Arriving in Cairo

As we were preparing for landing in Rome, Cindy was digging in a little used part of her carry-on bag and found her phone and wallet. We guess that the battery was dead before she missed it since we called it several times while in the JFK airport the evening before. In any case, she was happy that she didn’t have to cancel credit cards and get her driver’s license and Global Entry cards replaced.

We arrived in Rome on time and found our way to our concourse for our flight to Cairo. They do not post the departure gate until 75 minutes prior to departure, so we waited in the general area after going for a walk around the airport. Our flight loaded quickly and made a departure only slightly later than scheduled. The small airplane was full and the seats were not as roomy as the larger aircraft that we took to Rome, but since the flight was less than 4 hours we didn’t mind much. The lunch that was served onboard was very good with a selection of soft cheeses on breads, fruit cups and sweet treats. They offered Italian wine that served a large tumbler at no additional charge.

Flooding in the streets of Cairo

On arriving in Cairo we were checked by the Egyptian Quarantine Team for the coronavirus. We had to fill out forms on our health history and where we have traveled recently. After passing through that we were met by the greeter from Road Scholars who took us through the process to purchase Egyptian travel visas. We picked up our bags quickly and made our way to the van that would take us on the 90-minute drive from the airport in Heliopolis to the Steigenberger Hotel on the west of Cairo. However, the rain and traffic in Cairo required a change in plans. Each year, Cairo gets 10 centimeters of rain. Seven centimeters of that rain fell in a three-hour period today. While traffic in Cairo is always a mess, being out during rush hour on a Monday when most streets were flooded was impossible. Cars and scooters were submerged, stalled and incapacitated making the problems even worse. Everyone constantly blows horns and weaves in and out of traffic with no regard for safety. Several times, pedestrians, donkey carts or scooters darted right in front of our van. It was amazing the police were mostly ignored and no one was moving.  We spent a lot of time just sitting in traffic or moving a less than five miles per hour. The 90 minute drive to the hotel in the Giza region of Cairo took well over four hours.

View from our hotel room

Upon arriving at the Steigenberger Hotel we were met by Eman Elmaleh, the trip director and Mohammad, the Cairo contact for Road Scholars. Both were very welcoming and helpful making sure that we were prepared for the days ahead. After getting into our rooms. we had dinner in the hotel dining room. The food was mostly Egyptian items, and we all found things that suited us. We were pleased that the buffet had a good variety and was well prepared but wasn’t obscene like some of the places we visited in China or Germany on other trips.  We chatted briefly with three ladies from Southern California who had also arrived late and were eating a late dinner in the Steigenberger dining area.

We turned in as soon as we got to the room and slept well since neither of us had much sleep the night before. We were very much looking forward to tomorrow when we will be visiting the pyramids and the Sphinx here in Giza.