Day 8 - The Return Home

After spending a memorable week in Luxor it was finally time for us to leave. Our flight was due to leave at 5:30pm but we had no idea when we were being picked up from the airport. Our rep had decided not to pay our hotel a single visit during the week and nothing was left on a notice board. In fact, there wasn't even a notice board!

After making some phone calls we finally established that we were being picked up at around 3:00pm. After packing our case we spent most of the day sitting around the hotel.

Finally it got to 3:00pm. No one arrived to pick us up. Then it got to 3:30pm. No one arrived to pick us up. There were a few of us in the hotel that were due to be picked up and a few worried faces started to show. Finally, at around 3:40pm a large coach arrived and we departed our hotel.

We made the 20 or so minute journey to Luxor International Airport, got our bags and checked in at the flight desk. Barbara was leaving five minutes earlier than us on a different flight. Once we had all checked in we went for a drink in the airport lounge.

Eventually it was time to go so we said our goodbyes and headed to our departure gates.

At the same gate as our flight there was due to be a flight to Gatwick, around one hour after our flight had departed. For some reason the Gatwick flight was early and announcements were being made to inform people to board it now. Unfortunately, as people were not expecting it to be early they either didn't listen to the announcement or had not even checked in yet. Our flight had been put back after this flight so we had to sit around and wait for all of the Gatwick passengers to be located and board their plane. At around 6:30pm they finally left. This is when we were told our plane was delayed.

At around 7:30 we finally got on our plane, only to be told that there was a problem with one of the doors at the back of the plane. They could lock it but couldn't arm the emergency slide. Eventually we were told that they had permission to take off with the door not being armed but that only 202 passengers could be taken. There were 204 on the plane. Two volunteers were asked to leave the plane and join the plane next to us which was also heading for Manchester. Luckily there were volunteers so they left and we got ready to depart.

We were then told that Luxor security would not let the volunteers who had left the plane board directly onto the second plane. They had to go through the departure procedure, back to the main entrance and go through the entire check in process again! For security reasons we were not allowed to leave until that had been completed.

You know when you are at the end of your holiday and you just want to get home? Finally, three hours late, we left Luxor Airport behind us.

After a cramped and boring flight we arrived at Manchester Airport at around 12:15am Tuesday morning. By the time we had our case it was around 12:35am.

My Mum met us at the departure gate. We paid the car parking ticket, got to the car and then made our way home, arriving at just after 1:00pm Tuesday morning. We had been due to arrive at 9:15pm Monday.

What a pity our wonderful experience had ended on a low point.