February 22, 2026

I did not post anything yesterday because it was primarily a travel day. We were up at 6am and it was very cloudy and had rained during the night. I guess since we are leaving we are taking the good weather with us. Our ride was waiting for us at 7am to take us on the hour drive back to the airport in Kayseri. We had a 9:45am flight to Istanbul. It is amazing how on most US flights they can barely manage to serve soft drinks and give you a bag of cookies but Turkish Airlines managed to serve us a delicious hot omelette in the 70 min flight.

While we did not have to pick up our bags in Istanbul we did have to recheck in and go back through security. I was trying to get rid of the last Turkish lira I had (about 20 dollars worth) but everything in the Istanbul airport is in euros. We went to the Turkish Airlines lounge and it ws amazing the selection of food they had. Too bad we were not hungry. They had several different food stations with chefs preparing kebabs, chicken, flatbread, pasta and soups and a salad bar.

Our flight to Cairo was uneventful although they did serve us another full meal on the 2 hour flight. We had signed up for the VIP meet and greet at the airport, including a ride to the hotel. That was the best money ever spent. Our guide/driver met us at the first point he could when we disembarked the plane. He took our passports and applied our Egyptian visas (25 US dollars each) and then walked us through passport control. He then helped us collect our bags and took us to the car for the drive to the hotel.

Cairo traffic, that is a whole blog post by itself. If the car is moving at all in a 30 minute time span then traffic is “good”. There are no lanes and our driver said if you ever see a road with lanes it is for decoration only, you don’t pay attention to them. Our driver explained that there is just one rule with traffic in Cairo and that is that there is no rules. There are very few traffic lights and most people don’t pay attention to them. There is LOTS of honking. Not sure what they think the honking will do but they use their horns a lot. I asked what happens when there is an accident and our driver said that you work it out with the other driver, you “negotiate”. He has a big dent in the back of his car and he said that the lady who hit him told him he was going too slow. It took about an hour to get to the hotel. We flew in at 4pm and by the time we got through passport control and our luggage it was closer to 4:30 when we left. Our driver also explained that Ramadan made the traffic worse in the afternoon because everybody was anxious to head home in the afternoon so that as soon as sunset happened they could start eating.

We are staying at the Sheraton which is where Viking puts all its river cruise people. Our room is nice and overlooks a section of the Nile.

Our view from the balcony and sunset over Cairo.

Our friends Linda and Michael & Kathy and Michael (we did both world cruises with both couples) checked in a little bit after us and we had dinner in the hotel with Linda and Michael. We knew that both couples would be jet lagged after traveling since Saturday.

Cairo February 23rd, 2026

We had arranged a Tours By Locals at 9am. Today was really an extra day since most people going on the river cruise are flying in today. The actual Viking program does not start until tomorrow. Knowing that we would already be adjusted to the time change we wanted something to do today. We thought it was funny when our guide said his name was Maga and our driver was Jesus. We had tried to pick places that we did not think Viking was going to take us. Our guide has a PhD in Egyptology and our driver is an engineer. Both are making extra money on the side. Our guide’s wife is a pharmacist and works for a government run pharmacy manufacturing company and makes the equivalent of 115 US per month.

Our first stop was to the Citadel which is a fortress on top of a hill overlooking Cairo. Our guide gave us a nice history of Egypt and we did learn a lot. The Citadel was built by Saladin in 1176 and completed in the 13th century. It is a historic, fortified complex in Cairo that served as the seat of Egyptian government for nearly 700 years. It was designed as a defense against the Crusaders. The actual palace is not open to the public but the mosque is and the views overlooking the city are great. Our guide kept saying how lucky we were because of how clear the day was. Plus the weather was in the mid 60s.

The view from the Citadel with the pyramids of Giza in the background.

The ceiling of the mosque.

After the visit to the Citadel we took a drive through “Garbage City”. The people in this area collect and sort garbage for their jobs. It is a way of life. In the summertime, as you can imagine, the smell is unbearable. Since the weather is cooler it was not too bad. We passed several trucks bringing in bags and bags of garbage.

This truck was one of the less packed trucks we passed. This is regular unsorted garbage when it is brought in. Families, including children, sort through every bag and separate out the food from the plastic, paper, aluminum and cardboard. Then they sell the sorted garbage to different buyers for various purposes.

Garbage City went on for several blocks and is separated from the rest of Cairo. In 1969 the governor of Cairo decided to move all of the garbage collectors to this area. In 1987 there were approximately 15,000 people living in “Garbage City”.

Our next stop was St Simon’s church, which is located within Garbage City. It is also known as the Virgin Mary church due to the carving of Virgin Mary in the ceiling. It is an amphitheater built into the side of a mountain in honor of Simon the tanner. It can hold 20,000 people.

The Virgin Mary carved into the ceiling.

Our next stop was to the Market. It is a large market mainly for tourists but there are local markets surrounding it and he wanted us to see the local markets.

Baking bread right on the street.

They have sidewalks but most people walk in the streets regardless of the cars and motorbikes. The sidewalks are usually crowded with people selling stuff and lots of uneven steps and obstructions. The tourist market is packed, a lot like the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, but most vendors have the same tourist stuff. Our guide told us whatever price they start with you can get them down by 70%. It was interesting to see but nothing we needed or wanted so we just walked through.

We visited several mosques while walking and our guide was amazed at how few tourists were out and about.

The mosiac ceiling

We passed several old city gates around the market that date back centuries.

He offered to give us time to shop but there really was nothing that caught our eye.

On our drive back we passed the “City of the Dead”. These are graveyards and several of the graves have mausoleums and people have started living in the mausoleums. The government keeps trying to relocate them but have not had much success.

This was one intersection we passed and our guide said that this was local markets and that right now it was not busy. If we were to come back tonight the streets would be packed. A lot of the eateries are closed due to Ramadan and will open a little before sundown to get ready for people breaking the fast. We also passed markets that had stall after stall of linens, sheets and towels.

We made it back to the hotel by 4 and walked the neighborhood. We have been told by both our guide today and driver yesterday that the area of Cairo we are in is very safe. The worst thing that will happen to us is over paying for a souvenir.

We met up with Linda & Michael and Kathy & Michael for dinner in the Italian restaurant in the hotel so we could hear about everybody’s day.

The Viking program starts in the morning with breakfast and then a briefing and then back to the Citadel at 9am. Apparently I missed that Viking was taking us there also so we will repeat that 1 stop.