We arrived at the hotel around 7 a.m. What a crazy 18 hours it had been. Thank heavens we chose to buy the other flights at the airport yesterday night or we would never have made our flight and would still be in Dar Salam for another 18 hours!
We are staying at the Cairo Marriott hotel. It used to be the Palace of a former ruler of Egypt. This ruler was the first to build palaces and built this one by the Nile and another looking at the pyramids. Marriott renovated it and purchased it in the 1980s. When I came to Egypt for the first time I stayed here with my family. It was interesting to come and remember my time here almost 35 years ago. The gentleman that is coordinating our tours here asked me for our flights here. I said I knew what flights we were on and haven’t needed to show any forms yet. I decided to please him and find the papers. I had some email confirmations but was missing one. I went to the Concierge for her to help me. She called Egyptian Air. They said they had canceled all our in country flights. Are you kidding me?!! Why is the long day becoming longer already. Very long story and at the end couldn’t get to the bottom of it, but ended up buying all new flights on the spot. Ok 12 purchased flight tickets in the past 18 hours…. thank heavens I bought travelers insurance, I am going to let them figure it all out when I get home. Luckily we could get on the flights we needed since we had tours connected and our boat etc to catch based on those flights. Magy the Concierge is my new bestie. She also helped coordinate tomorrows plan and rework a little since I didn’t think any of us wanted to be up for a 7:30 a.m tour.
Sam and I explored the large campus of the hotel. It is honestly a bit dated, but the service is so great, the food was great, the have even a tennis court and big pool and tons of restaurants from out door to traditional Egyptian to Italian to Japanese- where Sam and I had dinner last night,… it was nice to feel like we had some nice options and could just hang at the hotel today. Sam napped in the afternoon and I got caught up on everything else. The family arrived at 9 pm at the hotel. We were SO exctited to see them we were waiting for them at the entry when they got there. It was so fun we ate in the traditional Egyptian restaurant in the old palace part with great old lanterns and comfy couches and just all visited. It was fun for Sam and I to tell all our stories to and recount our adventures. Nice to here how the girls celebrated their birthdays and what they have been up to. Have missed them!! So nice to be with Nate and have our whole family of 5 together for the first family trip in a long time. Sam and I also told them about the 5 kids we were sponsoring about their lives, their homes, what this relatively small amount of money will give to these kids, and maybe even more important the letters we will all write them each year as we support them in their school fees through high school. Everyone was so excited and touched when we explained what this would mean to them. It was really sweet and proud of my whole family for the love and excitement they had for these new kids.
After dinner we gave everyone gifts we had bought them in Tanzania. It was such a nice night. Went to bed kind of late but nice that we all slept in till around 9 a.m. Thankful for my family.
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