Friday, 20 April. We were up at 4:20 and had to put our luggage out right away. We were at breakfast at 4:45 and on the bus at 5:35. Someone couldn't find a passport, though, and we were delayed 20 minutes while the search (unsuccessful) went on. Even so, we were at the airport at 6:20 in plenty of time for our 7:45 flight. The flight was half an hour late anyway.

We got to Cairo at 9:40 but again had a long luggage delay at the airport and didn't get to the Marriott Hotel until 11:40. While we waited for our room, I went to the ATM to get Egyptian money for the final tips. (Contrary to what we'd been told, we never had access to an ATM all the time we were on the cruise.) By the time I got back to the lobby, our room was ready. This time we were in the Gezira Tower with a huge patio and a great view of the Nile. We went to the hotel's outdoor Garden Promenade Cafe' for a leisurely lunch (with very slow service), finishing after 14:00.

Back at the Marriott in Cairo

View of the Nile from our patio

Lunch in the Garden Promenade Caf'

We went back to our room to rest and do a little final packing. Our group met for a farewell drink and final goodbyes at 17:30. Afterwards we had dinner with another couple in the hotel's Ristorante Tuscany. By the time we finished at 20:30, the outdoor air was pleasantly cool. We had still another early departure in the morning and retired early.

Saturday, 21 April. We were up at 5:00, put our luggage out and went to our last breakfast buffet in Egypt. We were on the bus at 6:15 and gave Salah his tip then. We were at the Cairo airport by 7:00. The lines were terrible; it took us 75 minutes to get through. Our 9:10 flight was only about 20 minutes late in pulling away from the gate.

The flight was not uneventful. A man from our group became seriously ill when we were in mid-ocean and died shortly after. (He had been quite ill even before this trip and had spent most of the time in his room or cabin. We'd eaten dinner with him once on the ship, and he was the first person to tell us about the tragedy at Virginia Tech, where 32 people were murdered.) When we landed at JFK about 15:15, we were told to remain seated while the Port Authority police boarded the plane. Then we were allowed to debark a few rows at a time to avoid having anyone wait in line next to the body.

Jane and I had a long layover until our 19:00 United flight to Washington Dulles. That gave us plenty of time to get something to eat. We got to Dulles around 20:40. Our son, Joseph, met us and drove us to his home in Culpeper. After a brief visit we drove home to Massanutten, arriving near midnight.

Observations: Possibly our biggest surprise on this trip was how comfortable we felt among the Egyptians. As noted in the Introduction to this journal, we had been scared off by terrorist activities for several years. Even before that, in our only previous trip to North Africa (Morocco 1972), we found some rather unpleasant aspects, especially the aggressive beggars. On the other hand, we'd felt no discomfort among the Muslims of Bosnia (1971) or Turkey (1973 & 1995).

We didn't see any beggars in Egypt, but there certainly were aggressive vendors - around every tourist site. They were almost as annoying, but at least were trying to earn a living, perhaps even performing a service. (Many tourists bought from them.) They were also limited to specific areas. And there were many people looking for baksheesh, but they too were mostly limited to predictable places.

In general, though, the Egyptians seemed to be a more cosmopolitan and tolerant society than we expected. One writer speculated that they may have grown used to different peoples after millennia of being overrun by wave after wave of invaders: the Assyrians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans, the Crusaders, the Arabs, the Turks, the French, and the British. I would think that might cut both ways. And so would their understandable pride in their celebrated civilization and long history as a people.

Whatever it is, I felt comfortable enough to go for a long walk by myself in downtown Cairo and shorter walks from the boat when we docked along the Nile. Outside of Cairo (probably as blase' as most big cities), the residents smiled and waived at us like they were genuinely glad to see us. I didn't notice a single hostile look. They probably realized the benefits of a thriving tourist industry.

And thriving it is! The number of tourists already seems to be overwhelming the infrastructure needed to service them. Yet Egypt is trying hard to increase tourism. Some improvements in infrastructure could be made to expand capacity, but there are other areas where little can be done. Abu Simbel comes to mind as an attraction where visitors already exceed its reasonable capacity, and nothing can be done to increase it. The locks on the Nile at Esna are another bottleneck. They might be improved (I'm not sure), but even if that's possible, the cost probably would be prohibitive.

And something should be done about those ubiquitous vendors at tourist sites. Their excessive numbers are not only annoying, but probably result in lower sales overall. We, and almost everyone else in our tour group, made a point of rushing past them as fast as possible because, if you slowed down or stopped to talk to one, a dozen others would swarm around you, blocking your escape. The same problem kept us from looking at the goods displayed in the many stands that lined the entrance/exit paths. A seemingly simple solution would be to license the roaming vendors to control their numbers. In addition, even licensed roaming vendors should not be allowed within so many meters of any stand.

In spite of such annoyances, though, this was a wonderful trip, both enjoyable and educational.