When we look back at this trip, we’ll remember that what made it exceed our already high expectations was Walid, our Egyptologist guide.

We learned something new every single day.

We saw Egypt through the eyes of a true scholar and enthusiast.

It made all the difference in the world, and we’d highly recommend seeing Egypt this way. Tour guides are “fine”, but being accompanied by an Egyptologist takes things to a completely different level.

But the trip was also made special by the fabulous crew of the Viking Ra: Milena Koleva, our irrepressible Hotel Manager; Christina Graur our ever-smiling Restaurant Maître ‘d; Mohamed and Irina our servers who knew what we wanted almost before we did;and George and Mina the bar staff who never allowed me to carry even my own coffee around the ship.

And now we’re back in an airport, beginning our day not with the absolutely huge “breakfast box” Viking and the hotel wanted to send with us, but with a light bite and a hot mug of tea (me) and coffee (Ted) in one of the many business class lounges in the international terminal in Cairo.

Security at the airport involved two x-ray points, a pat-down, and immigration/border control, where the trainee at the first booth we approached had issues scanning my passport; a second agent quickly (and completely silently) cleared us through.

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This is the first time we’ve on a plane whose interior has been “sprayed” prior to takeoff to assist in preventing airborne germs from surviving. Fascinating. There was an announcement explaining it, but I can’t recall whether it was an airline protocol or a country protocol. A member of the cabin crew simply walked down the aisle with a non-aerosol container … I felt as if we’d been “air-freshened”.

But then… an announcement by our pilot. Due to weather conditions at Heathrow, we’d be simply parked here at the gate in Cairo for an estimated hour.  Funny – we’d almost forgotten while in Egypt’s heat and sunshine that December weather in the northern hemisphere can be pretty miserable. 

The cabin crew came around with juice, and we felt very grateful to be in seats with plenty of legroom, and with books loaded in Libby on my iPad. I made a start on Anthony Horowitz’s Sherlock Holmes novel THE HOUSE OF SILK; Horowitz channels Dr. Watson really well. The premise of the novel is that it was written by Watson after Holmes’ death, and then safeguarded not to be published for 100 years because its events were “too monstrous, too shocking to appear in print” when written, able to “tear apart the entire fabric of society”, which, particularly at a time of war, was something he could not risk. Horowitz is a screenwriter, and his descriptions absolutely spring to life off each page.

We ended up parked in Cairo for more than 90 minutes. Weather forecasts for Heathrow continued to cause significant delays in processing arrivals at that end. When we checked, it was 15°C/59°F and raining – no snow or icy conditions. It seemed to be the 50h/30mph wind gusts causing problems. I didn’t know it before today, but planes generally stop landing when crosswinds get to that speed, so monitoring conditions at the destination airport is every bit as important as being aware of conditions at departure.

Our scheduled 06:50 Cairo departure from the gate finally happened at 08:35, and we were wheels up at  08:50. Not a peep of complaint from a single one of our (all-adult) passengers during our entire wait. How very civil! It may have helped that our entire flight was only at about 60% capacity, so no one was feeling cramped. 

British Airways business class from Cairo to Egypt was the same configuration as on the way here: two large seats separated by an unoccupied one that could be converted into a table so that we could set our iPads aside while we ate – again! Last night’s hotel bathroom  conveniently included a digital scale. I’m up 2 kg, and I know EXACTLY where they settled.

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For breakfast Ted chose pastries and coffee, while I made one more attempt at shakshuka, which was done in the Egyptian style where the eggs are scrambled (in this case almost an egg soufflé) instead of poached on top of the vegetable ragout; we’ve been told that Egyptians prefer their yolks very well cooked. I was especially grateful that Executive Chefs Cory and Abdallah had indulged my special request for a Moroccan shakshuka one morning on the ship.  

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I dozed off several times during our flight, waking once to see the spectacular snow-capped mountains of the Alps. 

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When I roused a second time we were over the winding Thames, with a birds eye view of the O, the Shard, the Tower Bridge, the London Eye, Westminster, Hyde Park’s greenhouses … and London Heathrow Airport! We landed smoothly at noon local time after a calm 4 hours in the air. 

Our connecting flight to Canada was scheduled for 14:50 London time, with an original built-in four hour layover in Heathrow that we’d planned to spend in Air Canada’s Maple Leaf Lounge. We were through security in record time, so despite the delayed flight still ended up with a lovely hour to linger over cappuccinos (and Guinness and pretzels for “someone”) until boarding was called.

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We had a fabulous final flight, complete with good food, smooth skies, a lovely nap … and a jolly white-bearded steward named Nicolas, who was completing his last shift of December because he has “other things to do this month”.

Hmmm.

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Unusually for us, we’ll be “home” to spend Christmas Eve and morning with our grandkids, followed by a three day family mini-vacation to Pender Harbour Resort on Vancouver’s Sunshine Coast.

In just four weeks we head off on our round-the-world airline ticket adventure.

This is the reality we never could have dreamt of in our youth.

No rest for us – we’re seizing our days!

POSTSCRIPT: A friend shared this the day after we got back. I don’t know who wrote it, but it’s quite perfect.