Egypt February 2-17, 2025 |
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Monday, February 17, 2025 - DepartureWe had just eaten our breakfast boxes from the hotel, so we weren't really hungry for anything at the lounge, but I did get us each a cookie from the buffet. Craig asked an attendant where the rest room was, and the attendant offered to show him. While Craig was following him, he lost his balance. Luckily, the attendant was nearby and grabbed his arm to prevent him from landing in an unsuspecting traveler's lap. His legs were just really weak and he was incredibly overtired. He had powered through the trip on adrenaline, but two weeks of non-stop activity were finally catching up with him. The attendant waited for him to be finished in the rest room and walked him back to his seat. Everyone we had encountered in this trip was so attentive, polite, and helpful. The hospitality that we experienced in Egypt was truly off the charts.Our Lufthansa flight at 1:45 a.m. didn't really have a business class; they just sat everyone with business class tickets at the front of the plane and gave each pair three seats. We did our best to get some sleep, and we didn't have any food when it was offered. We landed at 5 a.m. in Frankfurt. We were helped by a Croatian wheelchair attendant named Frano. He has a cousin who has MS, so he knows what it can be like. He was very kind and very good at his job. His English was fantastic and he was very well spoken. We told him that he seemed extremely overqualified to be pushing wheelchairs at the airport. He said that he had several degrees, but had emigrated from Croatia during a time of instability. As an immigrant to Germany, did not have the opportunities that he would have had he stayed. He said that he is thinking of returning to his homeland now that things are more stable there. Frano helped us through security and took us to the lounge. In the lounge, we enjoyed orange juice, eggs, cheese, sausage, granola, yogurt, cookies, and brownies. We had not had real sleep for 26.5 hours, and it was taking its toll on Craig. That boulder was finally catching up with Indiana Jones. His legs were unsteady and his balance was a little off, but we were sure that all he needed was a good night's sleep in his own bed! We boarded our flight for our 10:55 a.m. departure. This flight had lay flat business class seats, and we were quite comfortable. We were toward the back of business class, so they ran out of some of the food options before they were able to serve us. We had Bailey's to drink. We both wanted the tuna appetizer (we don't usually like having seafood on planes, but this sounded too good to pass up). But they ran out of tuna, so we had duck instead. That was fine; the duck was really good. Then for the main course, we had braised beef goulash. For dessert we had chocolate hazelnut cake with cherry compote. Then we tried to get some sleep. We laid flat and slept for about 2 hours. This was the first time ever that Craig has been able to sleep on a plane. He knows he slept because he actually had a dream. Then it was time to eat again. They only had one serving of potato dumpling left, so I got that while Craig got salmon. Again, fish on a plane is not normally our preference, but the salmon turned out to be delicious. He had a Kölch beer, and we had ginger ale and Sprite. For dessert we had chocolate mousse. After a long day of travel, we were finally over North America and getting ready to land in Boston. We have to say that it was one of the scariest aircraft landings we've ever experienced...50 knot winds in Boston caused two aborted landing attempts. Just as we were about to set down, the engines roared and we went up at a very steep angle with thrusters blaring as if we were taking off. Everyone in the plane was absolutely silent. We circled around and then re-approached, and just as the rear landing gear touched down, we lifted off again. Luckily, like this Egypt trip, the third time was a charm and after another circle around the city, we touched down safely! I must admit that my heart was in my throat. It was quite scary. We were happy to be safely back on solid ground. By the time we finally landed, we were about 45 minutes late (2 p.m.) We went through immigration, picked up our luggage, and took a taxi home, arriving around 3 o'clock. Once home, my dad called me. He had been tracking our flight on Flight Aware, which had reported that our plane had landed, and then refreshed to say that it was back in the air again. We recounted the story, and I wrote about it on Facebook/Instagram. I got a message from a friend asking if we had seen the news out of Toronto. Just 15 minutes after we had finally landed, the same wind storm had caused a plane to flip over as it landed in Toronto. And their winds had only been 35 knots. Luckily, nobody died as a result of the incident, and the injured were all discharged from the hospital within 4 days. EpilogueAfter returning home, we wanted to continue learning about ancient Egypt. We watched two Great Courses programs by the brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Bob Brier. One was a 48 lecture series called "The History of Ancient Egypt", and the other was a 24 lecture series called "Decoding the Secrets of Egyptian Hieroglyphs." Both were amazing, and we learned so much. Dr. Brier even responded to several questions that I submitted to him via e-mail.We saw so much on our trip, but there is still so much more to see. We could have used several more days in Luxor, and we would still like to visit places such as Abydos, Alexandria, and possibly Amarna. We would love to see the Grand Egyptian Museum again once it has officially opened, and we would love to return to the Giza Plateau. Another visit to Egypt may be in the cards... |
 Saying goodbye to Abraham  Saying goodbye to Shady  Making the most of our lay flat business class seats See all photos from February 17 |
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