As day twenty two dawned, we were getting ready to wrap up Egypt, and frankly, we were ready to move on. Lars and Anna were both experiencing GI problems, and all of us were just tired of of the dichotomic choice between being ripped off or constant argument with everyone we met. Our hotel in Giza was perfectly respectable and the only scammers in evidence were the in-lobby transportation company, so we figured we were safe if we just extended our stay for another day or two and hung out by the pool.
Unfortunately (but fortunately, in hindsight), the hotel had no availability for the subsequent days, so we needed to pack up and move on whether we wanted to or not. I worked the Internet looking for decent deals, which was a struggle given the terrible Internet connection (30% packet loss, latencies around 600ms, for my techie friends). After an hour of frustration, a good price on the Concorde El Salam, a four star hotel near the airport, turned up on Orbitz. On my first attempt, I booked it for the wrong days… despite the fact that we we planning to go straight there. That’s the level of fatigue that was going on. I got that sorted out and we opted to get taken one more time by the transport company in the Grand Pyramid Hotel’s lobby rather than dealing with taxis on the street.
The drive across town was uneventful but fairly long. But when we got to the Concorde El Salam, we knew it had been the right choice. It’s moderately large hotel, loosely in the Versailles style: a manor house with three wings surrounding gardens and a pool. It was spotless inside and, and I’m embarrassed to admit my complete glee here, very western. Sitting in the lobby, you could easily be in New York or Paris. Which was fine with us.
These days passed quickly, albeit with much lounging. We sat by the pool. We ate. That kind of thing. Lars recovered quickly from his GI issues (Cipro seems to have worked miracles), while Anna’s discomfort persisted. I spent too much money getting some laundry done, and I didn’t care.
Day Twenty Four was on us quickly. Anna and I would fly out of Cairo at 11:40pm, so it was still a full day of lounging. Lars would leave the next morning bright and early. We took it easy, sat by the pool some, and then had a good dinner at the hotel’s Italian restaurant. And then, with some hugs and goodbyes, Anna and I were off to Cairo airport for our 11:45pm flight which would arrive in Madrid at 3:30am. We’d have an eight our layover before leaving at 11:40am, so our plan was to hop out to Madrid proper rather than just sitting in the airport.