Forty-One is OLD!!!

March 16, 2008 by Rick.

We woke up this morning (early! ) on a sleeper train from Luxor to Cairo. Lo and behold, I looked below me (she made me take the top bunk, ) and there was this REALLY old, (but still good look’in) woman there. Unbelievable how quickly Claudette’s “WAY Over The Hill” birthday snuck up on us while traveling.

I managed to get our tour manager in Luxor to buy a cake and bring it with us to the train. I tipped him lots and asked for it to be a secret. I suggested he could give it directly to our train car waiter who could surprise serve it up for breakfast. Unfortunately, the word “Secret” didn’t come across properly to him and he handed over a big bakery box to me when he picked us up to take us to the boat. Claudette seems to hate surprises anyways, but it still would have been nice and the kids & I would have certainly enjoyed springing a quick early morning celebration on her. Oh well…

The cake was fantastic, and since the standard train breakfast was well below desirable, we all had chocolate cake for Breakfast! (Just like the Bill Cosby story from the “Himself” album.) We had an arranged ride to our hotel, but they switched reservations on us and we ended up being waaayyyyyy out by the Giza Pyramids. We are only a few km away and can see them really well from our hotel. It’s a long (and expensive!) taxi ride to downtown where we are taking the bus to the Bawati Oasis tomorrow morning.

If anyone wants, they can send a quick birthday greetings as a comment to this message or by sending Claudette an e-mail. She probably won’t read this post for a few days or a week or so and will be pleasantly surprised…

Posted in 2008-02 to 04, Africa | 9 Comments »