Middle East

by Nili Olay, New York, NY

I believe I was always meant to go to Egypt...

In 1998 I became interested in the Silk Road, so a friend lent me a book, “The Silk Road — A Novel of Eighth Century CHINA” by Jeanne Larsen. It was interesting for the places, the place of women and a bit of magical realism.

by Don and Betty Martin, Columbia, CA

Dear Globetrotter:
Welcome to the 355th issue of your monthly overseas travel magazine.

(Second of three parts)

Last month I talked about the upper age limit invoked by car rental suppliers. This month I would like to discuss other automobile rental and lease-related factors.

For people who like murder mysteries in exotic locales, here is a fun list.

Three friends and I booked a trip to Berlin for March 6-11, ’05, with Expedia (www. expedia.com). For $905 each, double occupancy, it included airfare, hotel and ground transportation.

We flew from the Washington Dulles airport to Frankfurt on United and connected with a Lufthansa flight to Berlin. We walked off the plane in Berlin to find our luggage on a carousel directly outside the gate, then walked through security to find our liveried driver outside the door and our new VW luxury van parked at the curb. We felt like VIPs.

Here are some restaurants that we enjoyed in Aswan, Egypt, Feb. 6-9, ’05.

Well, we finally did it, and I must say that there is not much of Egypt that we did not see! My husband and I, our son and daughter-in-law and our daughter and grandson started a 14-day independent tour of Egypt on June 24, ’04.

Our flights on Iberia Airlines were long, with very long airport layovers. In Madrid we had 10 hours, so we took the metro to the city and visited the Prado Museum. This was very easy to do, as our luggage had been forwarded to Cairo out of New York’s JFK and we stored our carry-ons in lockers provided outside the Madrid airport.

We asked those of you who have rented cars and driven in various countries to tell us which cities/countries you have found to be the worst in which to drive. (ITN prints no information about destinations in North America or the Caribbean.) We asked you to explain why you chose that city or country, if there are certain times/days/months in which driving is best avoided there, when (month/year) you were there and if you had any helpful tips for others.

We then asked which cities/countries were an absolute joy in which to drive.