Day 13 & 14 - Thursday and Friday November 6 & 7, 2025 - On the way to Cairo
Thursday was a travel day, rising at 2 am with a 3 am departure for the Catania Sicily airport and our flight to Cairo. We had lunch because a hamburger sounded so good after all the Italian food we ate. Then the five hour wait for our flight from Rome to Cairo. The Rome airport is huge with shopping the number one priority. All high end. Dolce and Gabanna, Burberry, Omega, it goes on and on. It seemed like miles of shopping. In fact, I did 8,000+ steps inside the Rome airport. The Rome airport is much like London Heathrow. Your gate isn’t announced until approximately one hour before departure so it’s a bit of a crap shoot on where to settle and how long it will take to get to your gate. We arrived in the A concourse and had to walk to the E concourse. The Air Italia folks were nice enough to let us know that we would leave from E concourse so at least we could get that far. Then it was Gayes 1-61! Yikes. 61 gates. Where to settle while we wait?!!we settled on some comfortable seats outside the Omega watch store where in three hours only one couple walked in to look but didn’t buy. When the sign board announced our flight, we were only 14 gates away. A good crap shoot.
The flight arrived in Cairo at 5 pm, about a 3 1/2 hour flight from Rome. We followed all the Exit signs, in Arabic and English and were really pleased to see the Odysseys Unlimited representative waiting for us. Full of energy, Sam (for short) took us right to the line for our Visa. Odysseys suggested we buy it there at the airport rather than at home. They were right. We all know, money talks and here it is King. Just hand over $25 CASH US dollars only. No questions, nothing. Our representative said “they trust him”. And off we went scurrying behind Sam to Immigration.
On the plane we were given “Landing” forms, mandatory to complete in order to enter Egypt. At immigration, Sam handed them to the female officer who never looked at them! “They trusted him”. She stamped our passports and off we went scurrying again, running behind Sam to keep up. Luggage time! Most everyone was gone and we waited. My Tiles weren’t giving us current info. I couldn’t get it to update. So we weren’t sure if the luggage made it from Rome. Patience! And then the conveyor belched up our suitcases! Yeah! I will say, I had three days of shirts and underwear in my carry on. I knew Wayne doesn’t do that. Not my business.
Time to run again, behindsSam, who was pulling our three suitcases and Wayne’s heavy backpack. He wouldn’t let us carry them. Barge in front of the line. Yup! That’s what did and we followed. I wasn’t loosing him. He would stop and tell us to wait while he went off to get his badge or credentials somewhere and we were just happy to do so.
Then outside through a maze of humans. I couldn’t look back for Wayne as I had to keep my eyes on Sam.
Sam flagged down our van and driver and we were off for the craziest ride of our lives. I thought he would leave us with the driver but he jumped in with us. Amen! He spoke very good English.
The white lines on the roads mean ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Every vehicle straddled more than one lane including ours. Granted it was rush hour but the traffic! OMG. Horns honking, cutting in and out! No one cared if there was another car or person. Small motorcycles with two men, no taillights, weaving in and around other bigger vehicles. Most times, we weren’t inches and I’m not exaggerating, at best inches, from another vehicle. Then there were people on occasion crossing the road. The joke is always, just walk. Don’t make eye contact and let them see your indecision. Well that’s the rule of this land.
Then there were old beat up vans with three rows of seats, purely my guess, but these looked like they were taking groups of workers home. Crammed full of men, shoulder to shoulder. I don’t want to imagine the odor inside of the van.
An hour later we arrived at our hotel. We were told to have a seat and relax. Our guide checked us in and the bellhop took our metal detector screened luggage and us to our room. Huge room. Two queen size beds! A walk in shower! Amen!!!
No dinner. There was some airline food, not great, on the last flight but no need to eat. Sleep, needed.
Woke up this morning, first day without an alarm clock! Breakfast was typical hotel breakfast but with many many more items from the Egyptian diet.
We’ve been warned not to drink water unless bottled or filtered and told safe to drink, including ice cubes. The Hilton hotel water is safe and we’re here for four nights.
Some hotel pictures from this morning.
Our Hilton hotel entrance. Out comes the dog to sniff
Before I switch into Egyptian thinking entirely, I should draw closure on my Sicilian trip.
We saw some beautiful countryside and some interesting cities. Much of the interior of the country is mountainous and the country is full of lemon orchards. The food is Mediterranean and while we all think of pasta, our food choices, picked by Odysseys Unlimited were regional dishes from the specific area we were visiting. I ate eggplant so many different ways AND I DON’T EAT EGGPLANT. I can say that I do now. I found it easy to eat most of the food presented to us.
There was a lot more history than I knew on Sicily. The Greek and Roman antiquities we saw were quite amazing and I hadn’t expected to see that in our travels.
It’s really nice to have a tour director taking us from one place to another. I appreciate Odysseys Unlimited that much more for providing the quality guides. When they say they will perform, they do. I haven’t been left in a lurch. We’ve been able to enter venues with crowds as our tour director has pre-arranged tickets.
We’ve had some early mornings but all justified. When we fly in country, everything is taken care of.
If there is any negative on this Sicily trip, we needed more water on the buses. One bottle each is insufficient. We took some long walks and dehydrated without realizing.
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