Day 16
Today we said “goodbye” to all our new friends in a parting of the ways ceremony full of hugs, tears, reminisces, best wishes and more hugs, except for our bemused octogenarian priest Father Ed. As I approached him, he shook my hand and said, “I’m Ed, who are you?” So on that note, Father Wim, Maria and I headed off along the path we had taken every morning this week to the station, where our train to the airport was fittingly delayed. When it did finally turn up we gained a new appreciation for the term, “a tin of sardines”, as we headed for the airport. With the experiences of leaving Israel and the lines at St. Peter’s Square fresh in our minds, we set ourselves for a lot of queuing. Then we blinked, (just like three Barbara Eden’s without the skimpy harem costumes), and were magically at our gate enjoying a coffee and a pastry with oodles of time up our sleeves.
The flight to Egypt was pleasant, smooth and uneventful, the only highlight being the Pyramids, which I caught a glimpse of just before we landed in Cairo. As soon as we got off the plane we were met by a guy holding a sign with our names on it, who identified himself as Ali Cappuccino. Even now I don’t really know what he does or how to describe his role? At a pinch I’d say he was possibly airport liaison. Anyway he was very pleasant and proud of his coffee making abilities. As we were waiting for our baggage, the self styled Wizard Barista of Cairo spent a fair bit of time showing us photos of all the successful Cappuccinos he’d recently made. Then, as soon as we had grabbed all our bags off the carousel, he whisked us through customs and out to our transport quicker than he could froth the milk for one of his signature coffees.
As we drove to our hotel, Ali Cappuccino tapped out and disappeared somewhere along the highway (I guess because we had left the airport we no longer needed an airport liaison officer), and his doppelgänger Kareem Degenerous appeared from nowhere, and took over as travel liaison officer. He also informed us that we are the only people on the tour.
We checked in at the Intercontinental hotel and went to dinner where we met (the Egyptian equivalent of a boy named Sue), Hanna, who according to all the Google reviews for the hotel’s restaurant, is the greatest maître d' in Egypt. “Wow”, we thought, “pretty impressive”, until we finished dinner and he insisted we post an online review, then grabbed each of our devices in turn and completed the reviews himself.
We then went for a stroll down to the river and discovered that the only road rule in Cairo for both traffic and pedestrians is that there are no rules.
Apparently they are building a new Capital City and it is said that it will have a whole bunch of progressive novel concepts like pedestrian crossings, traffic lanes, and indicators for cars. After surviving several near death experiences we decided to call it a night.
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