Egypt – Day 01

Visiting Egypt had been the number one thing I wanted to do for years and finally we are heading there. We flew from Denver to Frankfurt Germany for our first leg of the trip.

When transferring on the Frankfurt airport, be ready for long walks. Every time I have transferred here it has taken over 30 minutes to arrive at the connecting gate.

After arriving at our connecting gate we grabbed some breakfast and were excited to start our final leg of the trip to Cairo. We boarded the bus that will take us to the plane, but had to wait for some last minute passengers for over 20 minutes outside. On the bus, but the doors were fully opened and the temperature was in the 40’s. We planned for 100 degree weather in Egypt, and not for winter in Germany.

Even if your destination is a warm place, take a lite jacket with you. We could have used a jacket at the bus waiting for the plane as well as in Cairo.

Finally the bus closed its doors. We arrived at the plane and were able to warm up after our freezing experience at the gate.

Finally arrived to the Cairo airport and proceeded to the immigration control.  Once there we stood in line for the next available agent. When asked for the documentation we showed the agent our passport and our E-visas we had acquired prior to our trip.  To our surprise we were asked “What is this?”. I explained that it was the fairly new electronic Egyptian visa. The agent replied that they had no idea what it was, that I needed to get a visa from another window. We went to the line where they sell the visas and informed them about our electronic visa. They had no idea either and we were asked to pay for a new visa at the counter. I didn’t want to spend another $75 dollars total on three new visas if I had valid electronic visas. We decided to try our luck with another immigration agent and stood in line once again (on an even longer line than before). Once at the counter we greeted the agent and handed our documents again.  He had no problem with our electronic visa, allowing us to continue and enter the country.

Buy the visa at the window in Cairo. The line was moving fast, you will pay in US dollars or Egyptian pounds and you can guarantee that the agents will recognize that visa document.  We spent about an additional hour for the initial misunderstanding.

Once outside, we had arranged transportation to our hotel in Giza. We were able to text the driver and they were waiting for us outside the airport. After meeting the driver we started our journey to Giza to the Marvel Stone Hotel. Cairo was as expected, very busy with a lot of traffic, honking everywhere, and very fast driving. We were very happy to be in Egypt and had a great experience meeting the driver and talking to the service coordinator.

Finally arrived at our hotel around 11pm local time, said goodbye to the driver and checked in with the hotel staff.

Have small change for most services provided in Egypt, almost everyone expects “baksheesh” (small sum of money given a tip, or a bribe)

After dropping our bags in the room we had to go to the rooftop viewing area and take a peek at the amazing pyramids. Visibility was not great due to dust in the air but we got to see the pyramids. What a wonderful site!

Before retiring to our room, we decided to have a quick walk on the main street outside the hotel.  We walked about three blocks from the hotel and got some local snacks and water for the night. The locals were outside the open stores enjoying some food and drinks. At this time the time of day was catching out with us, we decided to head back and get much needed rest. We were going to the pyramids the next day.