As my flight touched down in Cairo at about 2:00 this morning I flipped on my phone and the first thing I see is a text from James asking if I could pick him up from the Four Seasons on my way to our hotel. My immediate thought was – “Shit. If he’s been staying at the Four Seasons, he’s in for a surprise when we get to the place I booked.”
Turns out he was just starting off the first day of our world tour in fine fashion by having a festive dinner and cocktails with some folks that he’d met on the plane on his way in the day before. He was well settled in to our spot at the Pyramids Planet Hotel and apparently thought that my flight was landing a few hours earlier in the evening.
So we met up to start off this ludicrous plan exactly as we thought we would – in the lobby of the Four Seasons Nile Plaza about half way between midnight and dawn. It really couldn’t have been scripted any better – and believe me, we’ve talked through a few scripts.
It’s now almost 11:00 at night and we’ve wrapped up an incredible first day of soaking in the sights, sounds, tastes, and energy of Egypt.
After a couple of very short hours of sleep we scarfed down breakfast with a view of the freaking pyramids on the lobby deck of our hotel. Our guide, Sarah, then whisked us off to see them up close and personal. By the end of the day we had been in, on, through, and around a half dozen pyramids, a variety of temples, and the Sphinx! And yes, – it’s just as incredible as you thought it might be. I could have stood there and stared at the Sphinx for hours – observing the observer.
The pyramids themselves are overwhelming in size, scope, and craftsmanship. The stones are MASSIVE, cut to perfection, and placed without a hair’s width between them. If I had a dollar for every time James or I asked “How did they DO that?” I’d be much less observant of my budget. We crawled through tunnels and climbed sketchy ramps up into the dark center of the pyramids. We stood awestruck in rooms completely covered in hieroglyphs so perfectly preserved that they looked as if they were cut yesterday. And most of all we tried to wrap our heads around the scope and scale of an endeavor this insanely ambitious, complicated, and difficult.
It's hard to believe that this is all real. That we really spent the day exploring one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World. That this is just the first adventure of many to come. That we actually made it here and made this all happen! I’m not sure that either of has really wrapped our head around what lies ahead. The sights, sounds, adventures, misadventures, new friends, and odd stories that will conspire to create an unforgettable year.
Thanks for joining in for the journey. Please check back and check in whenever you like. We’ll be posting stories, photos, videos, and other random acts of content whenever we have the appropriate combination of time, connectivity, inspiration, and discipline.
