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.

Scam Emails

I've received two scam emails in the last couple days. Both were attempts to get account information which would've been used to steal money from me. One was allegedly from Bank of America and the other was from Amazon. Unfortunately, such emails are becoming more common now a days. People need to be very careful who they give their bank or credit card information out to. If you suspect the email is legitimate, instead of replying to the email, check with the company or bank directly. That way, you can safely check into the matter. If it's legitimate, the bank or company won't mind you contacting them. If it isn't, you won't have given your account information to a thief.

I still haven't forgotten when a thief or thieves got ahold of my Northwest Airlines credit card number. They charged over $500 worth of Greyhound bus tickets to it which presumably they could return and get a refund for the tickets. I noticed the fraudulent charges on my credit card bill at once and reported them to the credit card company. I had to cancel that credit card, get a new one and write a letter to the credit card company about the fraudulent charges. I got lucky in that I didn't have to pay the charges but, it did create a lot hassle. Make sure you use caution when giving credit card or bank account information out. It can save you some possible grief later.

Daylight Savings Time

I just wanted to post an early heads-up on Daylight Savings Time. Daylight Savings Time will end in the U.S. at 2 a.m. on November 4th. It'll end in Europe on October 28th. When it ends, you'll need to move your clock forward 1 hour. It'll give you 1 more hour of sunlight in the morning. For me, it means 1 more hour of darkness when I'm trying to deliver the mail. I've already checked my miner's light to make sure it's still working. I'll be needing it soon. Cheers all!

Optionals

My friend Harvey and I have been going through the optional tours for the cruise we'll be taking in March 2008. There is quite a list for each port. I find the list aggravating in that I wish some of this stuff was included in the cruise like it would be if I was taking a Globus tour. Instead, the only thing that'll be free is if we walk around the ports we pull into. Otherwise, the cost of the various optional tours run from $30 to $200. I find this part a real turn off as far as cruises go.

Another drawback I've found to our cruise is the time we'll have to leave each port. At 3 of the ports, we'll depart at 5 p.m. That means in a number of cases that we'll only have time to do 1 optional tour and then some looking around on our own. I wish we had more time in the various ports. That way, I could go scuba diving AND do a tour on the history of the place. As it is, I'm going to have to decide what is the tour I most want to do.

Still, I look forward to the cruise. It'll be neat to watch the ship pull out of port or pull into port. I look forward to exploring the ship too. The ship we'll be on is huge so there will be lots to explore and discover on board. Hopefully, the cruise will end up being a nice time.

Hard Rock Cafe - Washington D.C.

After finishing the orange tour on the Old Town Trolley, I decided it was time for some dinner. To my delight, the tour I took finished right across the street from the Washington D.C. Hard Rock Cafe. I'd visited the cafe twice before but, I'd never eaten there. I went in and was promptly served. I decided to try the Tupelo chicken fingers, New York 12 ounce strip steak and a wild berry smoothie. The smoothie tasted different from what I was use to but, it was very good. I received a good serving of chicken fingers and the sauces they served with them were excellent (bar-b-que and honey mustard). Lastly, the steak was well cooked and came with mash potatoes with gravy and green beans. The mash potatoes and gravy were tasty. The green beans weren't overly cooked and were still crunchy. Overall, it was an excellent meal. Price wise, I paid $8.99 for my smoothie though that came with a pilsner glass I got to keep. I paid $9.50 for the chicken fingers and $23.50 for steak.

The cafe has an extensive rock memorabilia collection as all Hard Rock Cafes do. It was neat to look around and see the various guitars, concert posters and other stuff. They played assorted music videos on tvs that were spread throughout the cafe. Because of my All Access membership, I earned $42 credit toward my next $20 reward. If you like to eat or buy stuff from the Hard Rock Cafes, I'd strongly recommend you join their All Access club. It can earn you money back that you can use on food or clothing at the cafes.

That's all to report for this visit. I hope to visit the Baltimore cafe sometime soon and see how their food is. Rock on!

D.C. Sightseeing

I've lived outside the Washington D.C. area for over 6 years now. To my embarrassment, I've seen little of D.C. I have no excuse. It's easy to drive down to the Greenbelt station and take the Washington Metro (their subway system) into the capital. From there, you can easily take one of the hop on - hop off tours. Yesterday, I mended my ways somewhat. Initially, I planned to take the afternoon tour of the Washington memorials with Grayline Tours. I dithered so much that by the time I arrived at Union Station, the bus had already left. Luckily, there was another company called Old Town Trolley. They run 3 routes that cover all the main sights in D.C. As I was late getting out to D.C., I decided to ride the green route trolley (that route covers Union Station) its entire route. I found the driver/guide to be very knowledgeable and friendly. He told people when tours were available of the building that houses Congress. He also told which museums were closed for renovation (the Smithsonian had one that was closed). Trivia question I learned: who has the tallest statue in D.C.? Answer: Lady Freedom. She stands 19 feet 6 inches. A law was passed that no statue in D.C. can be taller than Lady Freedom. After taking their green route tour, I decided to take their orange route tour. This tour covered embassy row (62 embassies line this one stretch of road), Georgetown, the National Cathedral (did you know there is a gargoyle with the face of Darth Vader on it?) and the National Zoo (they have problems with the pandas in that all they want to do is eat and sleep i.e. they apparently aren't very interested in creating any baby pandas). The driver on this tour was particularly impressive as he was able to name every embassy on embassy row. I bet that took some memorization.

The third tour (a shuttle actually) which they offer which I didn't have time for is the one that takes you to Arlington to the tomb of the unknown, where John and Robert Kennedy are buried and where the Marine Memorial is. I plan to get back there sometime so I can see those.

Each tour on the trolleys took approximately 1 hour and 10 hours minutes (except for the Arlington tour). The company promises to stop at each stop on their routes every 30 minutes. The tours start at 9 a.m. and stop at 5:30 p.m. The cost is $32 for an adult. I don't know what it would cost for a child. I'd definitely recommend the Old Town Trolley. I found both their tours very interesting and informative. They also have the advantage that you can hop on and hop off as much as you want during the day. Their website is: http://oldtowntrolley.com/Washington-DC/.

Little Mermaid Statue

This is one of the pictures I took of the famous little mermaid statue in Copenhagen. Because the sun was behind the statue, the front of the picture came in very dark. I had to use my photo tool so I could change the background and increase the light in the picture so you could see the front of the mermaid.

Concerning the statue, I learned a couple things. First, I was surprised how close to shore the statue is. You can actually step from the shore to the statue's base if you wanted to. I thought it was further out in the harbor. Second, sickos have three times mutilated the statue. Twice the statue's head was cut off. In order to prevent the head from being cut off again, authorities poured concrete inside the statue's head making it impossible for them to ever do it again. I thought it really sad that they had to do that in the first place. Lastly, as you can see, it is a very beautiful statue. It is one of the sights I'd recommend seeing in Copenhagen if you can ever visit there.

Iceland Hard Rock Cafe

I emailed Hard Rock Cafe's headquarters today to find out what happened to the Hard Rock Cafe in Reykjavik, Iceland. If you had a t-shirt from there, you had some bragging rights as not everyone goes there. To my delight, they quickly replied. They stated that the Reykjavik cafe was a franchise cafe. The franchise owners decided to close it in May 2005. I suspect they had a real problem with costs. Things are very expensive in Iceland. Because of that, a number of the menu items would've been very pricey and a turn-off to those visiting Iceland. I can understand how that is considering I paid $67 for a large beer, order of onion rings and a 10 ounce steak dinner in Bergen, Norway. Prices like that don't encourage business. Still, I'm saddened they closed it. It was neat getting a t-shirt from there.

Last Day

It was the last day of the tour. I don't know about anyone else in the group but, I wasn't thrilled about that. The 2 weeks had gone by incredibly fast. Today, we were supposed to do a tour of Oslo. Like Copenhagen and Stockholm, a local guide showed up to tell us about Oslo. The reason they had a local guide tell about the city was because they'd be more knowledgeable about it than Arvid would be.

We were supposed to visit City Hall and Frogner Park but city elections prevented us from seeing City Hall. Frogner Park was interesting. This park is filled with nude statues by Gustav Vigeland. They are definitely more laid back in Norway than we are in the states. Some of the statues were suggestive too. Vigeland apparently was fascinated by the circle of life and showed it in a fountain he created at the park. It shows nude children playing in the tree of life progressing to mature men and women to men and women with children and finally elderly men and women before beginning again with young children. It was an interesting series of statues.

Our guide whose name I can't remember took us to a spot where we could get good pictures of the harbor. We also visited one of the piers where the Akershus Fortress is located. The fortress houses the Norwegian resistance museum, the Norwegian Armed Forces museum and a joint headquarters for the Norwegian Ministry of Defense and their Armed Forces. It's an impressive fortress. Incredibly, the cruise liner Star Princess was docked right next to it. The Star Princess was HUGE. The letters spelling out its name were over a foot long which gives you and idea how big it was.

After the city tour, we had a 90 minute break for lunch before the optional tour of the viking ship museum, the Fram museum (an arctic exploration ship) and Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki museum. I used the time to dash to the Oslo Hard Rock Cafe to buy some of their t-shirts. I also bought some of their pins to give to Joyce La Chapelle, Carolyn Clancy and Greta Paulsen. The three ladies were our ladies from North Dakota. They were super nice. Joyce had given me a pin from North Dakota so I felt I had to reciprocate. I don't know if Maryland has any pins (I plan to keep an eye out for one and if I find one send it to her) so I decided to get them Hard Rock Cafe pins.

Diane Porch of our group requested I get a Hard Rock Cafe menu for them if possible. It seems they collect them. I said I'd try. I had no idea what I was getting into to. It turned out I had to speak with the cafe's general manager (I think his name was Jimmy). I told him the situation and he very kindly said he'd see if he could find an old menu. He succeeded. Only the menu didn't say Norway in it. After all the trouble he'd gone through, I wasn't able to appear ungrateful about that. I thanked him and offered to pay for it. He said that wasn't necessary. I also asked him about the Reykjavik Hard Rock Cafe. To my surprise, I found out it's gone. He didn't know anything about what happened with it. I found out that the company that owns the Oslo, Gothenburg and Stockholm cafes is trying to get the licence for Finland, Latvia and Estonia. There might be new Hard Rock Cafes on the horizon in those countries. More t-shirts for me to collect.

I returned to the hotel and dropped of my t-shirts. Our city guide returned to take us to the viking ship museum. The museum has 3 viking ships that were buried with important viking nobles. Two of the ships were in outstanding condition. It was something to see them. The museum showed artifacts they'd found with the ships. Some of those were also very impressive.

After the viking museum, we visited the Fram museum. The museum is built around the Fram which is a pretty big ship. You can actually go onboard the Fram and explore it. The ship made 3 exploration voyages and helped enormously in mapping these previously unknown areas.

Thor Heyerdah's Kon-Tiki museum was our last stop. It was something to see these fascinating ships. We also got to see an 8 minute film on Heyerdahl's voyage on the Kon-Tiki. It was quite a voyage.

The last thing we had on our itinerary was the farewell dinner. It was held at the hotel. The hotel did a nice job. The food was superbly presented and was very tasty. We made chit-chat one last time with those we'd become friends with. Around 8:30 p.m., the dinner broke up. We had to get up early the next morning to catch the bus to the airport. Everyone shook hands or hugged one last time. I very much doubt I'll ever see any of these people again. They were wonderful people. They made my trip to Denmark, Sweden and Norway far more enjoyable. I very much enjoyed meeting them. I wish them all the very best.

The next morning, I quickly packed (I was getting pretty good at it by now) and went down to the reception area. The hotel kindly provided us with a box breakfast which I ate in the reception area. At 5 till 7 a.m., it was time to board the bus for the airport. The airport was 35 minutes away. Once there, we waited for the Continental Airlines check-in to open up. Once they did, those of use flying on the flight checked out luggage in and made our way to security. That's where I found out I should've packed my large jars of vitamins, fish oil tablets and fiber pills. Because of those, I had to open my carry-on bag so they could inspect it. At the game, security was doing random checks. Harvey got tagged and I ragged on him about looking like a suspicious character. The flight to Newark was uneventful. Thanks to the Sudoku game Harvey told me about, I was able to waste 4 hours of the flight playing it. When we arrived at Newark, we had to go through Customs, re-check our luggage and go through security again. That's where I lost a large tube of toothpaste as I guess that was forbidden in carry-ons. I plan to make sure I pack that next time.

That concludes my Scandanavian adventure. The tour reconfirmed my high opinion of Globus tours. I can't wait to take another one. I'm looking forward to their 2008 catalog where I'll be able to see the dates for their France tour. Hopefully, this time next year I'll be on a French adventure. We'll see. Cheers all!

FYI

I arrived back safely yesterday. My flights back were uneventful. Thanks to Harvey, I found out about the game Soduku. Its a game where you try to place the numbers 1 to 9 in colums and rows and 3 by 3 squares and the numbers can't repeat in the columns, rows and squares. You have to use logic to figure out where the numbers go. It's a challenging game as well as a good way to exercise one's noggin. As luck would have it, the flight had an electronic version for sale in its duty free store. I bought one and proceeded to play the game 4 times during the flight. It was a great way to make the time go by.

When I got home, I was relieved to find everything the way I'd left it. There wasn't anyone to watch my apartment while I was gone and I was afraid someone might break in while I was gone. Thankfully, that didn't happen. Once I got sorted out, I visited the Baldons to find out what had been happening while I was gone. I wanted to give Modestine (I hope I have that right) her Hard Rock Cafe t-shirt. She'd asked for something from over there and I decided to give her a t-shirt from Stockholm. I found out Maryland has been having 100 plus degree days while I was gone. I was soooo glad I missed those. I wasn't thrilled when I arrived at Baltimore Washington International (BWI) Airport and heard the temperature was 88 degrees. I don't like hot weather. I'm not looking forward to delivering mail in it. I plan to go into the Post Office today to pick up my held mail and find out when I'll go back to work. It'll probably be Friday. We'll see.

Oslo

We departed around our usual time (8:40 a.m.) from the Dr. Holms Hotel. We had a long drive ahead of us. We head to drive to south and east to Oslo. It isn't super hard driving south in Norway but driving east can be because of the fjords. To break up the monotony of the drive, we stopped at the Torpo stave church. Unlike other places where the people totally tore down the old stave churches, this one was saved somewhat. A good deal of it was torn down and the remaining church is a shadow of what it had once been. Still, it was an interesting church. A guide told us about the church and pointed out various highlights. It has a fine example of Medieval art in its nave which has a painted story of Jesus and Saint Margaret.

After visiting the church, we drove to Gol where we took a pitstop so everyone could use the bathroom. From there, we drove over 2 hours to Oslo.

Oslo is the capital of Norway and it's a good size city. It also has an active port which sees a number of ships including cruise ships. The day after we arrived, the Star Princess from the Princess Cruise Line arrived. It was one BIG ship!

After we arrived at our hotel the Radisson Scandanavia, our guide Arvid hustled to get our rooms keys. The afternoon was free but, Globus offered two optional tours. You could visit the Museum of Skiing and see the Holmenkollen ski jump with dinner afterwards or just to the dinner. I opted to do the museum and the dinner. We left at 6 p.m. and Per our driver dropped 15 of us off at the museum. It was then that we found out our guide Arvid had committed a boo-boo. It seems he didn't call the museum to make sure it was open. When we arrived, it was locked up tight. Arvid managed to speak with the cleaning lady who was leaving as we arrived. Not only couldn't we see the museum, we couldn't go to the top of the ski jump. Lastly, we couldn't call our bus back so we could join the rest of the group that was going to the dinner. Arvid finally found Per's number and got him to come back.

Per stopped at a couple places so those of us who stopped at the museum could take pictures. One place of note was the status of King Olav V who was a very beloved monarch. He was also a very capable cross country skier and the statue shows him doing that. It was a nice statue.

After the photo stops, we proceeded to the restaurant which was at a hotel at the top of Holmenkollen. I don't remember its name. The dinner itself was a fine example of fine dining. All of the food was superbly presented and it tasted great. My only complaint was how LONG they took to serve it. Like at the Dr. Holms Hotel, I was ready to chow down and they took forever to serve the food.

Without a doubt, one of the highlights of the tour was what happened after dinner at Holmenkollen. The group walked to the bar where those who wanted it could have coffee. Then, we walked out onto the terrace. The terrace overlooked the city of Oslo. By now, it was dark and you could see the city all lit up. It was incredibly beautiful. This would've made a perfect ending to our tour but, we still had a tour of Oslo as well as a farewell dinner at the hotel. Stay tuned for my next hopefully interesting episode of my Scandanavia adventure. Cheers!

Geilo

Because the tour itinerary promised that people would have a chance to walk around Bergen in the morning, we left later than usual. Normally, this would've hurt us at our arriving destination. However, in the case of Geilo, there wasn't anything to do there. Geilo is a known Norwegian ski town. As it is late summer, none of us were going to do any skiing so there wasn't any rush to get to Geilo. Still, our drive to Geilo wasn't entirely boring.

We stopped at one large waterfall called Stein something. The thing that is so interesting about this fall is that you can walk behind it. It was pretty neat. Another neat thing we did was take a short ferry ride across Hardangerfjord. The crossing only took 20 minutes but, I found it neat.

The rest of the drive to Dr. Holmes Hotel was uneventful. The hotel itself was founded as a place to treat respiratory diseases and became very successful. Later, it served those who liked to ski in Geilo. The hotel has a 6 lane American bowling alley which surprised me. It also has a spa with a wading pool, whirlpool, hotpool and good size swimming pool. I saw the swimming pool and decided a swim would help me burn some pre-dinner calories. The swim ended up being fantastic. Afterwards, I changed back for the group dinner.

The dinner was supposed to be a buffet but, the summer season was over so the hotel changed it to a set meal. Each of the course was superbly presented BUT I found the staff were incredibly slow to serve them. I was ready to chow down. I wanted FOOD! Instead, the meal dragged and we ended up not finishing till past 9 p.m. It was very annoying.

After the dinner, it was time to crash. The hotel's breakfast buffet turned out to decent though we had the same cramped seating we had the night before. We finally departed the hotel at 8:40 a.m. for Oslo.

Note: The rest of my adventure blogs will be reported from home. Tomorrow morning, I'll fly back to the U.S. It saddens me that the tour is coming to an end. Yet, it has been a fun tour. I can't wait to take another one. Harvey and I are looking at taking a Globus tour of France late next summer. It would be a lot of fun. We'll see if it happens. Cheers all!

Bergen

We boarded the ferry around 8:45 a.m. It was a strictly passenger ferry. (they have 2 kinds, the other is a combination car and passenger ferry) There were at least a couple groups heading for Gundervegan (I hope I have that spelling right). Unlike the train, the boat travelled slowly which made it easier to take pictures of the waterfalls, towns along the fjord and the fjord itself. One town called Diordal could only be reached by boat. It was reported that villagers there lived to great old age in part because of the pure water they drank. We saw farms located far up on the mountains. One farm at one time could only be reached by ladder! The views were extremely scenic. All totalled, the cruise lasted 2 hours. It was seriously awesome.

At Gundervegan, we left the ferry and boarded our bus. Our guide then offered us the choice of taking the dull boring way to Bergen or the more adventuresome route. We chose the more adventuresome route. Little did we realize what we were getting ourselves into. The more adventuresome route went along a twisting turning road with mere inches to spare on the sides. A driving mistake could be disastrous. Our respect for your driver Pere increased dramatically. Still, the views were awesome and we saw two more stunning waterfalls during the climb. It was an incredible drive.

After surviving the adventuresome route to the main Bergen road, things became more quiet. We had a long drive to Bergen. Interestingly, we had to pass through 38 tunnels to get there. It gives you an idea of how mountainous Norway is. We finally arrived around 4 p.m. I think. It was grey and drizzly. Harvey and I checked out the fish market which was interesting. We also visited Harald's Hall which dates from the beginning of Bergen and Rosencrantz tower. While there, we saw a re-enactor group that was skirmishing. It was interesting to watch them fight. They had real swords, spears and axes. We also checked out the buildings from the Hanseatic League times. They were neat old wooden buildings. Bergen was one of the towns in the league. I forget what they traded for there. After wandering around a bit more, we had dinner at the Big Horn Steakhouse. The place showed just how expensive Norway can be. I order a large beer, an order of onion rings and a 10 ounce steak with baked potato and corn. The onion rings alone were 70 Norwegian Kronor which breaks out to approximately $12. I received 7 onion rings. That breaks out to over $1.50 per ring. Serious ouch! Still, the meal was good.

After dinner, I called it a day. The next morning, Harvey and I took the funicular up one of the mountains that surrounds Bergen. The views at the top were awesome. You could see the whole harbor from up there. I was able to get some really good pictures. After that, I headed over to Harald's Hall and Rosenkrantz tower to take pictures of those. Then, it was time to get back to the hotel. We were departing for Geilo and further adventures. Stay tuned.