In a single word, great!
It was an easy 3 hour flight (I was upgraded to business class) and we were met at the airport by the transportation company hired to shuttle everyone to the hotel.
I could not believe how crazy traffic on the highways and streets were! I saw cars triple parked and cars running 5 wide on the three lane highways. Whatever money that was spent painting lane dividing dashed lines was wasted. All and all, think of New York city with twice the number of people on the streets, 4x and many cars, and 8x the chaos.
We stayed at the JW Marriott which is like an upgraded and much nicer Marriott hotel. It had a resort fell to it with tennis courts, golf course, nice gym, plenty of restaurants, an indoor pool, outdoor pool, wave pool, and kids water park. Before everyone starts think that this might constitute "fraud, waste, and abuse" of government funds, it was the only place the embassy would authorize us to stay and we got a very reasonable US government rate. I must say, the security was very, very good with barriers, working dogs, robust security force, metal detectors at the hotel entrance, and x-ray machines for all the bags being brought in.
The conference itself (for Exercise BRIGHT STAR) went smooth and we made a lot of progress with our Egyptian partners as well as representatives from other nations which are going to take part in the exercise. We were a little short handed because some of the American planners didn't show up. I was pressed into service as the working group lead for SOF (Special Operations Forces).
The conference ended Tuesday but we were not flying out until Thursday. It was important to my command that all 5 of us from Bahrain traveled together and that is the earliest we could get 5 seats on the same flight. It is a big holiday this weekend and a lot of people are traveling (think along the lines of traveling in the US around Christmas) so we had a free day while awaiting travel.
What did we do with this free time? Went to the pyramids, of course!
We hired a vehicle, driver, and guide for the day, all for the sum of $25. It was a great deal and I could not believe how inexpensive it was. When you consider that a doctor here makes $1000 a month, that sum probably seemed reasonable to the tour company. 
The first place we toured was the National Museum. This is the museum downtown where all the best Egyptian artifacts are displayed. The place looked like it had not been updated since 1950 but they did have a lot of interesting things on display including a whole floor dedicated to items that belonged to King Tut. The center piece of the museum had to be the mask of King Tut's mummy. This is the mask you always see in pictures. It a work or art made out of solid gold and weights 25 lbs. It dates back to 1323 BC (3500 years old) and is priceless, needless to say.
After our visit to the museum, we were off to the pyramids. I can tell you that pictures do not do the Pyramids of Giza justice. They are really something special. The guide told us that no, aliens did not build the pyramids but it was a very dedicated effort by tens of thousands of works (I don't think they were union guys!). Can't imagine how many men it would take to move those 3 ton blocks of granite.
We also went inside the biggest pyramid and climbed up a very steep, 3 1/2 foot tall shaft and into the chamber were the mummy of King Kufu was laid to rest.
The final stop was a short distance away to see the world's largest monolithic statue. It is 260' long and taller then a 6 story building. It was really something to see in person.
One other interesting thing I saw in Cairo (a very polluted and dirty city) was the headquarter of former president Mubarak, which is right next to the National Museum. It was interesting because during the revolution in Jan 2012, it was set on fire. The current government has prohibited it demolition or even cleaning it up. It is to serve as a reminder of Mubarak's dictatorship and a symbol of the revolution.
In a nutshell, I was very happy to see Egypt
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