Egypt
A night at the Le Meridien Cairo Airport was definitely the right thing, even if all it did was lead to the second 4am morning in a row of the trip. Not having to drive nearly an hour across Cairo and just having to walk across an enclosed pedestrian bridge to airport security = win. And at barely a third of the cost of Marriott Mena House, the value is hard to argue with.
Security in Egypt was less oppressive than many had lead me to believe, but you definitely needed to have all of your paperwork (or at least PDF'ed travel plans and confirmations!) in order. Like the past two days, today started off again with relatively little food and sleep as I wound my way through security, check-in, passport control, and yes, more security.
At least I managed to stay awake for the very European breakfast on the plane, because I definitely did not have time to eat at my layover in Munich-- not with yet another massive security line as three flights to the USA were departing at the same time. Although I wasn't complaining too much either, I hit the well-stocked duty-free before getting in line.......
The longest flight of the trip was MUC-SFO. Pretty uneventful, although the menu on the flight had a distinctly Mediterranean feel, not something I expected on a United flight out of Germany. Ended up seated next to a bunch of flight attendants who were deadheading home, was interesting to talk to them about their experience during COVID-19.
One last layover in San Francisco, a quick stop in the lovely United Polaris lounge (for some unfortunately bad char shu), and made it back to LAX, flying right over SoFi Stadium as the NFC Championship game was playing.