After our 6am departure from the ship, we went straight-away to the Luxor airport for our flight back to Cairo. As we arrived, we learned that our original flight had been cancelled and we were to join another flight that would leave 1 hour later. This turned out to be fortuitous as the airport lines were very, very long. As before, the men join one line, and the women a separate line to go through the screening and pat-down. Once through, we waited in the check-in line forever. It was a madhouse! By the way, all the information that we had received about luggage weight and dimension limits did not pan out. It appeared that they really didn’t care and I’m not sure they even weighed the luggage. After a long wait at the gate, we finally boarded buses to take us to our plane on the tarmac, a big Airbus A330 widebody. We were 2.5 hours late in our departure.

Back in Cairo, and with Cairo’s traffic, we were saw some awesome sights on the way to Abdeen Palace. A bread courier, street vendors and a massive outdoor market, the largest in Cairo. After arriving to Abdeen Palace, we were immediately served a nice lunch and then the tour began.

This modern-day palace was built by Khedive Ismail; construction started in 1863[4] and continued for 10 years with the palace officially inaugurated in 1874. It served as the Egyptian royal household’s primary official residence from 1874 until the July Revolution in 1952. Erected on an area of 25 sq miles, the palace was designed by the French architect Léon Rousseau[5] along with a large number of Egyptian, Italian, French and European decorators. The palace has 500 rooms. This visit is exclusive to AmaWaterways and it was a nice end to the trip. Back at the Cairo Ritz Carlton, we checked in and said goodbye to our AmaWaterways hosts and fellow travelers.

Tomorrow: Flight to Dubai