Egypt 2025 Prologue |
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I have been fascinated with Egypt for over 35 years, since I learned about its ancient civilization in 6th grade social studies. The gods and goddesses, the mummies (11 year old me had a morbid fascination with something I read about them removing the deceased's brain through his nose), the pyramids, the art...I couldn't get enough. I recall making a model of a tomb, sarcophagus, and mummy as a school project. I read Zilpha Keatley Snyder's The Egypt Game and could totally relate to the young protagonists who immersed themselves in a fantasy world of ancient Egypt.
In 1988, my parents were invited to the opening night reception of the Ramesses II exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science. They took me and I was fascinated by the scale of the exhibit. We sampled Egyptian food, and there were Egyptian artisans demonstrating various crafts. My dad bought me a painting of Nefertari on papyrus, and an artisan personalized it by painting my name in hieroglyphs on a cartouche. As the years passed, I would make it a point to see Egyptian exhibits whenever I could. I saw the collection at Boston's Museum of Fine Arts. Craig has also found Egypt endlessly fascinating. When he and I visited the British Museum in London, we marveled at the Rosetta Stone, the Book of the Dead, sarcophagi, mummies, and canopic jars. We watched TV shows about Egypt, and were especially captivated by Dr. Zahi Hawass, then the Secretary General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Cairo. His big personality and obvious enthusiasm and love for his culture was infectious. We attended a lecture given by Dr. Hawass at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in May of 2004. His dynamic speech convinced us all the more that some day we would visit Egypt. We met him at the MFA bookstore where he signed his books for us. We told him that we love to travel and dream of visiting Egypt. He said that he would be honored to have us visit his country; that there was nothing like seeing it in person. We watched the brilliant Egyptologist Dr. Bob Brier's program "Mr. Mummy", where he became the first person to mummify a human in thousands of years using ancient embalming techniques. (After finally visiting Egypt, we would watch two of his Great Courses lecture series, which would provide invaluable information.) On a long weekend in Berlin in November of 2004, we made it a point to explore the Egyptian Museum, where we saw the famous bust of Nefertiti. In 2009, we were ready to visit Egypt. We planned a trip through National Geographic which included a lecture with Dr. Hawass. We were so excited. Unfortunately, the trip was cancelled due to low enrollment. We hadn't even known that this was a possibility; they gave us no recourse. It's not like they gave us the option of paying more for a private tour - they just outright cancelled. We put our dream on hold as Egypt underwent instability due to the Arab Spring in 2011. In 2017, when we visited the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia, we didn't have very much time to explore their Egyptian collection. I ran through on our way out and snapped some quick photos. But by then, we knew that we would be attempting once again to visit Egypt. Dr. Hawass had started working closely with a company called Archaeological Paths. In an attempt to bolster waning tourism, they have put together a lovely itinerary with special access to sites which are normally off-limits to the public. The trip includes multiple lectures with Dr. Hawass, and also a visit to Mrs. Jehan Sadat, former first lady of Egypt. We couldn't resist this once in a lifetime opportunity. With Craig's multiple sclerosis causing him to be sensitive to heat, we chose the coolest time of year (November/December) and booked 18 months in advance. We invited Craig's mom to join us, and were quite happy when she decided to accept. We have invited her to travel with us before, but health issues make it difficult for her, especially when we visit places at high altitude. She has desperately wanted to visit our compadres in Guatemala and Ecuador, but both places are a mile high, and her COPD would make it quite difficult for her to breathe there. But when she saw this itinerary, she thought that it was manageable for her. She couldn't resist the allure of Egypt. Unfortunately, she found out just days before the trip that she had a stress fracture in her foot and would need to wear a walking cast boot. We hoped that this would not impact her mobility too much. Thursday, November 15, 2018 The day had finally come to fly to Egypt. We received an email that said that our flight was delayed by about an hour. Country Carriage picked us up shortly before 2 p.m. Our driver had recently visited Egypt and couldn't stop talking about how great it was and how much we would love it. When we got to the airport, we checked in, checked our luggage, went through security (Mom's boot and all of the titanium in her back meant that she had togo through extensive security screening). We went to the Lufthansa lounge and enjoyed free drinks, food, etc. It was much busier than previous times, and we got seats at a table. We were supposed to board right from the lounge (take an elevator down to the jetway). Boarding time came and went, but then all of a sudden they announced that our flight was canceled. The cockpit door lock was malfunctioning, which posed a security risk. Our bags had already been loaded on the plane, and attempts to fix the lock has not been successful, so the flight was canceled. We were dumbstruck and didn't know what to do. We had to go to arrivals to pick up our luggage and then rebook at the ticket counter. It took about 45 minutes to get the luggage, and then we went to the ticket counter, which was overwhelmed with people. They handed out business cards with a reservations number and urged us to call it. After being on hold for about 5 minutes I was able to speak to someone at Lufthansa on the phone and they rebooked us on Emirates departing at 10:15 p.m. A family of women traveling to Nigeria saw me on the phone and asked if they could speak to the same agent. I handed the call off to them, but after about 20 minutes they got disconnected and I needed my phone back because it was time to check in for the Emirates flight. When checking in around 7:15 p.m., we were told that we were on standby and would need to wait until around 9 p.m. to determine if we actually had seats. The woman on the phone had "confirmed" the flights, but the Emirates agents told us that Lufthansa was overbooking their flights, and Emirates passengers had precedence, which made perfect sense. By now it had started snowing (first snowfall of the season), so that promised to complicate things even more. At 9 p.m., we were informed that we did indeed have business class seats. We checked in, re-checked our luggage, went through security again, and boarded the plane. Craig and I were seated together and Mom was two rows behind us. The seats were heavenly, with plenty of amenities, and, most importantly, they laid flat for sleeping! Now that we were heading all the way to Dubai rather than our original connection in Frankfurt, that would be all the more important. We got settled, had a drink, etc. The snow was falling harder, and they needed to de-ice the plane. Being so early in the season, de-icing vehicles were in short supply, so we had to wait as it cycled through the departing flights. Some Middle Eastern folks on the plane were quite interested in the snow, and took photos out the cabin windows. We missed our scheduled take-off (10:15 p.m.) and only had a short layover in Dubai, so we hoped that the pilot could make up some time. Shortly after 11 p.m., the de-icer got to our plane. The passengers who thought snow was a novelty were really excited to witness the de-icing process, and they took photos of that too. The flight attendant took our orders for dinner and drinks, to be served once we were airborn. After de-icing, we finally taxi'ed to the runway at 12:20 a.m. Everything was slow as molasses due to the weather. Shortly before 1:00 a.m., we were on the runway and the pilot accelerated for takeoff. As we gained speed and were about 1/3 of the way down the runway, we heard and felt two loud booming noises in rapid successsion. Had we run something over? What was that? Dishes crashed to the floor in the galley. The pilot aborted the takeoff and we rapidly decelerated. Flight attendants ran down the aisles and made a visual inspection out the windows at the pilot's command. The pilot announced that we had a problem with our port side engine, and that the "fire brigade" (pilot is from South Africa) would be inspecting to make sure that there was no further risk of danger. A fire truck approached with lights flashing, and two firefighters and one MassPort police officer boarded the flight. When they deemed that there was no immediate risk, we taxi'ed back to the gate. The pilot told us that we needed to sit tight, and that they would give us information as soon as they had it. We sat at the gate for a long while. By now, the airport was closed. They decided to feed us our meal, since once we de-planed, there would be nowhere to get food at the airport. By 3 a.m. we were eating a delicious chicken curry. Never did get that cocktail (Amarula) we ordered, but probably best not to liquor up a bunch of distraught passengers. We were absolutely exhausted, but the adrenaline of the aborted takeoff coupled with our uncertainty of when/if we would ever make it to Cairo made it very difficult to rest, even in the comfy lay-flat seats. We finally fell asleep just moments before the pilot announced that we could now safely deplane. However, there was no ground crew at this hour (4 a.m.) to unload our luggage. And the weather had meant that many other flights were canceled, resulting in no hotel room availability in the area. They suggested that anyone local go home, and we would be contacted with rebooking information. They can't even start rebooking people until at least 8 a.m. There were 400 passengers on the flight, and everyone was overtired and frustrated. We just wanted to get out of there. We felt terribly for families with elderly members and young children who would need to spend the night in the airport. Lots of people were very upset, and we saw a guy almost get into a fight with a state trooper. It's not the employees' or cops' faults. They can't do anything about it. We are lucky that we live nearby. Whole families with 3 generations of people whose connection was in Boston now needed to sleep in the airport. We got a taxi, which drove us through the slushy icy streets home, arriving after 5 a.m. As much as I wanted to go straight to bed, I called Lufthansa. I was told that the earliest flight that they could get us on wouldn't leave Boston until Sunday night. That was way too late to join our tour, so we had to put our faith in Emirates and try to get some sleep. Curse of the pharaohs? I don't know, but we were exhausted and frustrated. We woke up at around 10 a.m., and I had e-mail from Emirates. They had re-booked us on a flight that would leave at 11:55 p.m. on Friday. It would have a 17 hour layover in Dubai (!) and would get us to Cairo late on Sunday. That would mean that we would completely miss the first two days of the itinerary. I wound up posting this on Facebook: Fate conspired against our Egypt trip again...just as it did nearly 10 years ago. After 2 separate flights with mechanical issues being canceled on the same evening (including an exploding engine which could have damn well killed us) and a day on the phone with airlines only to find out that the earliest we could get to Cairo would mean missing the first few days of the tour, we have decided to cancel the trip. The universe is doing everything possible to prevent us from going, and at this point it just isn't worth it. We are exhausted and there isn't an available flight to get us there on time. Sometimes the best laid plans fall through, even after 2 years of planning. We give up. Here's hoping that our trip insurance comes through for us, at least! Let the claims begin!I played phone tag with the 3 airlines to initiate a refund for airfare. I was on hold with United for a full hour before they passed the buck to Lufthansa. Lufthansa (rightfully) said that since we had booked through United, had United flight numbers, and paid United, that it was United's problem. But I didn't have time for another hour long call with United since we had to go to the airport to retrieve our checked luggage. At 2:30 p.m. we drove to the airport to collect our bags. We started at the baggage desk, but they told us that they could only deal with arrival baggage. Ours was departure baggage and they had no way to retrieve it. She told us we should talk to someone at Emirates. But Emirates doesn't open their ticket desks until evening. We talked to the Lufthansa service desk and their employees took pity on us. One employee made it his mission to find our bags. He was gone for 90 minutes and came back saying that he had scanned our baggage claim tags and informed people that we needed them back, but the bags were still on the plane and the person with the key to access the cargo hold wasn't there. We sat patiently waiting, eating some Dunkin Donuts bagel sandwiches. We were told that Emirates opens at 6 p.m., so I got in line at around 5:55. Turns out the desk didn't open until 6:20. I got to commiserate with other passengers, some of whom were taking the replacement flight and others who, like me, just wanted to retrieve our luggage. One of the passengers heard at 6:30 that the guy with the key to the cargo hold had arrived, and that it would be another hour before bags were unloaded. By now Craig and I were like zombies and we just wanted to get home. When it was my turn at the ticket counter I was explaining my situation when the Lufthansa woman ran up to me and told me that they had my bags in their possession. I followed her back to Lufthansa, and there were our three bags! I was glad we had gotten the process going early so we didn't need to wait an additional hour! All told, we had been at the airport for 3 hours and 45 minutes (racking up a $28 parking bill) just to pick up our luggage! We were home shortly after 8 p.m. The next morning I filed the insurance claim and called United again, finally speaking with someone who agreed to refund our tickets. This is the first time I had been jet lagged without even leaving the state! As it turned out, my mother passed away on November 23, few days after we had been scheduled to leave. If we had gone on the trip late, we would have had to turn right back around and come home again, and I wouldn't have gotten to say goodbye to my mom. So everything worked out for the best, considering. If we had just cancelled due to the delay we wouldn't have gotten our money back because the airline lied and said that it had been a weather related delay rather than a mechanical one. Insurance doesn't cover weather related delays, as they are not specific to your flight. Forget the fact that plenty of other planes were taking off in the snowy weather. There was no weather-related grounding. But how do you fight something like that? Since my mom had passed away, we were able to provide her death certificate and got the cost of the trip refunded. At this point, we were so mentally and emotionally exhausted by this whole ordeal that we just didn't have the energy to try to plan another trip to Egypt. Every time we saw a TV program on Egypt, or heard tales from friends who had visited, it was like being stabbed in the heart. We wanted so desperately to go, but we almost didn't believe that it could happen. As time passed, we would see even more Egyptian antiquities, including the Obelisk of Tutmose III from Karnak, which currently stands in the Hippodrome in Istanbul. September 2024 After traveling with a Wendy Perrin expert to Morocco in 2024 and having the time of our lives, we decided to bite the bullet and try for Egypt again. It's either "third time's a charm" or "bad things come in threes." Unfortunately, in the intervening years, Craig's Mom has become too old and infirm to travel, so we will be going without her this time. We contacted Wendy Perrin's Egypt expert Jim Berkeley to put a trip together. Jim runs Destinations & Adventures International (DAI) Travel, and we spoke to him on the phone to give him an idea of who we are and what we are looking for in a trip. We decided that we wanted to do a private trip this time. It would not have all the same bells and whistles as the Zahi Hawass trip, but it also would be more intimate (not a busload of 30 tourists). Jim's expertise was priceless; he gave us advice on where it's worth it to splurge and where it's not necessary. We discussed Nile cruises and he brought up the possibility of a dahabiya, a smaller sailboat that holds around 20 passengers as opposed to the larger cruise ships that hold hundreds. These dahabiyas can dock at locations where the larger boats can't, giving you a much more intimate experience all around. With Craig's MS, he thought a larger boat may be more accessible, but we were in love with the romance of a dahabiya, and thought that Craig could manage it just fine. So he booked us on a very modern, comfortable dahabiya. It doesn't make sense for a group of two to have a consistent guide for a 2 week trip; we would have to pay for their accommodations and transportation (flight and dahabiya). So Jim suggested having different private guides in each city: Cairo, Luxor, and Aswan, as well as a shared guide on the dahabiya. He recommended top-notch hotels, and we decided to do a day trip to Abu Simbel as well (this would be same-day flights to Abu Simbel from Aswan and back). So we booked a two week trip to Egypt from Feb 2 - Feb 17, 2025, a time of year when the weather would not yet be too hot for Craig. |
 Boston Museum of Science Ramesses II Exhibit, 1988  Nefertari painted on papyrus, with "Stephanie" written in heiroglyphics  Rosetta Stone, British Museum  Rosetta Stone, British Museum  Senusret III, British Museum  With Dr. Zahi Hawass at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2004  Bust of Nefertiti, Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin  Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin  Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin  3,500 year old Egyptian sphinx at University Embankment on the Neva River, St. Petersburg, Russia  Egyptian Gallery, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia  Egyptian Gallery, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia  Obelisk of Tutmose III, Istanbul |
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