Brenda and I met the tour group at First Baptist Church at 9:00 a.m. We took the church bus to the St. Louis airport. We got all checked in and through security with no problems. Since we had about an hour before the plane started loading, we grabbed some breakfast. When we met up with everyone at the gate, we found out the plane was delayed- instead of flying out at 11:54 a.m., we were now scheduled to take off at 1:30 p.m. After finally boarding the plane, there was a broken seat that had to be fixed so we didn't actually take off until 2:30 p.m. (about 2 1/2 hours late). Our 3 hour layover in Chicago was dwindling down... no time to eat lunch at O'Hare. Good thing we had grabbed breakfast in St. Louis! After landing in Chicago, we took a quick restroom break and scurried to a different concourse. Upon arrival there, we were told that instead of leaving at 3:48 p.m. we weren't scheduled to leave until 4:55 p.m. They had to board 300 passengers so we didn't take off until 5:35 p.m. Brenda was seated several rows behind me. I was sitting with total strangers. Brenda was able to ask some others if they would mind switching seats and came and sat with me. After taking off, the flight attendants came by the pretzels and drinks. The plane we were on was huge! It was 8 seats across. Each seat had its own TV monitor so we could watch TV or movies. There was even a cup holder beside the monitor (nice not to have to have your table down for the drink!). The restrooms on the plane were downstairs. Both Brenda and I watched "Australia". Dinner came during the movie: chicken, rice, a roll, some type of coconut dessert. We shared... she ate my rice and I ate her roll. After dinner we finished watching the movie and then slept - well, I tried to sleep, Brenda was asleep as soon as she closed her eyes.
Tuesday, March 3rd:
They served us breakfast at 6:30 a.m. Frankfort, Germany time BUT it was only 11:30 p.m. our time. I felt like we had just eaten dinner! This day was going to be difficult due to the 8 hour time difference. I was hoping I could sleep some on the flight from Frankfort to Cairo. I was so tired- we were up for the day and it was only midnight back home. Breakfast was a small bowl of fruit, a piece of cheese, a granola bar, and some type of bread and jelly. We finally landed in Frankfort and had to walk quite a distance to get to the next gate. Before going through security, Brenda and I browsed a few shops, bought, wrote and mailed some postcards. We then went through security, got on a bus that took us out to the airplane. We took off just about on time- 10:05 a.m. I once again had to sit with strangers but decided not to try to switch seats since it was only a 3 1/2 hour flight. I watched a movie - "The Women". They served us drinks and pretzels and then lunch: beef goulash, coleslaw, a roll, a tiramasu type dessert, and a candy bar. I didn't eat much - not very tasty! I slept for awhile until we landed in Cairo, Egypt. After landing in Cairo, we got our Egypt visas that were put in our passports. We then had to go through "passport control". We all then needed a restroom break. You had to pay a gal in the restroom in order to get toilet paper and then to get a paper towel - wow!!
Then we got onto the bus for our 1/2 hour drive to the hotel. It took over 2 hours - they have the worst traffic in Cairo!!! No traffic lights work, they ignore lane lines, everyone just does and goes where ever they want! Amazing!! Our tour guide, Hala, gave us a lot of interesting tidbits about Egypt on our 2 hour drive to the hotel. She also told us to only drink bottled water and not to eat lettuce or parsley.
After getting meal instructions, we went to our rooms to get settled in. We are staying 3 nights at the Hilton Pyramid Resort - it was great! The rooms were very nice. Ours overlooked the pool area. We met the rest of our group for dinner at 7:00 p.m. It was a buffet dinner and they had just about anything anyone could want: a variety of salads, over a dozen types of breads and rolls, make your own pasta dish, and slew of desserts. We sat around for awhile talking after dinner with Greg and Kris. Then Brenda and I went through a few of the shops at the hotel and walked around the grounds for some exercise. We were in bed before 10:00 p.m. (6:00 a.m. our normal US time).
The second stop of our day was the Sunnyside Manor. Once again the guides were dressed in period clothing.
After the lantern tour, we stopped at the Eldorado Diner to get some dessert to go. They ended up not being very good - very disappointing. We headed back to the Super 8 in Nyack for the night.