My tour officially kicks off in one hour with our meet and greet.
I met our Tour Director earlier today, Dina Ebeid. She seems nice.
There are 21 people on our tour.
The flights getting here on Qatar Air, Seattle/Doha/Cairo, went smoothly with my wife and I, plus our bags arriving about 20 minutes early.
Meeting the Tauck rep in the airport and getting our bags and getting through customs went very smoothly as well.
Now for the ride from the airport to the hotel. One of the scariest 55 minute drives I’ve ever experienced. We left the airport at midnight. Our driver talked on his cell phone the entire drive, holding the phone in one hand and driving the vehicle with the other. As for lanes, it didn’t appear that staying in your lane even falls into the recommended category. Everyone is all other the road. Traffic comes up to a fork in the road so everyone slows down as if no one knows where they are going and then at the last moment it’s a free for all of lane changing to get where you want to be. Several times I saw cars stop and backup ( yes, right on the main road ) because they hadn’t been able to get across enough lanes.
Now for the route we took. I doubt seriously that Google Maps could ever come up with this route. We took little neighborhood roads, roads through street fairs, you name it, we took it. It’s a wonder the Marriott has any people staying at it if this is the optimum routing.
We finally made it to the Mena House. I couldn’t sleep for a couple of hours, being all hyped up from the car ride from the airport.
Weather was decent today, 70s to 90s. Here is a shot from our room.
Time to get ready for the meet and greet. More later in the tour.
