunately I don't belong to women who climb on the balance every day to see if they have put on a few grams and then for a week go on diet to get rid of them. I am lucky, I eat what I want but it can happen that sometimes my jeans have "shrinked" ! Then I too check my weight and usually it's not grams but kilos ! Not a real drama, I make an apple cure, that means I eat only apples during the day, usually 6, for a few days and my jeans fit again.



Here on the beach you can watch women who I am sure if they step on a balance will break it. They would need to sit on two chairs because one thigh is as big as my two together. I wouldn't say anything, it could also be a disease but what is not nice at all to see is, that especially these women wear the most narrow bathing suits or even bikinis (I didn't even know that bikinis exist in this size) instead of wearing something large.

Some of them don't know their size either because usually they are too small so that you are afraid that the huge bosom would fall out of the bra in the next seconds. Not to talk about the rear view which shows more than you want to see. Sometimes I pity them, but when I see what quantities they eat only for breakfast, I think it would be enough for a normal person for the whole day !

A balance is dangereous for some people and a comfort for others, but finally at the end as long as everybody is happy and healthy the balance doesn't matter ! 




Temptations !

I also take the opportunity to update my holidays in Egypt.

I don't know what happened, but when I got up and went to the bathroom, I saw blood on the tiles. I looked at myself couldn't find anything, hadn't killed anybody, and finally realized that I had a cut  under my feet in the heel. I called my friend who came with disinfectant and a plaster. It hurts a bit when I walk and I have to tip toe on one leg. Finish to go to the beach because of the sand so I moved to the swimming pool.



That's very nice there too, I could observe what was going on, water checking and general checking by the manager, people laying in the sunshine or swimming.

When I got back to my room I saw some men from the personal busy with decorating the entrance hall of the hotel !



I greeted a Father Christmas in his slide and a man was busy with a huge light wreath, which later hang down from the ceiling.I am sure tomorrow they will work on a Christmas tree. Muslim or not, they had a lot of fun with doing it together with the guests. It was a real Christmas ambiance.



For supper we had international food, Chantal and Nicole look not so convinced, but it was very good a lot of choice and a nice supper.

Later in the evening for the first time I went with Nicole to see a show ! For once we were not so tired.



We waited for a South American dancing group



they were great ! and here I can talk  about another kind of balance ! Unbelievable !



The girls also performed dances which involved a lot of balance. We really had a nice evening.



More participants here Five Min Friday Balance

WEEKEND DECEMBER 1st

By the time the weekend arrived we had got used to our holiday "schedule" and almost every day is now the same. Surprising is that we are all very tired and go very early to bed between 9 and 10 pm. So far we haven't attended the evening shows. I have to say that they are always the same the last 3 years only the animation team changes and gets from bad to worse. The young people do their best but I think the clients are just too old for them.



This is our "winter home" already since 8 to 10 years. And still we get lost in the uncountable corridors. We would have needed a GPS the first days. This time Nicole and I are on the 2nd floor and Chantal on the 4th.



The view from the beach on Hurghada



The morning starts at 8 am, our French friend whom we had met a couple of years ago here in the hotel gets up at 6 to put beach towels on the beach beds otherwise we would get the worst places. Some people are even up at 5 !! and go to bed again. We have complained since years but it doesn't change. Then we have breakfast it is delicious such an enormous choice for all tastes and all countries. The fruits and vegetables have a real good taste, normal, but what we call today organic, or bio !



Then we start our work on the beach ! Swimming of course, chatting with the people in all languages or with hand and feet. A lot of people we know from previous years.



The newcomers are invaded by salesmen, selling cruises, diving courses, massages, etc etc. We know them and anyway we ask for a little red flag which is fixed on the the umbrella and which means "do not disturb".



There are also a lot of activities during the day, like here "Belly dancing" and "Zumba" but we vintage ladies declined the offer to participate. Poor old bones ! But it was nice to watch !



Nicole discovered her creativity on the beach and made with her feet these two "ladies", one with her sunglasses and one with her diving googgles.  I took a photo of the swimming pool and forgot my feet ! Looks like a still life.



There is also a man on the beach who does wonderful necklaces and bracelets. And they are so cheap for us. Nicole bought two and he gave me three for the same price, if I don't use them it can always be a Christmas gift.

After supper we visited twice Oscar the camel which is standing not far from the hotel. It stood first just besides the hotel but somebody had chased the poor man away. We bring apples, bread, bananas and other left overs to Oscar, who is very happy about our visits.



Oscar my holiday love !

RED SEA HOLIDAYS DECEMBER 12

A load of nicely tanned guests went away this morning and were immediately replaced by a load of pale faces. You can see that at the latest when they lay on the beach.

It's always interesting to watch people especially when they come from different countries and share a beach together. We know immediately if our neighbors are English because they are all tattooed. We couldn't find a single man  who wasn't. It went from a discrete tattoo to the nearly whole body, back, front and arms. Some of them looked as if they would wear a T-shirt ! The Germans are not tattooed not even the younger once or the girls. Depending on the age the tattoos look from ugly to awfully ugly.

As there are no Russians this year, everybody behaves very well and everybody is friendly. There was only one English "lady" who had put her crutches over the table, which looked a little strange because her husband had hardly space for his plates.



The animation team came into the restaurant to invite you for a sketch show. But seeing the pig ears and the outfits, Nicole wasn't inspired at all and me neither. Instead we spend a nice evening in the lounge.



There are also snooker tables, which I hadn't discovered yet



On my way to supper.



Around 11 each day a drink is served at the beach and an employee asks you if there is everything OK and if we have any complaints. Which we didn't have.



This morning I discovered this man who fills bottles with sand and creates fishes, camels or other designs with different coloured pigments which he mixes with the sand. He does it layer by layer and pushed the sand until you can see a fish or a dolphin. It takes him 4 hours to make a medium sized bottle ! It looks very pretty, but I have already one which Mr. G. had had made for me with a cat inside.



While sitting with my computer in the lounge, I discovered a new profession ! A fly catcher ! There was an employee standing at the entrance with a kind of tennis racket and hopped around to touch the flies with his racket which made a strange noise because it was a kind of electric chair for flies.

RED SEA HOLIDAYS, DECEMBER 10

The wife of the German couple which whom we often sit together, celebrated her birthday. Her husband had invited us, for coffee and cake. At 3 we met in the lounge and the waiters all sang "Happy Birthday" in Arabic ! and then in English !



They laughed and danced and it was really nice. The cake was offered by the hotel we found that really very nice.

We spent the evening in the cozy bar and listened to a young Russian female singer who also had a beautiful voice.

When I went down for breakfast I didn't see Nicole, but her bag on a chair, because there are 3 cats on it. I thought she was looking for her coffee and put my bag besides hers on the chair and also went for my coffee. When I came back, there was still no Nicole and her bag had disappeared. As there were a lot of newcomers yesterday I thought maybe somebody had taken it and put it on another chair as there was suddenly a woman who sat at this table.

I turned twice around the breakfast tables, still no Nicole. Suddenly looking out of the window I saw her walking to the beach. She had thought that I had overslept, hadn't seen my bag and prepared the beach beds. Having run around in circles, I was "exhausted" lay on my beach bed with a lunch interruption and left the beach at 3 pm. It's getting quickly dark, at four it's nearly night and then gets cool. For the first time in all these years I had to put the heating on !



"Bad weather" ! One little cloud in the sky !



At the entrance of each of the 3 restaurants there is now a little Christmas tree

RED SEA HOLIDAYS DECEMBER 7

Yesterday evening after a delicious supper, we went again listening to the life music in the bar. The young woman who sang had such a beautiful voice that Nicole was convinced that the song was just a play back and she faked singing !



Finally I asked the barman and to the big surprise of Nicole the girl really sang ! Even Whitney Houston, Madonna and Abba !

Today we had a very nice day because the wind had slowed down. The animation team took the opportunity and did aqua gym in the sea instead of the swimming pool.



I only watched the young man did it very nicely and the people had a lot of fun !



On the beach this young man makes necklaces and bracelets with the material and colours you can choose. All jewellery which is on sale he had made himself. Nicole found some nice things to buy for friends and family.

Now I am sitting here again in the lounge on the second floor, there are 3 in total. The singers always perform on the third floor. Days are flying by so quickly ! Tonight we want to see an oriental dancing show, if .... we are not too tired !