Egypt — Paris, Cairo & London

I had a long Labor Day weekend and decided to use it to see the pyramids. The flight routing made the trip a three-country sandwich: Boston to Paris, Paris to Cairo, then home via London.

Day one was the CDG layover. I was the only person in the entire airport wearing shorts. Customs sent everyone through the X-ray in the Nothing-to-Declare line and then waved me through with my American passport without checking anything. I ended up in the Air France lounge with little chocolate-filled pastries forgiving the world.

Cairo was the centerpiece. The Giza pyramids, the Sphinx, a felucca ride down the Nile at sunset. There was a dinner cruise where I was high on the outside deck, came back inside, and walked into a small man in Arabian clothes spinning around on the dance floor encouraging everyone to record him. I literally couldn't keep the dopey smile off my face.

An unexpected highlight at Saint Samaan in the Mokattam mountain — the Cave Church carved into the cliff, with the Mokattam zipline running over the city. The cab driver also took me to the garbage city, where families collect the entire city's trash in one neighborhood and sort it manually for what can be recycled or used again.

Paris and London were the bookends. A few hours in each, just enough to remember why I love both cities and not so much that I felt like I was missing the heart of the trip. The heart of the trip was the heat in Cairo.