Time to unwind this one. Took a day and a half and three flights and two long layovers but we made it. Twenty one plus hours of tube time… Thirteen hours of layovers… Two of hours in cars…
We flew over some interesting territory, with all the news on the area I thought we would take a different path but no, all was routine.
We arrived in Dubai with 8 hours to burn, Emirates has a comfortable lounge and after a glass of champagne sleep came easily. Our path over the pole meant October 30th would have two sunrises and sunsets for us.
Kim started a timer on her iPhone when we got into the van in Hurghada and stopped it when we pulled up at our home in Santa Clara so we know our travel time.
This was a great trip, saw many bucket list items. We had many friends and family who reached out to check on us, thank you for your concern and thoughts. We were in Dubai when the issues in Israel broke out. It was of concern to us however after some quick research we decided to continue since Egypt seemed fine. I will admit I had a knot in my stomach when we landed in Cairo however the warm welcome of Mohamed Rabee (the first of many Mohameds) of Sita World Tours put us at ease immediately. This set the tone for the rest of our visit which went smoothly. Security is taken seriously in Egypt, there are guards and checkpoint everywhere. But this is life here and as long as you flow with it when you visit you will be fine.
Lots of people to thanks on this trip, for those looking for people to help in their travels these people and their agencys are recommended:
- Mohamed Rabee, Hamoudy and other Sita World Tours who met and moved us to where we were to be. As I said previously Mohameds friendliness upon our arrival set the tone for our time in Egypt.
- Guides Heba Amer and Mohamed Salah (and others) of Cosmos Egypt for sharing their knowledge, humor and patience.
- Deb Siegle of Come Travel Today with whom we have been working on this trip with since the beginning of this year. For a second year she has helped us go so far away we could not walk home. Thanks Deb!
With that this blog is wrapped.
