Around the World Kickoff

Leg one of the 2007 around the world journey has been a success. Just 11 hours from SFO to Frankfurt, a 5 hour layover in Frankfurt, and then another 4 hours into Cairo produced an uneventful day. Winner for the most comfortable seats of all time (for economy class) goes to the first flight aboard Luftansa. My knees were numb with pain by the end of it, but my back felt great.
I ran into a few interesting people along the way. Pop Quiz - What nationality comprises 90% of the people who decide to drink beer at 10 in the morning in Frankfurt? If you said American, then you get a gold star. You get an extra gold star if you also said that 80% of those 90% are active or former military dudes. In between all the talk of guns and crappy desert life, I did discover an excellent new term - "Barley grenade". I think that it shall replace "man soda" as my favorite term for beer.
On the completely different end of the spectrum, I shared a shuttle from the Cairo airport to the hotel with a judge for a three day chef competition going on here in Cairo. He claimed to speak 8 languages, to have lived in 15 different countries, and to be able to fly anywhere for free. He also was wearing a sweet party shirt and had one of those mustaches that's curled up on the ends like the old western movie guys had. I didn't learn any cool terms for beer from him, but maybe we just didn't talk long enough.
Cairo is smoggy and hot as heck.  That's about all to report about the firt part of the trip.