It was hard saying goodbye to Egypt. As we left each monument, I would look back at it to try to ingrain it in my mind. I even started to feel affection for the Pharaohs. Sure, they spent most of their country’s treasure on monuments for and to themselves, but they thought that was the way to please the gods and garner eternal life for all Egyptians. And they provided continuous employment for engineers, architects, construction workers and artisans. A civilization that lasted thousands of years couldn’t be all bad!

It was also sad to say goodbye to our traveling companions. Humans bond over shared experiences, and we definitely shared a lot! Although we plan to return to independent travel, traveling with our small group of 15 was fun. And it was very nice not to have to worry about logistics.

As noted, we delayed our departure by two days and spent our last day mostly laying by the pool at our Cairo hotel. We were lucky again with the weather. The prior two days had been cloudy, but our final day was a beautiful pool day.