No, being away from the sand didn't stop the bites as we had to walk across it (albeit on top of the concrete) to get to the pool or buy cold drinks. More bites had appeared on our feet. As the older bites started to reduce, we looked like we had a communicable disease afflicting us. Not nice.
Nonetheless we got ready for our visit to the temple and off we went. About 20 minutes of walking next to the Nile, admiring the Nile Cruise boats, brought us to the temple. Whilst Trevor was buying the entrance tickets, I noticed a funny little sign above the kiosk. Notice it? 
Why do you think they charge for tripods?????
So off we went inside to be greeted by a magnificent entrance.
And we wanted to give you some perspective of just how big this is.
You have to play "Where's Wally" to find Trevor in this one! Isn't it just so impressive. 
The restorations have been done in the temple to highlight where they are so that you can clearly see the temple and where it has been put back together.
The remaining hieroglyphics are incredible - so very, very clear. Also where later Christian civilisations 
plastered over the temple to make it their own.
And where Greek graffiti (as in Luca) is evident even from that long ago.
In front of the temple, the Avenue of Sphinxs stretches ahead of you for 100m and is impressive but can you imagine what it must have been like in ancient times when it stretched across the city to link the Luxor Temple up with the Karnak Temple?? Wow. There are plans being discussed at the moment to restore the avenue in its entirety. I'd love to see it finished.
We left the Temple behind and decided to try and find the souk where the locals shop (and not the horrid place where tourists go and where touts pester you constantly). Leaving the Temple, we started to walk back towards Rezeiky Camp and found a road that splits off to the right not far from the temple. Many locals were on this street and very few carriages so we thought we'd try it and see where we ended up. A great choice, Trevor! Just around the corner we dropped into shopping heaven. No touts, local people, local food and cool crowded avenues of produce with stallholders good-naturedly shouting their prices to compete with neighbouring stalls. We wandered through there for another 2 hours, talking to locals and joking around with them, drinking fresh mint tea pushed into our hands (no charge) and eating fresh falafel pitas with firey hot pickles that cost us the massive sum of EP1 each (10p to those of you at home!).
As I had decided that it would probably be cooler and more comfortable to wear a dress (yes, folks, me in a dress) I went on the hunt for some galibeyas and bought 2 for the princely sum of EP35 each - haggling with the storekeepers and seeing their delight when eventually I caved in at a more than good price for them and a great one for me. Hands were shaken, money exchanged, more mint tea consumed and we all went off happy.
