We left at lunchtime to catch our flight to Egypt. This was more of an impromptu decision, as Esther had some vacation days left and Chris is always up for travel.
As this is only a 12 day vacation we planned the full itinerary up front.
We had decided to travel from the South to the North , the way the Nile flows (and opposite to what most visitors do)
So the first day was really only a travel day to get from Munich to Cairo, then catch a plane to Aswan (Assuan) , stay a short night over in Aswan and head out to Abu Simbel by plane to really start our trip.
Egypt isn’t exactly famous for punctuality and seamless organization – something we probably should have considered before booking a whirlwind itinerary: Munich to Cairo, then on to Aswan, and the next morning to Abu Simbel. A week before our trip, we got a heads-up that our connecting flight from Cairo to Aswan would be delayed by an hour. New arrival time: midnight. Add a 20-minute car ride to the hotel, and our schedule was already looking kind of exhausting.
Three days before departure, Chris received another email rebooking our 10:30 am Aswan to Abu Simbel flight with Air Cairo to a much earlier departure at 7:30 AM with EgyptAir, leaving us less than five hours of sleep. Determined to fix this, Chris spent two frustrating hours trying to reach someone at Air Cairo in Egypt to put us on a later flight. Finally, he got through to an EgyptAir employee at Frankfurt Airport, who helped us switch to a more merciful 9:50 AM flight, giving us a precious two extra hours of rest. Crisis averted—or so we thought.
The real chaos began on the day of departure. As we rushed to Munich Airport, we received an email: our flight to Cairo was delayed by three hours. Fantastic. Not only did this mean an extended wait at the airport, but it also slashed the originally gracious window for our connection in Cairo – just over an hour to navigate one of the world’s most notoriously disorganized airports, complete with visa-on-arrival and immigration, not knowing if we would have to recheck our luggage.
When we landed in Cairo, instead of a convenient jet bridge, our plane parked at a remote spot, with buses waiting to shuttle passengers to the terminal. We grabbed our bags and sprinted to a bank teller to purchase our visas (cash only, and dollars preferred). Then we followed the transfer signs, relieved to find no lines at all. A friendly immigration officer swiftly placed the visa in our passports and stamped them without fuss. For the first time that day, we felt confident we’d make it to our flight to Aswan in time.
And wouldn’t you know it? This flight was delayed as well. We informed our hotel shuttle of the new plan—our arrival now pushed to 1:00 AM.
Chris had found us a very nice, quaint Nubian resort hotel called Fenti. It was small but had those typically nubian domed little rooms right next to each other. Egyptians love color, so the many of those buildings had colorful exteriors. The drive there from the Aswan airport though was like driving through a war zone. Rocks everywhere, crumbled walls, only partially rebuilt and not a soul on the road. The roads got considerably worse as we approached the hotel, riddled with pot holes and bumps, so that in the end we could only crawl forward. It was an unexpected and pleasant surprise then when we turned into a driveway and saw what little gem of a hotel lied behind an austere exterior.
Eventually, at 2:00 AM, we stumbled into our hotel in Aswan, exhausted but relieved, with all our luggage miraculously making it there as well. We checked in and collapsed into an immediate, deep sleep—only to be woken up a few hours later by the call of the muezzin at 6:30 AM.
What we hadn’t noticed in the darkness the night before was the breathtaking view: our hotel overlooked the gently flowing Nile, revealing a serene Egyptian panorama. In that moment, we truly felt we had arrived in Egypt.
