Day 1 - Nantwich to Hurghada - March 9, 2023

Well, we are now in our hotel in Hurghada a resort town on the western banks of the Red Sea in Egypt. I can't say we are too impressed with the town which really is just resorts with little that looks in any way authentic. Going for a walk tonight outside of our hotel, Royal Lagoons Resort, we were faced with a dirty, rubbish strewn street lined with tourist shops and other resorts.

We were accosted at all times by shop owners determined to sell us something so walked as far as we could away from them along the centre of the street which is mostly pedestrianised. We saw the occasional half-starved dog digging in the garbage but otherwise nature gave this whole area a miss.

Of course, inside the resort is a different matter with lawns, palm trees, pools, deck chairs and, in our resort, a small aquapark.

It has been a very long day. The biggest issue we had with this holiday package was not the price but rather the airport from which it departed: London Heathrow. A great airport but since we now live in Nantwich in Cheshire, a 3 1/2 hour drive north west of London, it was hardly convenient. Manchester, Liverpool and Birmingham airports are all within an hour of where we live but this tour did not have any other airport options and it was the tour we liked so Heathrow it would be. With a departure time of 6:00 am it also posed a bit of a logistical headache: Stay at an airport hotel? Drive and park at the airport? Take a train? Given the time in the morning we decided it was not worth getting a hotel for the few hours we would use it and we would drive down, leaving our car at the long stay airport parking. This meant leaving home at 11:30 pm the night before, forgoing any possibility of sleep. Complicating matters even more was the weather: It was snowing throughout the south of England despite it raining where we were so it meant some difficult driving in wet, icy conditions. At the last minute we also learned that the park and ride service we had arranged to use would not even be available to take the car from us until 4:00 am which left us with less than the recommended check in time of three hours, more like less than two. If we arrived earlier we would have to pay for the amount of time we had the car in the short term car park (which is quite expensive) where we were to meet them.

As we made our way to London in the dreary sleet we stopped several times at the motorway service station not only to refresh ourselves but to kill time so we would be as close to when they would be around as possible. Of course, none of the service stations had any restaurants or cafés open so were a bit boring…But we managed to get to the airport just after 3:45 am in the morning where we had to wait 30 minutes for someone from the parking company to come and take the car off our hands despite having called as soon as we arrived to let them know we were there. In any case, it all worked out and we made our way into Terminal 2 international departures to find a rather large queue of people waiting to drop their bags. I can't see that the computers you now use to check in save passengers any time. Definitely better for the airlines but the frustration passengers generally feel when machines do not work correctly, and still having to queue to drop off bags that are already tagged, is not all that pleasant. We have two pieces of luggage with us: My large, black, wheeled case and Mel's smaller case that is small enough that it could be taken into the cabin. We checked these both. We also each have our backpacks to make daily travel a lot easier and to allow us to have a few things with us on the plane like reading material, noise cancelling headphones, paperwork including passports, coats, etc.

With the early hour we were at Heathrow, not much was open but I was able to ask the currency exchange whether they had an Egyptian Pounds: They did not. I have been a bit anxious about this as I don't like arriving in a country without any local currency and it seems that Egyptian Pounds are impossible to find in the UK. I have tried online at all major currency dealers and none of them have it likely due to the fairly rampant inflation that now faces the country. We were not really hungry so were not interested in eating (just as well as nothing was really open) so we lingered around for about 30 minutes before they announced our gate which, of course, was in a different building so required us take quite a long tunnel to the gate. In any case, we caught our first flight to Zurich aboard our Swiss International Air Lines aircraft. The travel company had arranged not only a piece of luggage for each of us but also priority boarding which was nice.

The hour and a half flight to Zurich was uneventful but I was anxiously watching our arrival time as we had less than an hour in Zurich before we had to catch our next flight to Hurghada. If I am booking flights I would never leave so little time to transfer between flights as it just means a lot of running around and needs stress, but, since the tour company had done this arrangement we had to make the best of it. On arrival at Zurich we learned that we would have to transfer to a different terminal for our flight to Egypt so we followed the signs and caught the very efficient electric train. There was a slight delay when we had to go through security again which also necessitated our dumping the bottle of (expensive) water we had picked up at Heathrow…Slightly out of breath we arrived at the gate to find they had not yet started boarding so I quickly dashed to a toilet before re-joining Mel waiting near the gate desk for priority boarding to commence. It never did. They did pre-boarding for those with first and business class tickets, disabled passengers or those travelling with children but for the rest of us it was a free for all. This flight was in a much smaller “Edelweiss Air” plane and, belying our hurry to catch it, we sat on the tarmac for quite some time as they off-loaded luggage from passengers who failed to board the plane. I did enjoy the view of the mountains surrounding the airport though. I have never properly visited Zurich and this was Mel's first time in Switzerland – For the hour or so we were there.

This flight was a bit more interesting as we travelled over the Swiss Alps, Venice (literally, we could see the lagoon from the window), the Greek island of Crete, the Mediterranean, and finally most of Egypt with the orange sand extending as far as we could see in the distance. This is a big, largely dry, country.

On board we were initially given some goldfish biscuits and drinks then later a meal in a plastic container containing a simple dal, salad and a piece of cake along with warm bread. Heck, free food and drink is more than you get on most flights nowadays! As we came into land we caught a glimpse of the hotels with their swimming pools and lush green lawns lining the water. We had arrived in Egypt.

The Hurghada international airport is quite modern but we quickly faced a touch of mayhem: As we approached immigration we were surprised to see a large number of tourist operators holding up signs and gathering their clients. We had no idea what to look for amongst the sea of confusing logos and words but, for some reason, I happened to see my name amongst three or four others on a board held at waist level by a man near the back. He directed us to a desk where we gave our names and showed our Egyptian Visas (these we purchased online a few weeks ago to avoid having to worry about getting them on arrival). We had never been told the name of the local tour operator so I took a picture of their logos so we could find it again after we picked up our luggage and left the airport for our airport transfer. The lines for immigration went quickly but we ended up in a queue for an immigration officer that spent quite a long time on a single passenger before we were able to see him. He showed mild irritation at my having all of the passports open at the picture page and my providing all of our paperwork which he pushed back at me. Perhaps he had been having a tough day…in any case, we were soon on our way to pick up our luggage.

The luggage hall was a large, modern cavernous space decorated, I amusingly noted, with several large plastic replicas of famous historical artefacts. As we found the carousel I asked Mel to go pick up the luggage while I joined a queue for three bank machines to get some local money. It took some time and there was a bit of confusion, I think with people that did not realize they could request the interface be shown in English, before I was able to withdraw 3,000 EP which I figured was good to keep us going for a while for incidentals as it was approximately £100 (UK).

Leaving the airport the temperature was warm but not uncomfortable as we made our way to a small kiosk sporting the logos we had been shown earlier: “Meeting Point Egypt”. We were walked to a small van in the nearby car park, all the while the company representative shouted on his phone at someone in Arabic stopping only to calmly tell us where to go. We waited in the car for some time. At one point a driver or another employee caused me a bit of confusion which I eventually determined to be him wanting any Euro bills to replace a pile of Euro coins he had (I believe this is because the bills can be exchanged in a currency exchange while they will typically not touch coins) - I couldn't figure out whether it was some sort of hustle or not but I needn't have worried.

Eventually we were driven in the van out of the airport. While we were driving out I realized we were approaching a security checkpoint so told Mel to stop filming - You don't film men with guns. They don't like it. A point reinforced by our English speaking guide. The airport is surrounded by dessert sand, an island of concrete, palm trees, and the occasional lawn. A large motorway runs north and south separating the hotels of Hurghada from the sand which we followed for a short time before heading down a side road up to the magnificent gate of our hotel with it's ten foot walls stretching in either direction. They checked the paperwork of our drivers before we were let in, driving around a small garden area to the magnificent white stone front entrance of the hotel. Subtle this is not. I did notice though the slight wear around the edges, and the cheap materials even then.

As with all hotels here we had to pass through a metal detector as we entered. Luggage was passed into an airport-style x-ray machine but everything else we just carried through the scanner which promptly beeped with the bored looking security guard simply waving us through. We were told to leave our bags with them while we checked in. The massive foyer is quite impressive with high ceilings, and lots of people sitting around staring at their phones and iPads - We learned later that this is the only place on the site with WiFi (free or otherwise).

Straight ahead leads to the central large courtyard area with swimming pools, bar, water park and access to the many bungalows of the resort. On the right of the lobby is a bar area with restaurant above and to the right of the bar is the entrance to the main buffet dining area which we would visit later. There are several shops here as well, one selling quite expensive, but tacky, looking jewellery and another more of a souvenir shop-cum-convenience store. I was pleased to also see a bank machine, should we need it.

Checking in was easy enough and soon we were following our luggage via an elevator up to the first floor of the main building along an open-air hallway to pretty much the end of the building, just before the bit they are, loudly, renovating. The room is reasonably comfortable with three single beds, a fridge, desk, small seating area with a table and two chairs, and an outdoor patio looking over the main swimming pool which also has two seats.

There is also a TV which shows not a lot in the way of English channels but it does have the BBC and, oddly, WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). I think we should not be watching much television here. The bathroom, well, let's say it is functional but the bathtub smells of urine which Mel picked up on straightaway (with my bad sense of smell I did not immediately notice) so we soaked it for a few hours in hot water and soap. She also noticed a few hairs in the bed which did not impress either. Did I mention the construction next door as well?

After dumping our luggage we immediately set out to explore the hotel returning to the main foyer and passing out into the pool area. This is an all inclusive hotel for which we had been given plastic arm bands despite being here just the one day, so we headed to the outside bar to get some drinks and perhaps something to eat.

We had some chips (French fries) that were cold and by the time we finished those off it was just after 5 pm and food was no longer being served at the bar so we missed out on having fresh pizza cooked in their brick oven. The non alcoholic drinks are pretty sweet, squash-type affairs but Mel has been trying the local beer which she says is not too bad.

We walked around the courtyard just to see what was there. On the far side of the bar there were a number of small white, rather scruffy looking, egrets scrounging off the guest's leftovers but not terribly disturbed as we got close enough to capture a picture. There are several pools and a waterpark which were already closing up for the night as we wound our way across the courtyard. We spent a few minutes on some swings before giving up as we were feeling a bit noxious - It is tough work! The hotel looks quite nice. There are a lot of families staying here with children running around everywhere. It is fine just a bit noisy. Most people are speaking German including the hotel staff which is a bit confusing. We decided to explore the surrounding area so went out the back gate for a bit of a walk. There were some interesting pieces of art on display but otherwise, as I said before, we were not terribly impressed returning to the hotel soon afterwards.

There are a number of restaurants in the hotel which guests can visit either by paying or a couple of times over the course of a week. The main buffet restaurant off the central lobby is available to guests for all meals so as dinner time rolled around at 7 pm the queues started forming around the entrance. The buffet area, as you expect, is quite large and features a salad area, drinks area (non alcoholic squash from machines), dessert area, Arabic sweets (baklava!) area, bread and biscuit area (including tahini!), and the main section which has a pasta cooking station as well as the ubiquitous stainless steal drums of various dishes. I tried the deep-fried fish, meat lasagne, stew, potato gratin and saffron rice…yes, eclectic is the word for it. The Arabic sweets were particularly nice as was the local bread but, to be honest, it was all quite good and presented quite nicely. The indoor seating area is quite large but there is an outdoor covered seating area near the pool that has a small tandoor oven where you can pick up fresh skewers of tandoori chicken. The place was heaving and we despaired to see the amount of food people wasted by taking too much…

After dinner we wandered around outside which was lit quite pleasantly. Near the pool there were a few arcade games including an air hockey table but, sadly, nothing was really working. We found some chairs in the lobby out of the cold to check our emails. The lobby is the only place in the hotel that has WIFI as we don't have Internet access in the country due to the roaming fees charged. A short time later we heard a huge ruckus as in walked a giant gorilla and bear, staff dressed up to amuse the guests…

When we were dropped at the hotel we were informed our pick up would be at 7:00 am tomorrow for our transfer to Luxor where we will be catching our cruise ship. We were told to arrange a takeaway breakfast with the hotel as the dining areas would not open until after we left (we need to pick this up from the bar tomorrow morning). My stomach is playing up, perhaps from the rich food and there is some loud music playing outside. I hope I will be able to get some sleep ahead of what looks to be a long day tomorrow.

⇒ Continue to Day 2 - Hurghada to Luxor and Beyond... - March 10, 2023