Welcome to the Phillip’s Egypt trip. This has been a real roller-coaster of a ride getting here. Here are the highlights…
- So we get to Orlando airport and everything is fine. I had to take my boot off for TSA but that was expected. We gave our gifts to the flight staff and they were VERY appreciative. They were so thankful, in fact, that when we were getting ready to leave they gave us a bottle of Prosecco as a gift.
- We arrived at Heathrow airport about 30 minutes early. There was adequate signage indicating that our terminal was going to be number 4 and we then had to go down to street level and wait for a bus that would take us to terminal 4. They packed us in like sardines and we drove around the airport, seemingly forever, zigzagging in and out of various lanes and routes narrowly avoiding getting hit at nearly every turn. Honestly, I was just happy to be alive when we reached our destination.
- While walking around, there were several signs explaining that we had to bag about everything that was under 100ml for some things and 50ml for others, not just liquids. So this included medications, lip balm, stick antiperspirant and anything that was given to us by the previous flight. They also made us remove ALL electronic devices (something that we had gotten used to not doing with global entry).
- After finally getting through security, we went up to the the terminal concourse to see if there was some shopping available, and I wanted a decent cup of coffee, we followed our standard habit of checking for our gate and found out that they wouldn’t announce the gate until about 20 minutes before boarding. It wasn’t what we were used to, but not the worst thing either. The shops were about the same thing we get in the states, high priced and international name brands.
- We got on our plane at Heathrow without further incident and gave our gifts to the flight staff there. They were also very appreciative and thanked us for the thoughtfulness. That flight seemed like it was about 10 minutes long though it was more like 30 minutes.
- We arrived at Charles De Gualle airport we were very tired but more relaxed since the short layover and Heathrow was the leg of the journey we were most worried about. It was a little challenging finding the correct gate but Terecia was on her game and, despite my best efforts to help, she found our gate. We had to got through the same thing as Heathrow with the liquids, electronics, and checks, except this time they determined that my medical scissors was a safety concern and kept them (whatever, jerks…).
- We went into the shops and picked up a few things and then just decided to wait at our gate as we were getting pretty tired of the nomadic nature of airports. That is when the gate roulette began. As we were waiting, we would periodically check the incoming flight status. We noticed about 20 minutes after setting that our gate had changed from L53 to L22. L22 was the other side of the terminal. We packed up and went to L22. 30 minutes after that we overheard some people talking about a gate change and, sure enough, it had changed again to L45. We talked about it with the other people and decided to walk together to L45. She was a very nice lady visiting her homeland again. She was elderly and traveling with her son. We went to L45 and waited there for about 2 hours when her son got up to check and found out that our gate had changed again to L24. We trekked back down to L24 and waited the rest of the time until boarding.
- Boarding this plane was a chore in itself because even though our gate was L24 the plane wasn’t there. We had to get on a bus that was so crowded it made us wish for the Heathrow bus again. This bus ride was even more aggressive and it drove us good ways way from all terminals (about a 15 minute ride) and onto the tarmac where we had to climb a set of stairs to board a 777-300. this was a huge plane and they were still fueling it when we were boarding. We got to our seats and were just happy to be alive after the bus trip. The rest of the flight was fine but nothing special. That crew was also very appreciative of the gifts and reciprocated with some small gifts for us as well.
- By the time we reached Cairo airport we were exhausted but happy that everything worked out and we had some new adventures to tell back home. We purchased our visas and went to the airport side without issue. We hadn’t walked 15 feet when we were first approached for a tour purchase. We explained that everything was pre-arraigned and that was that, easy and no real hassle. Terecia waited for the checked luggage and I went to get some Egyptian pounds since that is about all that is accepted when shopping.
- It pays to do some research beforehand about currency especially in a country like Egypt. I got a fair amount to start with and when I was checking my pockets I couldn’t find my wallet. So I quietly had a private meltdown while the bank teller was explaining about the exchange and amounts. I still don’t have a clue what he said but I nodded and he gave me the money. I walked over to the baggage carousel and happened to see our bag come out as I’m running through the last 20 minutes in my head trying to figure out where I set my wallet down. Terecia saw me and I grabbed our bag. I whispered in her ear about my wallet and she had a couple of opinions. We found a bench and I checked my backpack and realized that I had slipped it in my backpack when I was putting the locks on. It doesn’t pay to travel for more than 30 hours at a clip. You get forgetful and it is hard to focus.
- Now that the entry into the country was figured out, getting the money was figured out, finding my wallet was figured out, and getting the checked luggage was figured out. We just had to activate our e-sim cards and connect with the driver to get to Novotel so we could get some sleep. That was harder than it seemed and we ended up just using one of the travel passes from verizon. We decided to just call an uber and pay them to take us there because we were having a hard time navigating the shuttle service prompts. Our Uber was going to be $122.50 EGP ($3.96 dollars). He was there quickly, very friendly, helpful and kind. I gave him a generous tip and we went in to get our room. I’ve never been happier to see a place that wasn’t my home before.
- We got to our room and after a short unpack of essentials we slept like the dead.