Day 8 Egypt - Red Sea

We spent the day today at our resort hotel at Taba on the Red Sea. This was a resting day and not a sightseeing day.   We decided to do an extra excursion--snorkeling.

The highlight of the day was a boat trip out to an island to so some snorkeling. We could see Israel, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia from the boat.

 This island had a fortress on it built by King Saladin, the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria.  He led the Muslims in fights against the crusaders and fought many battles against Richard the Lionhearted.  At the end they became friends.

 There were coral reefs around the island and that's where we got to do the snorkeling.

 A view of the coral there and some colorful fish. This is not a picture we took and the colors were not as bright as this, but it was great. 

We even saw some elusive Lion Fish.

 A view of the Red Sea from the back of our boat.

 The beach and a camel at the life guard station by our hotel.

Sunrise on the Red Sea.  This is the view from the balcony in our room. The buffet food at this hotel was also good, but not as great as at the other hotel and the ship.