Cairo is an amazing, colossal, historic mess (for lack of a better word).

There are literally hundreds of thousands of empty apartments and the country is heavily reliant on tourism - and has turned it into an actual industry unlike any I have seen anywhere else on Earth.

Of particular interest and concern on this trip was the size of the new National Museum being built out in the desert by the pyramids near Giza - complete with a new private airport at a cost exceeding $3 billion. Future tourists will soon be able to skip the constant busking and crazy cross-city drive to the key tourist hot spots.

Interestingly you can sit at a Pizza Hut within site of the pyramids and have a Pepsi, so there's always that.

Our hotel was itself a snapshot of unique history as well. It was the location of the FDR - Churchill - Chiang Kai Sheck summit of 1943 and is in the middle of a MASSIVE upgrade and remodel project.

A pro tip for folks looking at traveling to Egypt (and we didn't realize it ourselves): go during Ramadan. The crowds during the day are one fifth what they are normally - especially on the weekends. Be respectful and polite (obviously), since the faithful will be fasting (often abstaining even from water!) during the daylight hours when you're being a tourist...