Luxor back to Cairo -- Oct 15

Today we leave our ship the Osiris and head back to Cairo. We have to have our suitcases out by 6:30 a.m. Still hoping to hear from our Airbnb in Paris as Ryan leaves tonight from DC. A bit of breakfast and we disembark and wave good bye to our crew. It's been a good trip overall.  Past two security checkpoints and we sit at the gate for about an hour before we board our 10:15 a.m. chartered PAS flight back to Cairo. Then we board another Viking bus and head to our hotel which is the International City Stars Hotel in Heliopolis, near the airport. There is a buffet lunch which is filling but not terribly tasty. There are some afternoon tours but Steve and I have elected not to take another tour. Greg and Mary are doing the museum tour and Molly and Brian are doing the Coptic tour. So we find the mall. We miss the entrance from the hotel and so are out on the street by ourselves in Cairo for the very first time. The mall is huge, lots of familiar stores, but we happen upon a wonderful supermarket on the lowest level. Mostly we are buying diet Pepsi and airplane supplies but was fun to look at the wide assortment of meats and vegetables and spices. 

I do get a WhatsApp message from our Airbnb host. Not sure why she sent it that way but it accidently works and I am able to forward the info to Ryan before he leaves DC. 

Mary and Greg have returned from their museum tour and checked into their room which is quite an ostentatious suite on the 15th floor with two bedrooms, two and a half baths and large sitting room. They are on the floor that has a butler and a private lounge. We head down for our last dinner which is another buffet. This time it's Italian, though many of the appetizers and desserts are the same as they were at lunch. The appetizers are tasty, the main courses are not. But we are full and enjoy our last meal with Mary and Greg and Molly and Brian. It's time to head to bed as we have to get up at 4:30 in the morning. Molly and Brian who are off to Jordan and Petra have to be up even earlier! We say goodbye to our new friends. We also get a chance to say goodbye to Hanan, our absolutely wonderful guide of Bus A! 


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