I met Hebba Bakri a few years ago when I was visiting my dear friend Nihal in Cairo. I was immediately drawn to her fascinating personality.

For many years, Hebba was running the Longchamps Hotel in Zamalek/Cairo which she had inherited the from her German mother. As a well educated Egyptian, whose father had been a pillar of the Egyptian tourism industry, Hebba had worked at several of the finest hotels in Egypt, Bahrain etc, such as the Mena House, and later served Lufthansa, the German airline for many years. Well traveled and well versed in the tourism industry, Hebba speaks a number of languages, including English, German and French, fluently. She also insisted that her staff be multilingual. She certainly leans a bit towards a European attitude about most things, and her strong German ties reveal themselves in the cleanliness of the Hotel Longchamps. Today, her skills as a hotel manager and operator have also been rewarded with positions on various Egyptian Hotel Association committees.

Unfortunately, when we recorded this episode, Hebba announced, that after seventy years under two generations the time has come to say goodbye and retire gracefully while the Longchamps is recognized as the best small Boutique Hotel in Cairo . She remains a legend in the Egyptian tourism industry and will share her time between Germany and Egypt.