Saturday, January 28, 2006
The Grand Tour continues
Anne and I haven't done too badly on the travel stakes over the years ... New York, Amalfi, Paris, Florence, Rome ... and on those travels we've seen some of the finest Egyptian collections in the world. Now it was time to see where they all came from (and belong) with a 10 day tour of Egypt courtesy of small group specialists Explore.
We met at Heathrow terminal 3 for a very civilised flight at 2pm, most disappointed by the airport experience, not nearly enough queuing and I shall be complaining to BAA shortly. The flight with Egyptair was uneventful and as pleasant as 5 hour flights can be ... plenty of leg room, nice seats and decent food - so a good start all round.
On arriving at Cairo we were suitably organised by the tour leaders and dispatched to our hotel "The President" in the district of Zamalek. Not quite the ideal start as it turns out the coach can't actually get outside the hotel due to the narrow streets and so we have to walk the final few hundred yards ... which would have been fine if we hadn't had to bring all our luggage as well - and let's just say the streets weren't in the best of condition and you practically needed climbing ropes to scale the kerbs. Still, hooray for cases with wheels ... anyone without was definately suffering.
Equally efficient organisation at the hotel where the 23 of us were checked in remarkably efficiently. Quick sandwich and beer before retiring ... little did we know that the accompanying aubergine dip was possibly the most authentic food of the trip!
As for the hotel - well it won't win any 5* awards, but it was perfectly tidy and clean and served well for the 2 nights we were there.
We met at Heathrow terminal 3 for a very civilised flight at 2pm, most disappointed by the airport experience, not nearly enough queuing and I shall be complaining to BAA shortly. The flight with Egyptair was uneventful and as pleasant as 5 hour flights can be ... plenty of leg room, nice seats and decent food - so a good start all round.
On arriving at Cairo we were suitably organised by the tour leaders and dispatched to our hotel "The President" in the district of Zamalek. Not quite the ideal start as it turns out the coach can't actually get outside the hotel due to the narrow streets and so we have to walk the final few hundred yards ... which would have been fine if we hadn't had to bring all our luggage as well - and let's just say the streets weren't in the best of condition and you practically needed climbing ropes to scale the kerbs. Still, hooray for cases with wheels ... anyone without was definately suffering.
Equally efficient organisation at the hotel where the 23 of us were checked in remarkably efficiently. Quick sandwich and beer before retiring ... little did we know that the accompanying aubergine dip was possibly the most authentic food of the trip!
As for the hotel - well it won't win any 5* awards, but it was perfectly tidy and clean and served well for the 2 nights we were there.
# posted by The Guv'nor @ 12:26 PM 
