March 5th, 2026
It was another early day. Luggage had to be out by 6am so that meant getting up at 5:30. We went to breakfast since we were already up, said good byes to the crew and then loaded up on the buses to get us to the Luxor airport at 7:15am.
When we walked out to the buses we noticed all the hot air balloons so I guess somebody lucked out with the weather, the winds were calm enough to fly but that meant smoke/smog/dust was awful, we had a prettier day when we went.
I forgot to mention that when you go into an airport in Egypt you have to go through a metal detector/x-ray machine and your luggage is scanned. This is just to get into the airport. Then you check in your bags, get your boarding passes and go through security again. This time your jackets, shoes, belts and watches have to come off. They also have 2 security lines, one for men and one for women because everyone gets patted down. On a positive note none of your electronics have to come out of the bags.
It was a quick and easy flight back to Cairo and then got our bags at baggage claim, loaded back on the bus and off to the Intercontinental hotel which is close to the airport and also right next to a massive mall. We got there right in time for lunch so we all went in to the buffet while they unloaded our bags. While we were at lunch they said our rooms were ready and we were able to go get our bags and put them in the room. We had signed up for the 1pm excursion to the Coptic Quarter. Sounded like a good idea at the beginning of the trip but in hindsight I could have skipped it and gone to the mall.
We went to the one of the older sections of Cairo which is unique because you have a church, mosque and synagogue all next to each other. The tour included the first synagogue in Egypt, a museum that used to be someone’s house which has the world’s largest collection of Coptic Christian artifacts and the hanging church. The negative was that since it is Ramadan everything closes at 3pm so with the traffic it took us almost 45 minutes to get there and then it felt like we were running from place to place to make sure we got everything in. The guide did a great job but still felt rushed.
Stained glass window from the home we went to with the huge collection.
The oldest book of Psalms known in the world.
The ceiling in the coptic museum and the “carrier” on the right is what they used to bring the bride and her best friend to the church to be married. It is placed on a camel and strapped under the camels belly and has lots of wood inlays. No one can see into the career but the bride can see out.
One of the mosaics in the museum.
After the museum we went to the hanging church.
The hanging church is one of Egypt’s oldest and most significant Christian landmarks, famous for being suspended 30 feet above ground dating back to the 3rd or 4th century. We entered the church but services were going on and I felt a little weird intruding. Plus the entire place reeked of incense.
Some of the group went to visit another church on the way back to the bus so we took a quick Coke Zero break while we waited.
We were back at the hotel by 4pm and Kathy and I decided to go see what the mall was all about. Again because of Ramadan most of the shops were closed or closing. The mall was huge with 7 levels and food courts on every level. They had a ton of our US restaurants. They also had the ice park where you go and get snow gear and you can have snowball fights, do ice bumper cars and do tubing. It looked liked lots of fun and it also was closed.
The mall from the 7th floor.
After walking around for an hour we went back to the room to get ready for dinner which was another buffet in the hotel restaurant.
When we went to say goodbye to folks at some of the other tables they showed us some of their purchases from one of the stores in the mall. It was a baseball cap that looked like a polo cap but instead of a polo horse it had a camel embroidered on it. They said it was 5 dollars. Kathy said “I know you want to go get one” so off to the mall we went. What a difference a couple of hours makes. Everything was open and the mall was the place to be. The food courts were packed and it was totally different from earlier. We found the store and got the hat and we both managed to find a couple more items. Prices were great. What we found out later was that the mall pretty much shuts down during Ramadan from 4pm to 8pm and then picks back up and the stores will stay open until after midnight and the food courts until 5am. If we had not been so tired we would have spent more time walking around.
We had another early morning for our flight to Athens so we went back to the room for an early bedtime. Our bags have to be in the hallway at 6:30am and we have a ride to the airport at 7am. I do have to give a shout out to Viking. We booked our own air arrangements to Athens but Viking has monitored our flight and arranged for transport to the airport even though we did not use their air services. They even meet us at the airport, assist with luggage and boarding passes & fill out custom forms.
On to our next adventure, a Viking ocean cruise out of Athens to Venice.