Egypt · Travel Days

Travel Day: Luxor to Cairo, Egypt

This is our balloon just before they tipped the basket upright. The baskets are so large, ours held about 20 people. It wasn’t even the largest!
Two hours after leaving the hotel we’re up in the air!
Another bucket list item is checked off on this trip!
Watching the other balloons take off and float around us was part of the magic.
You can see what a different the Nile makes to the landscape.
Sunrise across the Nile
Looking down and all those holes are tombs!

We started by skimming the tombs, then went high over the mountains before drifting back near the Nile. Our pilot then started our slow way back to the landing site. It was incredible to see all the sites we had visited over the last several days all visible at once. It’s amazing how close they all are.

He skimmed the sugar cane fields.
We lost the wind just before the landing site. So he threw the rope down to his ground crew and they pulled us the last way, over the farmers fields. He said they can land in the fields but it costs the company a lot of money.

Going back to our hotel was a lot faster. After the boat ride across the Nile the company man hired us a private taxi and sent us back to our hotel that way. No idea why but it was fast, direct, and we appreciated it. We arrived at the hotel and went straight to breakfast. They had set out hand made suckers, and chocolate ‘gingerbread’ houses for the kids! We thought they were part of the displays but they insisted our kids each take a house. Sugar overload!

After breakfast L wanted to play ping pong and so R and L went down and played for a while. Then R was tired of it so Ty went down and played with him. I am eternally catching up on the blog and our photo posts. Ty eventually went for a swim, bu the kids weren’t interested. Then we showered everyone before checking out of the hotel at 12:30 and having one more lunch by the pool with our favorite cat, Boots.

Our driver picked us up from the hotel at 1:30 and took us to the airport. We got all checked in with our Egypt Air flight, for 3:15. But we were worried about our flight being on time since when we flew Egypt Air from Cairo to Luxor it was so delayed. Well sure enough 3:15 comes and goes. People were lined up by the door ready for the bus to take them to the plane. We finally took off it was about 45 minutes late.

The flight was just fine, only 50 minutes. We landed and found our driver. But then our bags took forever to arrive. After waiting for 45 minutes we finally got out bags, and decided we needed to feed our kids ASAP, since the drive to the hotel was going to take about an hour, and it was already after 6pm.

Of course the only thing available for dinner was Burger King. Ugh- We got the kids some Whoppers, and Ty and I ordered chicken sandwiches and we were off.

The shame Ty feels as he’s placing the order.

The drive was crazy! It reminded us of our time in Cambodia, with the constant horn honking. The vast amount of vehicles and the time it takes to go a few miles reminded us of our time in S. Korea. It was just such a bad combination. But I was ever so thankful Ty didn’t have to drive and I didn’t have to navigate.

We arrived at our hotel, the St. Regis. I will fully admit this is the fanciest hotel we have ever stayed in. We’re only doing it since Ty booked it with points. I have never felt like such a country bumpkin as I did walking into this hotel. We had about 5 people greeting us, including the hotel manager. They took our bags from us. We found out they have a library and R was in heaven! They even wrote down her favorite stories to see if they have them for her. We have our own BUTLER!! We are so out of our league in this hotel but it will be nice to pretend we are swanky people for a few days. The room we have is larger than the condo I used to own!

Though trying to explain our request for a sheet and blankets for the couch was hilariously awkward. Explaining we didn’t want to pay for another roll away bed, and the couch would be fine for one of our kids. 🙂 Truly we’re not fancy people…

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