View from Maggi's Room |
On the way to the airport the driver gestures and tells us that Mubarek lived "back there" in a big place. We think of the big jail his sons are living in now There are so many beautiful buildings in Cairo, such lovely colonial architecture, mostly now grimy and crumbling.
Terminal 3 is large and very new. We change back the little Egyptian currency left - in our case into sterling with $3 US as top up. Duty free shops not terribly interesting, and snacks available in Egyptian pounds a shocking price. The small bottle of water that is 1.50 in Egyptian pounds on the street is 26 Egyptian pounds here ($4.27 CAD, €3.23, £2.71), much worse than Larnaca airport at €1.10. Announcements for departures are interesting - in Arabic, English and the language of the destination country, and preceded by a few bars of music appropriate to the destination. Ours is from Zorba the Greek!
Flight home about an hour and twenty minutes. The illuminated sign next to the fasten your seat belt sign now advises against using electronic equipment during take off and landing - which doesn't prevent at least two men from talking on their mobiles as the stewardess is presenting the safety demo. They're asked to put them away but don't seem to grasp the point of turning them off as well. But we land safely in Larnaca. We're home.