Egypt

Jan 28th - Feb 5th 2014

Tuesday 28th January 2014 

Home to Gatwick

A quiet morning - sat and watched Big Brother and did some lazy packing.

After lunch we headed off around 13.10 for the drive down to Gatwick. Tonight spent at the Holiday Inn Gatwick Worth. Very easy drive down - no delays on the M40 or the M25. Got here around 15.35 so made very good time. Check in was straight forward. We’re in room 228 - one of my favourites at this hotel.

Brought Nikki upstairs before going back down for the cases. On the way to get them, I asked for 2 Starbucks and said I’d come back in for them. Didn’t think that through so had to come up with the cases before going back down for the coffees!

Nikki had a nap while I did some Room Wizzard stuff. 

Went up to the airport at around 18.30 to drop our case off at the Twilight Check-In. No vampires. Very helpful lady from Thomson got us sorted and gave us our boarding passes for tomorrow morning.

Stuart was coming down on the 19.30 train from London so we picked him up in the drop off zone under the South Terminal. Had planned to go for a buffet but we changed our minds and went for a Toby Carvery instead.

After dinner we nipped to Sainsbury’s for some batteries for our noise-cancelling headphones and then went back to the hotel. More coffee and Room Wizzard stuff and we turned in around 22.30.

Wednesday 29th January 2014

Gatwick to Marsa Alam

Both had a rubbish night’s sleep. There’s obviously something about knowing you have to get up early that disturbs you.

I needed the loo around 03.00 and glanced at the time on my phone to see I had 3% battery left and my phone was our alarm clock. Reset the alarm on Nikki’s phone and went back to sleep.

Then at 06.00 everything kicked off - 2 phones plus a phone call from reception with our alarm call. Quite a shock to the system. Had a shower and went down for breakfast. Stuart joined us around 06.50 so we grazed at the buffet for half an hour. Checked out and got the car in the pouring rain and drove to the airport. Dropped Stuart off at the South Terminal and then went to the North Terminal for our flight. Car chap was there so handed over our keys in the belting down rain and made our way into the airport.

As we’d checked in last night, we just went straight to security. There was a family in front of us and the guy checking their boarding passes kept getting an error messages - then he figured out they should have been at the South Terminal. Whoops. Security was quite swift so we checked in at the assistance desk and went off to Cafe Rouge for fresh orange juice and coffee. Had a rest there for a bit and then went to get some sandwiches for the flight. Back down to the assistance desk and they popped us on a buggy to take us down to Gate 45. Not an air-bridge sadly - we were loaded onto a mini-bus which took us out to the aircraft and then transferred to the ambu-lift to get on the plane. No other passengers had arrived so it was quite stress free. We were in 2A and 2B and the check-in lady had told us she’d blocked out 2C - we waited with bated breath while everyone else boarded - and it seems she had! Quite a full plane - though not every seat was taken.

Taxied out just after 10.00 and took off to the east before turning down over the Channel and northern France. We hit the Med around Nice and then flew down around 50 miles off the coast of Italy. Amazing view of the toe of Italy - pointed out rather helpfully by the pilot. Watched White House Down which was a good plane movie, and then had some lunch. Started on Alan Partridge but the laptop ran out of juice. Great view of the Red Sea as we flew down the coast of Egypt. Turned over Port Ghalib and landed at 17.20 local time. Ambu-lift was very quick picking us up and dropped us at the terminal. Visas were very quick thanks to a staff member taking our passports and money (£10 each) and coming back with them stamped. She then escorted us through to baggage reclaim and got us a porter to take us out.

The chaps from the Intercontinental were there to meet us and got us into the car with minimal fuss. They are very big on “Welcome to your second home” - which I think we heard a dozen times before arriving at the hotel. Check in was very swift. About 4 managers came out to greet us. They’d got us in 6229 as per my requests via email so we knew where everything was. A bit of unpacking and a shower and we were ready for dinner.

We’ve got the first 3 nights on half-board - tonight was Indian night. Some odd salad things and then a superb pasta (very Indian). Then it was a few desert bits and we were ready for bed. Forced ourselves to go out to get milk. The little shop where we used to buy milk is now a clothes shop, but there’s a new supermarket directly opposite. Very useful. Armed with Pringles and milk we came back to the room. Nikki fell straight asleep by 21.30 and I was minutes behind her!

Thursday 30th January 2014

Marsa Alam

Woke up in the night convinced it was around 05.00. Looked at the clock and discovered it was 23.15! Back to sleep.

Woke up properly around 06.00 and sat on the balcony with a coffee. The plan for today was relaxing and catching up on sleep. We went down for breakfast at about 08.00. Very nice - and ended up having a coffee outside while breakfast went down.

Back to the room and both decided it was sleep time. Put the Do Not Disturb on the door and that was us done for a good hour. Nikki then got up and I had another sleep. Excellent!

Briefly discussed sitting by the pool but it was a little windy - that does seem to be a problem here at this time of year. Instead decided to walk around the port for a bit. Ended up in Costa with a couple of flat whites enjoying the sunshine.

Back up to the hotel room and ANOTHER nap. Then it was time for lunch so we went back to Costa for a really horrible sandwich and a really horrible quiche - at least we had some decent coffee.

Sat on the balcony enjoying the sun until around 15.00 and then I came in for a nap!