Oct 28-30: travel to Egypt, settling in

We headed out from the Trouts to George Bush International at 4pm on Oct 28, it took 1.5 hrs for the 45 min drive (thank you Houston rush hour).  Had a nice visit to the United lounge (a perk of flying business class on Turkish Airlines).  Took off an hour late at 9:30pm due to "technical issues" with the plane.  The business class seats were really nice, they were little pods that allowed the seat to recline horizontally into a "bed", though with the noise and constant turbulence during the flight, sleeping was difficult.  Included in the pods were a small table, lights, and connection ports.


Arrived in Istanbul 11 hours later, immediately boarded the connecting flight to Cairo, which got off to a rough start pre-takeoff because of a passenger violently ranting about a bag that was in the baggage compartment containing $5000, and he had to have it, so the flight was delayed while they fetched it.  We were extremely well fed on both flight, lots of fish and other healthy food.  We were met at the airport by the Abercrombie and Kent rep as expected, customs was easy, and we had a shuttle through downtown Cairo and Giza to the Marriott Mena Hotel, one of the largest in the country.  We got to observe an Egyptian wedding on the grounds last night, and there is another tonight.


We have a "pyramid view" room, here is what we see off our balcony, after a rare rain last night:


 

It is pretty unbelievable that what we're seeing is the real deal. In fact, there is another pyramid to the side of this one (can barely see the peak in the upper right hand corner of the above picture).

We're intending to go to a "Sights and Sounds Show" at the pyramids tonight (Oct 30), it is the one that you can see in the James Bond movie "The Spy Who Loved Me".  We met our tour director Walid (who attended high school in Osborne, Kansas), he's a big shot in the Egyptian tour industry, and has given tours to such folks as John Travolta, Ferrel Williams, Morgan Fairchild, and Samuel Jackson. 

The arrival of Jerry, Maria, Stephen and Sarah Howell, and Gavin Trout is expected imminently, they are flying in from Oman, having spent 4 days touring Oman and Jordan.



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