Saturday, 6/8 (bleeding into Sunday). No photos. Flight to Cairo. Delayed at Cairo Airport waiting for our police car escort. Visited Old Cairo, or Historic Cairo, or Islamic Cairo, take your pick. Toured two Coptic churches and one synagogue. I honestly wasn’t interested. Lunch was at a restaurant in one of the older markets. Spent time wandering the old market. Arrived at our hotel for a little rest. Farewell dinner was in a very pretty restaurant across a very busy street from the hotel (there are no crosswalks). Ate salmon. Farewells. Back to hotel for a few hours, then took a taxi to the airport. The driver complemented me on my ability to sleep in the car. Said most Americans are too terrified of the driving.

Flight to Moscow was extremely hot. Torture. Moscow Airport is surprising modern. Flight to LA was just fine.

Evaluation: It was unseasonably hot, which nicely kept the crowds away, but its constancy became a mental drag. Egyptians have embraced the “If the minimum wasn’t good enough, it wouldn’t be the minimum” concept. Streets are littered with trash. Driving is unregulated. Street hawkers were as common as pigeons, though more irritating. Police and army looked demoralized and worrisomely inattentive. The citizens we met were wonderfully cheerful, but clearly resigned to living without any government support. (The Nile River had NO navigation aids.) It’s a mystery where the (not insignificant) entry fees to all the ruins go. But the ruins were all fascinating and certainly worth the trip. Even though I’ve lived with pictures and stories of the pyramids, they were still awesome.

Next adventure is in October. Destination: Rio de Janeiro, Argentina, Chile.