Today we were being collected at 2:00 p.m. to be taken to Luxor airport for our 5:15 p.m. flight. After a leisurely breakfast we went back upstairs to pack. Our room was available until 1, so we went down for a cup of mint tea (our favourite tipple). We sat talking to our fellow passengers then all of a sudden it seemed it was time to go. We went up to collect our cases, bringing them down ourselves, much to the annoyance of the bellboy who missed out on his baksheesh. There were loads of people leaving today; it was a wonder the cases didn't get sent to the wrong bus. Our rep eventually arrived and we went outside to our waiting minibus. Our cruise crowd piled aboard along with a few more passengers. I was horrified to see the porters throwing all the cases on the roof, how they lifted ours I don't know, it was definitely overweight, and how they didn't all fall off on our way to the airport, but they were all there when we arrived.
When we got there we were told that our Manchester flight was delayed, but only by an hour. As we got off the bus a woman attached herself to us and asked if she could hang around with us so she would know where to go. We didn't know ourselves! After the usual security checks we checked our luggage in and went to eat and to look around the duty free, whilst we were queuing, we saw some of the passengers from our cruise boat who had gone to the Red Sea for their second week looking very suntanned.
Although we had been delayed it was not long before we boarded. On our way to Luxor we had had a good comfortable flight but our seats on the return were squashed so close together we had to breathe in and out at the same time. It was a very uncomfortable journey. In addition to the squash, there was a lot of turbulence over Europe and many people were airsick making the plane smell quite nasty. We were relieved to touch down at Manchester even though it was cold. I was certainly thankful that we were being picked up and we didn't have to drive home.
Now, a few weeks later I want to be back in our wonderful Egypt, just looking at the film and photos takes me back. The only thing I can't imagine is the heat but after our terrible summer in England this year I would rather have the 50° any day.
As the line in the film says "We'll be back" so look out Egypt - you
haven't seen the last of us yet!
