Denise's birthday

 Today we docked at Hurghada which is another beach resort similar to Sharm-El-Sheik.   The day started well with a cocktail class up at the Sky Bar on Deck 7, where we were taught to make (and got to sample) a lemon drop martini, a cosmopolitan, a french martini and an espresso martiini.   Sen (our mixologist) used to work on one of the really big Royal Caribbean ships with 8000 guests and he used to have to make 2 or 3 thousand cocktails at a time.   So he really appreciates working on Emerald Azzurra where there are only 65 guests.

 After lunch 14 people left the ship for the overnight excursion to Luxor.  Most of the excursions are included in the price of the cruise, but that one was extra and Denise and I had decided not to take it.  This was probably a a good decision as we were knackered after our 11 hour trip to the pyramids yesterday.   Emerald had organized a shuttle which ran every hour to take people from the port to the centre of downtown Hurghada where you could visit the beach or do some shopping.   So we hopped on the bus and went for a look around.   
Honestly, Hurghada doesn't have much to recommend it.   The shopping area is pretty tacky and the highlight of the eating places was a Costa Coffee. The shop keepers are all quite persistent about trying to get you into their stores to buy their cheap tat.

Downtown Hurghada

Denise and I managed to find a store selling stamps and then spent a while at a bar on one of the hotel beaches where we could put the stamps on our postcards, before posting them in the Hotel's post box and catching the shuttle back to the ship.   At least we got to sample a local Egyptian beer.

Back on the ship the evening's entertainment got into full swing.   As it was Denise's birthday we were invited to dine with the ship's director, Christian.   Two other couples we've become friends with joined us at the table and a lovely meal was finished off with a chocolate birthday cake that was made for her. 

The evening's entertainment was an amazing local dance troupe with a belly dancer and a whirling dervish who had a costume studded with LEDs.   It was quite an evening!