Trip Egypt 2026
Thank you for joining us on this 2026 pilgrimage to Egypt, and a few days in Jordan. Below you will find daily entries from the sites we see and the people traveling to these ancient sites. Almost all are from St. Luke Lutheran Church in Spokane, WA. Pr. Jim has organized this pilgrimage with Elias Tours and is co-led with his good friend Pr. Mike Brose from Crosswalk Community Church in Spokane. There are a few relatives of members who are attending, but otherwise it is all St. Luke folk. As we travel we especially keep Terry and Carol O’Leary in our prayers. The O’Leary’s were suppose to be part of this group but had to cancel the week before we left due to health concerns for Carol. We also keep our brothers and sisters from St. Luke in prayer as we are grateful to be part of a Christian community where this faith is lived out. We hope that you all will enjoy the sites and insights along with us. Blessings from Egypt and Jordan – your sisters and brothers in Christ.
Tuesday, February 3, 2026
Today was our last day seeing sites. Tomorrow (at 2am) we leave for the airport and begin the long journey home. I’m a little embarrassed say “long” when we just went on a pilgrimage marveling at the Israelites wandering in…
Monday, February 2, 2026
Today was mostly a travel day by bus from Petra to Amman. We’re nearing the end of our journey, but along the way we saw two sites important to the Judeo-Christian faith. First we stopped at Madaba where there is…
Sunday, February 1, 2026
Today we visited Petra – one of the 7 Wonders of the World, and one of the most spectacular days on our journey. Yesterday was a travel day so I didn’t post anything from it. We left early by bus…
Friday, January 30, 2026
12 of our group left in the middle of the night for home. 31 of us are relaxing on a day off at the beautiful resort in Sharm El Sheikh at the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula enjoying a…
Thursday, January 29, 2026
I skipped blogging yesterday because it was a travel day. We got up at 4am to fly from Aswan to Cairo and then take a “5 hour” bus ride that takes 7 to St. Catherine’s Monastery at Mt. Sinai. We…
Tuesday, January 27, 2026
Our Nile River time has come to a close. Today we visited the Philae Temple in Aswan (the furthest south in Egypt we are visiting. The Philae temple was submerged after they built the old damn in 1902 but unearthed…
Monday, January 26, 2026
Today was very relaxing. We skipped the Temple of Horus at Edfu because we would have had to get up at 6am and join thousands of people off the dozens of ship all at the same time. Our guide convinced…
Sunday, January 25, 2026
Half of our group (those who need to be institutionalized) got up at 4am to go on a hot air balloon ride over/near the Valley of the Kings at Luxor this morning. The rest of us sane people went and…
Saturday, January 24, 2026
We started our day early today. We were up by 5 and went to the Cairo airport to depart for Luxor. It wasn’t a long flight, but between airport chaos and herding cats, it wasn’t a short adventure. We went…
Friday, January 23, 2026
Today we experienced our second and last day in Cairo. We began by visiting two Coptic Orthodox Churches. The first Church (the Hanging Church) is the oldest church in Egypt dating back to the 6th Century. The second, near by,…
Thursday, January 22nd, 2026
Our first day of site seeing. After a two day journey to get here (arriving with our luggage in our rooms about 3am last night), we started off with a bang – visiting the great pyramids of Giza in Cairo,…