How Doth the Little Crocodile...
⬆intro next ➡Day 1 ~ January 20 ~ London to Cairo
It's a very cold and frosty morning! Bedfont Lakes parkrun is a few minutes' drive away from the T4 Premier Inn, so that's were we are off to first thing.
Hmm... The lake appears to be frozen!
As are puddles on the route. There's just one clear line through the ice here, and if anyone wants to risk coming a cropper rather than going in single file, I don't see any examples of such courage.
Amanda declares this is the most layers she's ever kept on for parkrun, and was never at the slightest risk of overheating. Later we will discover that she took first place in her category, so clearly running hard to keep warm must have worked.
Back to the hotel, then, for a warm shower and clean clothes, and now it's time to drive to T2 where we will leave the car with valet parking. Booking the parking was slightly odd: we've used Purple Parking before, but this time we're with MBW, which is not Purple Parking but uses their booking system. It seems that Holiday Extras, PP's parent, are somehow responsible for all the valet parking bookings, and everything shows up in their phone app.
Oh well, so long as they provide the service we've paid for, we're not going to worry about the corporate infrastructure.
So, to our traditional start-of-holiday treat at the Seafood Bar.
Oops.
That was quite uncalled for!
What else is there, then?
What was previously the Heston Blumenthal place seems to have changed its name, though retains some association. However, we were disappointed when we tried it some years back, so continue to investigate.
We find a Chinese cafe/restaurant that wasn't there last time, and think it looks interesting enough to give it a go.
It's ok, but just not the same.
There's our plane. Delayed.
It seems that this is not an unusual occurrence for EgyptAir. The interesting website FlightStats.com gives this specific flight an overall rating of slightly less than 1 star out of 5 over the December/January period, and it only gets that because the average delay length is not as bad, relatively speaking, as the likelihood of a delay in the first place. The details are here, although it's a 'current' rating, so it may be different when you visit.
The other thing about EgyptAir is that like most Middle Eastern airlines, their flights are 'dry'. However, we've been told that so long as we're reasonably discreet, they'll not go out of their way to notice if we have brought some alcohol on board with us. Obviously we can't bring anything decent through security in our hand baggage, so we are limited to what we can buy airside. Obviously there are lots of choices in Duty Free, but 'discretion' impels us to the little quarter-bottles on sale in the food and drink areas. These are pretty much the same thing that is typically offered in non-teetotal economy, so should be drinkable even if not inspiring the lyrical flights of fancy beloved of some wine critics.
And indeed, so it comes to pass.
Slightly to our surprise, the flight is packed. We had wondered if recent events in Gaza would have put people off, but there's no sign of mass cancellations here.
We get into Cairo an hour or so late, and a couple of people with connecting flights are frantically trying to make their way ahead of the rest of us, but no big dramas for us.
Egyptian immigration formalities are pretty much the same as everywhere, so it's a bit of a mystery to us why we see so many people being told to go away and fill in their landing cards and then get back in the queue. Did they not think they'd been given those things on the plane for a reason?
We are expecting to be met in arrivals landside, so we're a bit surprised to see loads of people with signs waiting just beyond passport control. None of them seem to be for us, though, so we continue to baggage collection.
However, while waiting by the carousel, a man asks if we are Steve and Amanda, and it's Michael, our local rep. We must have walked past him somehow, but as most of the other passengers are family groups or look local, it wouldn't take Sherlock Holmes to deduce there's a good chance we are his missing guests. He introduces us to Rob and Lynda, who are with us for the Cairo segment, and we learn that there will be another three joining at Luxor in a few days.
And so to bed: Hotel Steigenberger in Central Cairo. Not particularly exotic, but clean and comfortable.
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