Mentuhotep 2, Middle Kingdom founder

I want to start this report of our Kemet Club Middle Kingdom tour with an editorial note. These posts will be longer than usual, for several reasons: There was so much to see! Every day was packed with site visits. Visiting many of these sites was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity so I took LOTS of pictures. … Read more

Off to a Middle Kingdom Adventure

On Monday, December 1, 2025, I left my friends’ home in Cairo and flew to Luxor to join a tour group. This was an unusual undertaking for me: I’m allergic to package tours in general, and especially allergic to organized tours in Egypt. As some of you know, I fell in love with ancient Egypt … Read more

Ortisei – Seceda & Resciesa 

Before beginning the saga of our Friday adventures, a few words about where we are. The Dolomites are a southern extension of the alps located in northeastern Italy, lying between Austria on the north and east, and the relatively flat Veneto plain on the south. The area is dominated by fifteen massifs of 9,000-10,000 feet, … Read more

Munich and on to the Dolomites

In mid-September, 2025, we embarked on a three-week visit to three very different regions of Italy: South Tyrol in the Dolomites; the Ligurian coast, on Italy’s northwestern coast; and Umbria, in central Italy, northeast of Rome. We took the nonstop flight to Munich, leaving Denver at 8:20pm and arriving in Munich on Wednesday ~ 2pm. … Read more

Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM)

In November, I spent 2 weeks visiting friends in Cairo. Just before I arrived, the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) opened the majority of its galleries as part of a “limited access”  program “to test site readiness.”  This museum has been a loooong time coming. Conceived as a Hosni Mubarak vanity project back in 2002, … Read more