Beer Review - Elephant Beer

I tried some of Carlsberg's Elephant Beer today. I decided to buy a six-pack of it in memory of my trip to Denmark, Sweden and Norway. I bought it at the Corridor Wine Store on Maryland Route 198 in Laurel, Maryland. The beer is a pilsner/lager. I found it had the standard lager taste to it. One thing that is different about the beer is its alcohol content. The beer packs a 7.2% alcohol content which makes it a potent beer. While the taste of the beer isn't very alcoholish, after a couple of these brews, you will feel the higher alcohol content. I know I did.

Price wise, a six-pack will cost you XXXX at Corridor which I think is pretty reasonable considering they have to import it from Denmark where it is brewed. The beer comes in 11 ounce bottles. Further information on the beer can be found at the Carlsberg website: http://www.carlsberggroup.com/ under brands. Cheers!

Update - December 24, 2012

Two changes to this post:

1st, Corridor Wine Store has changed its name to Total Wine & More. It's still located at Corridor Marketplace on Maryland Route 198 just past the Maryland 295 exit heading toward Laurel.

2nd, a 6-pack of 11 ounce bottles of Elephant beer will cost you $8.99 which isn't bad. It's only gone up a dollar in 5 years.

Maryland Renaissance Festival

I try to make it to the Maryland Renaissance Festival at least once a year. This year, it was hard to go because I'm always tagged to work at the Post Office on Saturdays and I go to church on Sundays. The best time to go would've been on Monday of the Labor Day weekend. However, I was in Sweden then. So, I had to either get Saturday off from the Post Office or skip church. I decided to try to get Saturday off from the Post Office. I've been going regularly to church since I quit Medieval Times and I didn't care to skip church for the festival. To my surprise, I was able to get this Saturday off.

If you want to avoid a long slow moving line to get into the festival parking lot, you need to leave early and wait for the festival to open. If you don't do that, you will have a long wait trying to get into the parking lot. I procrastinated and I paid the price. It took me 30 minutes to go from the Interstate 97 exit to Crownsville to get into the festival parking lot. When I left at 2 p.m., it would've taken even longer. Once you're parked its easy to get to the entrance to the festival. Warning! Make sure you take a good look around so you have a good idea where your car is. If you don't, you could have some fun trying to find it when you leave.

I paid the $18 admission and checked the schedule of acts. I decided to check out the Rogues. Their a Scottish group based out of Houston. They play some nice Scottish music. At 11:30, they were playing at the Jury Rig stage. I made my way over there. They were their usual good selves. I did notice they had a new piper. I have no idea what happened to the other guy. After listening to them for 20 minutes or so, I made my way to the jousting area to see the knights battle it out.

Unlike the jousting at Medieval Times, this jousting was more real. These guys really did fall off their horses vice faking it. One knight actually got thrown his horse and landed with a clump. A couple other knights had problems controlling their horses. The minute they entered the jousting lane, they charged. I don't know what the horses problems were. Jousting wise, some of it was good and some of it stunk. One time, two knights went at each other 3 straight times and missed each time. I booed at that point. After the jousting was over, I made my way back to the Jury Rig stage to see the Medieval Baebes.

The Medieval Baebes are a 7-girl group based out of England. They sing genuine Medieval music. This has plusses and minuses. It sounds authentic which it is and has an interesting sound. One of the down sides is often, you can't understand a word they're singing. Babe wise, I thought the Baebes looked nice. If you wanted to get an autograph, you could buy some of their CDs and whatever else and they'd be glad to sign it. I decided to pass on that.

After the Medieval Baebes, it was time for another specialty of the the festival, smoked turkey legs. Smoked turkey legs are tasty and fun to eat. I make it a point of buying at least one every time I go to the festival. Price wise, they cost $4 which I thought was reasonable. I very much enjoyed munching on one as I wandered around the festival checking out the shops.

One of the more impressive shops is the Art of Fire. The shop makes handmade glasswear. R. Foster Holcombe is a fully qualified glassblower. He is so skilled at the craft that me can make a beautiful glass goblet in a matter of minutes while demonstrating to the crowd watching. The demonstrations are impressive if you like to see beautiful things made before your eyes. Price wise, I can't tell you how expensive or inexpensive they are. I suspect they're not cheap. Personally, I don't own of their work though I hope to some day. They do make some very nice glassware.

I didn't stay super long at the festival because the acts don't change much from year to year. Also, after spending over $1,100 earlier this week, my wallet needed a little relief. There are no shortage of tempting items to spend your hard earned cash at the festival (I saw some cool daggers at Rorik Rorikson's ironsmithy). For the sake of my wallet, I decided to call it a day after 2 and 1/2 hours at the festival.

FYI, the festival will be open only one more day, tomorrow. It opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m. After tomorrow, you'll have to wait until late August of 2008 for it to reopen. I would definitely recommend going to the festival if you live in the Maryland or D.C. area. Cheers all!

Free Ticket

I decided to see if I could get free Business Class tickets to Paris for my friend Harvey and myself. I wanted to use them in conjunction with the Globus tour of France we plan to take. One of the aggravating things about trying to use your airmiles to get free tickets is that you have to book MANY months in advance. In our case, we won't be going on the Globus France tour for almost 11 months. You would think I would have no problem getting seats that far in advance. You would be wrong. I checked seat availability for Washingon Dulles for the dates I needed. I could get to Paris with no problem. I wouldn't be able to return until 2 days after the tour ended. I checked seat availability for Newark Liberty Airport. I couldn't any seats on the date I needed going out but, I could get them coming back. I decided to try New York's JFK Airport. Eureka! I had loads of choices going to Paris. I had one choice coming back. I checked on what the likelihood was of the tour going on the date I wanted to go on. Not surprisingly, Globus has no idea right now what tours for the La France tour will go. The catalogs only came out last week and not many people have booked yet. So, I'm taking a gamble that the tour will go on the dates I'll use my free British Airways tickets. If it doesn't go, I'll have to see if I can change them though I doubt that'll work. I'll most likely have to cancel the reservations and see about making new reservations with some airline. I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that the tour goes on the dates I booked the tickets for. I'd really like to fly Business Class to Paris and not have to pay for it. We'll see what happens.

Cruise Optionals

I finally started booking and paying for optional tours I want to take on the Royal Caribbean cruise I'll be going on in March 2008. They have some decent things to do. I like being able to pay for them in advance. That way, I'll have all those paid off and only have to pay for souvenirs and beers during the cruise. Also, I treated myself to an adventure pack Royal Caribbean sells. The pack comes with a tote bag, pouch thingy you can carry your boarding card in as well as a small camera, a water bottle/thermos, water bottle holder and a Royal Caribbean beach towel. I think it'll be a neat souvenir of the cruise and it'll be something I can look forward to getting when I board the ship. They'll have in my cabin waiting for me when I arrive.

Globus 2008 Europe Tours

To my surprise, I received the 2008 Globus European Tours catalog from my travel agent. I was delighted to get it. I wanted to find out what dates they were going to offer their La France tour. The La France tour is a 14 day (15 if you include a day flying out) tour of France. You get to see Paris, the beaches at Normandy, Mont St. Michel, Avignon, Carcassone and Cannes. They also have an optional trip to Monte Carlo which I really want to do. I think it would be so cool to say I'd visited Monte Carlo. Once I've done the La France tour, I'll have seen everything I'd ever want to see in France. Price wise, the tour is more expensive than the "Scandanavian" tour. The strong Euro isn't helping things. Still, if you're going to worry about the cost, you shouldn't travel. So, I contacted Joel Mills and asked him to find out what September 2008 dates Globus thinks will go for the tour. One of the bad things about escorted tours is they may cancel if they don't get enough people to sign up. I haven't forgotten when Globus did that on the G'day Australia tour I wanted to do. That can really make a mess of things, especially if you use airmiles to get award tickets like I did on the Australia tour. Once I know what dates they think will go, I plan to check the British Airways website and see if I can get free Business Class tickets to Paris. I don't want to arrive big time burned out like I did on the flight to Copenhagen. If I can't get free tickets with them, I may check into flying with L'Avion. L'Avion is an all Business Class airline that flies from Newark Liberty Airport to Paris Orly Sud Airport. They offer Business Class tickets for under $1,800. That is a lot more than an Economy Class ticket but, I know I'd arrive in good shape if I flew Business Class. We'll see what ends up working out.

The Hobbit

Entertainment Weekly within the past week rehashed a lot of information on what has been going on between Peter Jackson and Bob Shaye, the CEO of New Line Films. The two of them have been having a battle over New Line's books. Jackson claims he found discrepancies in the books from the film The Fellowship of the Ring and wants to see the books for the other movies. Shaye has refused. The bad feelings got so bad that Shaye said Jackson would never work for New Line again and was off The Hobbit. Now, things may be changing. Jackson's lawsuit in finally making progress in court. New Line was fine $125,000 for failing to comply with orders by the judge. New Line could've appealed the ruling. Surprisingly, New Line has said it will accept the ruling. This is one of the indications that something of a thaw is happening and there may be hope for a Jackson version of The Hobbit.

Entertainment Weekly has a webpage where readers of the article could voice their opinions on whether Jackson should make The Hobbit or not. Based on what fans have been saying, there is overwhelming desire for a Peter Jackson version of The Hobbit. I have to concur with them. Jackson's vision of Middle-Earth is stunning. I very much want to see him make the movie. If anyone else makes the film, people are going to have a hard time with that director's vision of Middle-Earth. There won't be the continuity and it's doubtful that WETA Workshop and WETA FX would do all the props, costumes and special effects. WETA did an absolutely phenomenal job with all of those. I've bought a number of the Lord of the Rings swords and their designs are stunning. Any other shop would be very hard pressed to equal their work. Considering the guaranteed blockbuster that New Line would have on its hands, it would behoove New Line to settle with Jackson so they can finally The Hobbit and fulfill the wishes of fans all over the world.

San Juan

I called Joel Mills from Carlson Wagonlit today. I wanted to get my airline reservations, hotel reservations and San Juan tour finalized. I was able to get the flights I wanted to and from San Juan. I'll fly out on March 7th arriving in the afternoon. I'll stay at the Normandie Hotel which has an excellent location in regards to the cruise ships, Old San Juan and the San Juan tour picks up from there. I'll have the rest of the day to explore San Juan on my own. On March 8th, I'll do the Bacardi Distillery and Old San Juan tour in the morning. I'll have the afternoon free to do whatever. On March 9th, I'll do my two check dives in the morning. I'll get back around noon and, I'll probably check into the cruise ship shortly afterwards. There won't be any point in delaying that.

On March 16th, the Adventure of the Seas will pull back into San Juan at 7 a.m. I'll take a taxi from there to the airport and waste about 4 hours. I fly out around 12:45 and arrive at Washington Dulles Airport 4 hours later. The flights from and to Dulles will be the first time I've ever flown out of that airport. That should be interesting.

Cruise wise, I plan to do 2 diving excursions, hopefully go deep sea fishing and ride a helicopter for the first time. I'm curious to see what the ship is like. I've seen the photos on the internet but photos don't really convey the full impact of what it'll be like. I won't know that till I'm actually on the boat exploring the various decks. It should be something to see. San Juan and the cruise are shaping up to being another neat adventure.

By the way, if any of my readers would like some used travel guides to Scandanavia, Australia, New Zealand, London, and Scotland, please let me know. If I ever make it back to some of those places, I'll undoubtedly buy new ones so you're welcome to have them. The Australia and New Zealand guides are over 3 and 1/2 years old. I don't know how long I've had the London and Scotland guides.

Scuba Diving

One of the things I really enjoyed when I was stationed in Northwest Florida was scuba diving. Every time you go diving, it's an adventure because you don't know what you're going to see or what the conditions will be like. Some days, you can have great visibility i.e. you can see for great distances while other days, you're lucky if you can see 10 feet in front of you. Sadly, because of the cold water and distances to Ocean City, I haven't scuba dived in Maryland. I've taken a couple courses and I dived in a quarry in Virginia but, I haven't scuba dived in the Atlantic.

One really neat aspect of the cruise I'll be going is that I'll be able to go scuba diving. I've heard the visibility is incredible in the Caribbean. It should be a lot of fun but, I have run into one problem. All the dive shops down there require you have done 2 dives within the last year or two. I haven't dived since I went on my trip to Australia. I did 2 dives on the Great Barrier Reef then. So, I've been trying to figure out how I could do a couple check dives to make sure I still know what I'm doing diving wise. I figured out that the best option was to do the check dives in San Juan just before the cruise. It's the easiest option though I then had the problem of finding a dive shop in San Juan. I finally found one. So, things are looking up that way. The cruise promises to be another first because of the diving. For the first time, I'll be traveling with my diving gear. In preparation for that, I looked up the rules on what I could take on the airplane. Can I bring a diving knife? What are the weight restrictions? What other things am I allowed to bring? Are there any additional fees? It'll be interesting in that way. The lessons I learn from this may help me on future trips.