Winnipeg to Cairo - 25/26 October

Leaving Winnipeg on Monday.  George didn't take a very clear shot!  I think he was nervous to be in such good company.

We packed and headed to the airport.  Halfway to the airport, I remembered that I had not put enough shirts in.  I stopped and checked, and sure enough, only two shirts - how did I do that?  Well, too late to go home, so we zipped into Zeller's Polo Park and picked up a few more.  Then off to the airport, where we sat and waited for the plane to leave.

The flight to Toronto was smooth and pleasant enough, but there was a mechanical issue with the auxiliary power unit and we were a half hour late.  Getting off the plane, we heard last call for our connecting flight to London-Heathrow, yikes!  Dayna and I left the rest behind and made a dash for the gate.  It took us over 20 minutes of brisk walk to get there, and we knew that there were at least a dozen well behind us, including one lady in a wheelchair.  The folks at the gate assured us that they knew we were coming, and would wait.  I stood outside and waited, while Dayna got on the plane.  They all showed up without incident, although it took some twenty minutes more.  We wiped our foreheads and jumped on, and were off!

The flight to London was long but uneventful.  Most folks got some sleep; I just couldn't.  Pondering, thinking, wondering... and then we were there.

We got to sit for three hours and a bit in Heathrow.  Our next flight on Egypt Air, was posted as boarding at 14h45, but no gate number was put up until about 15h00.  By the time we got to the gate, the lineup was huge, but that was just to get into the gate lounge.  Another hour's delay in the lounge, and we were... oops, delay on the tarmac, and the slowest taxi out & takeoff I have ever seen. 

Even after all that, we were only 1/2 hour late getting to Cairo.  It was almost midnight by the time we got to our hotel, though - it's actually in Giza, Cairo's sister city across the Nile.  We're riding in a bus, and that's a good thing.  Driving must be quite the experience here - as our tour guide that night said, the lines on the road are just decorations - and he meant it!

After a full day's travel without sleep, we finally get to sit down in Le Meridien lobby

So we made it to Cairo, now staying at Le Meridien Pyramids.  Time to crash!