September 26, 2019 - Cairo

Once the plane has reached its cruising altitude, the feeding frenzy begins!  This will be about a nine-hour flight and the service is virtually non-stop.  First there’s the warm towel for your hands and face and a bottle of water.  Then there’s a snack with Cheez Its and Biscotti and a beverage of your choice, like red wine!

Then there’s dinner with three choices, the winner being seared rosemary chicken breast with truffled mashed potatoes, green beans, salad, roll and butter, two kinds of cheese and crackers, and a chocolate-chip blondie! There’s a quiet interval while people are supposed to be sleeping, before a turkey and cheese sandwich and a Michel et Augustin shortbread cookie with chocolate topping!

Another brief pause in the action and breakfast appears!  There’s yogurt, a peach muffin and more cheese, with a cup of orange juice!  Really!  Who can eat all that in nine hours?  Especially with no exercise except an occasional trip to the restroom!

OH!  I forgot to mention that Delta is now using biometrics to speed the boarding process.  A camera scans your face and matches it to your passport and you’re clear to board!  Mix feelings about that!

And there are the movies.  The best of the bunch was “Rocketman” with “How To Train Your Dragon” coming in a close second!  And “Fences” with Denzel Washington and Viola Davis is also superb.  I dipped into “Aladdin” and “The Secret Lives of Pets, 2” but didn’t get sucked in.

The young man sitting next to me is a PA in the navy with a wife, two kids, a newborn, and three dogs.  He’s being stationed in Italy and is in transit.  It’s costing him six thousand dollars to move his dogs, which the government won’t cover.  And, although they are paying for his wife and kids, he’s having to pay most of his costs, because he wanted to go home to San Diego to see his newborn before shipping out.  Unbelievable!

We land in Rome and learn that our gate is in the “E” area, but won’t assigned until 11:55.  That’s about an hour from now and only twenty minutes before boarding begins.  Juan checks with the Alitalia information desk and can’t get any further confirmation, so we have a seat and wait.  When the big reveal comes it turns out we’re really close to our gate and we head on down.  Once cleared we board a bus that takes us clear out into far left field where we find our plane and climb aboard.

Fun tails at the Rome airport

There’s a meal on this one, too!  But no video screens, so I’m glad I brought my kindle.  Lunch consists of a mixed-fruit cup, seasoned rice, three different sliders, and a mini apple pie. One of the sliders is seasoned cream cheese and a slice of beef.  Another is some kind of cheese frittata, I think, and the third is tuna and eggplant with a soft cheese.  Each is served on a different bread.  I think you could get wine with this, too, but water seems like the more intelligent choice.  Marilyn asks for two glasses and when I just ask for water, I get two glasses as well!  

Interesting note that accompanied the meal on Alitalia.

I ask the flight attendant what is in the slider on the orange bread and when he comes back with the answer (see above) he also has a new container with all three in it!  I was already pretty darn full;  but he was so sweet about it that I smiled and accepted it.  I ate the tuna and passed the other two to Ginger and Juan since Marilyn has already turned me down!

As our flight descends into the Cairo airport I can see vast expanse of light-colored sand with no vegetation - and I think I see a pyramid!  The total lack of the color green, or any other color for that matter, is a little difficult for this Florida girl to deal with!  Even in our temperature-controlled plane, you get hot just looking out the window!

In the Cairo airport

Our four-hour flight lands a little after five and we expect to have to do all the usual stuff before finding our “tour manager”.  We’re wrong!  He’s practically at the end of the gangway!  He takes our passports and takes care of all the visas and passport control, guides us to baggage claim, takes the larger suitcases for us and leads us outside.  It’s all done in a flash!  He shepherds another couple until they’re outside and meet their own tour manager, and he and his assistant wait with us for the Memphis Tours van to arrive.  All the bags are stowed and we head for our hotel, Le Meredien. The drive should take between an hour and an hour and a half, during which time Mustafa, answers our questions and asks us if we’d to go to a special dinner and the sound and light show at the pyramids tomorrow night.  We toy with the idea of going tonight but finally decide that it would be better for us all to get some rest and for Marilyn to get back on schedule with her medications.  

Photo ops everywhere, even when you can't stop and have to shoot through the windshield!

Lots of scooters and motorbikes.  I don't know what he's carrying!

Lots of these little guys, too.

Note the barricades.  It felt a little scary;  but apparently nothing was going on.

The drive is kind of harrowing!  It’s like driving in Bangkok!  The lanes aren’t even suggestions and victor goes to the most aggressive drivers.  At one point we take a shortcut and the street we’re on is narrow and dirty and lined with grubby shops and garbage.  And as we pass the oldest mosque in Cairo and approach the oldest synagogue, there are barricades and it looks kind of dicey. Mustafa gets out and talks to some guys and when he comes back we turn around and return to the six-lane bedlam!

Finally we make it to our hotel and oh my goodness it’s pretty grand!!  Mustafa takes our passports and gets us all checked in, and returns our passports (always a happy feeling!).  We’ll have a new guide tomorrow who will meet us at 7:30 in the lobby.  He’s got our photo, so he’ll recognize us!

There is a wedding party in the lobby have wedding photos done.  Gorgeous!!  And later we see another bride and groom.  This must be a popular wedding venue.

After getting settled into our adjoining rooms, the four of us go back down to see if we can use the ATM to get local currency.  Some of us are successful - two out of four!  

Everyone is feeling vegetable deprived and we all have a delicious Greek village salad filled with lots of veggies, and go back to our rooms for the night.

No wonder it took half an hour!  That's a lot of veggies to chop!

This is how close our hotel is to the Pyramids of Giza!  It's a "pinch me!" moment!