Welcome home

Sunday Morning, as the Velvet Underground famously sang many years ago, turned out to be a sunny, but breezy one; certainly here in west Kent. It dawned on me yesterday, that it’s a week since I last posted anything on the blog, and whilst I’ve got several articles on the ancient laptop I took with me, in various stages of completion, none of them are ready to be “put to bed,” as they say in the print trade. Instead, here’s a bit of a catch up from when we arrived back In England, on Friday.

Our cruise ship docked at Southampton just after 6.30 am. We’d “gained” an extra hour overnight, as the ship’s clock changed from Central European Time to British Summer Time. Less than three hours later we were off the ship, had collected our suitcases, and standing outside the arrivals section of the Mayflower Cruise Terminal, in the cool damp of a typical English summer’s morning.

We’d phoned West Quay Cars - the taxi company recommended by both the hotel, and the agent we booked with – Holiday Extra, and had been asked to confirm our location. There are several cruise terminals at Southampton, so once establishing which one we were at, we were informed that we would shortly receive a text, giving the type of car, plus registration details, of the vehicle we should look out for.

True to the company's word, the taxi duly arrived, and the driver kindly loaded our two, rather heavy, large suitcases, one medium one, plus my bulging laptop rucksack, into the boot. We then set off through the surprisingly traffic free streets of Southampton, to the hotel, where we had left the car two weeks previously. This was the Macdonald Botley Hotel situated in the expanding village of the same name, to the north east of Southampton.

I wrote about Donald Macdonald and his chain of hotels, prior to our departure, and fortunately our taxi driver knew exactly where it was. “I live behind it,” he told us, so good job that Mrs PBT’s didn’t slate the place off too much! After locating the car, and paying the driver, the next question was will the car start? I’d never left it for that length of time, and had visions of a flat battery, followed by a call for help to Britannia Rescue, but fortunately the engine turned over fine and was up and running straight away. It was then time to head for the hills, or in our case, "Sunny Tunny," on the edge of the High Weald.

I should have known better than to trust a sat-nav, but I was feeling lazy, and Mrs PBT’s did kindly offer to find us the best route home. My idea of this was a leisurely, cross-country drive, along the meandering, but picturesque A272, so when Google directed us onto the London-bound M3, I wasn’t exactly over-enthralled. The traffic levels were high too, but once committed, I decided that we’d stay with the motorways. The M25 was even busier – no surprises there, so after calling in at Cobham Services for a much-needed coffee, and a not quite so needed M&S sandwich, I decided to leave the motorway at Jct. 8, which is the Reigate turning.

Cobham services isn’t really fit for purpose, as the facilities are all on the south (clockwise) side of the motorway, and consequently have to cope with hungry and thirsty people traveling in both directions. I should have realised this, after stopping there on the outward journey to Southampton, but needing both a wee, plus that cup of coffee, Cobham it was, and yes, it was absolutely rammed! The A25 from Reigate to Sevenoaks, was a nice quiet drive, which was some compensation, and after a spot of grocery shopping at Riverhead, we arrived home at around 3pm. 

Matthew had looked after the house whilst we were away, and he had also been watering most of the garden plants that need it, particularly the greenhouse. There were a few that he’d missed though, so after sorting these rather wilted specimens out, it was the start of the great un-pack. I’ll give the domestic details a rest now, apart from saying that Mrs PBT’s took far too many clothes, a fact that even she admitted! I became side-tracked yesterday evening, by a software issue when I tried uploading the 300+ photos I’d taken, onto my desktop PC, and this is why I wasn’t able to post anything until now. 

What I will say though, is the cruise was an absolute delight, that provided the perfect opportunity of relaxing whilst enjoying some spectacular scenery. More will obviously follow in due course – much more if I’m honest, so don’t say that you weren’t warned!

Cunard Black - Oatmeal Stout

I could get quite used to a glass or three of this excellent "Breakfast Stout," sold onboard ship as Cunard Black. It's available mainly in cans, although the other afternoon I enjoyed a hand-pulled pint of this excellent dark ale, in Queen Mary's onboard pub - the Golden Lion.

I wrote about the beer, after the previous cruise, which we undertook last September, although I don't recall seeing a draft version, back then.

For the beer geeks amongst you, Cunard Black is an oatmeal stout, brewed by Wiltshire brewer, Dark Revolution, to a strength of 5.7%, and is stated to include, coffee, almonds and vanilla in the mix.

 The beer is available at various locations around the ship, as well as the aforementioned Golden Lion. The hand-pulled version may well be cask, and I intend to write some more about this' later on, but my favourite spot was the Terrace Bar, at the stern end of Deck 8, overlooking the swimming pool. 

As in the photo, Cunard Black is only available in cans, away from the pub. It might be heresy for a former CAMRA member to say so, but I actually preferred the can version to the cask, especially as the former was invariably served, slightly chilled. The beer is definitely well worth checking out, in the unlikely event you encounter any of it ashore, but you never know!

Stavanger - Norway

I've been super lazy on this holiday, as well as super-indulgent. I've done plenty of walking, especially around the promenade deck, and have used the stairs rather than the lifts (elevators for any Americans out there), so I don't mean physically lazy. 

What I mean is, that whilst I've done plenty of reading, I've been mentally lazy in other ways, certainly as far as this blog is concerned, but I've never really liked one-finger typing, of the sort I'm doing now on my Smart Phone. 

I brought a battered old laptop with me (more about that later), so most evenings I've been tapping out appropriate posts on a proper keyboard. With no internet connection though these literary gems are going to have to wait until I return home, so in the meantime readers will have to make do with the occasional one- fingered post, like the one.

We're currently moored at the attractive port town, of Stavanger, in Norway, following an enforced change of plan. Our destination following Alesund, was supposed to be Flaam, but after concerns from local inhabitants, regarding the environmental effects of massive cruise liners, like the Queen Mary 2, large vessels are now prohibited from docking there.

Instead, we sailed south, and are now berthed looking out over the quayside of this very pleasant Norwegian town. A walk around the town, earlier this morning, saw me visiting one of the state-owned, liquor stores, (Vinmonopolet), to pick up a selection of locally brewed, stouts and porters, followed by some weaker (below 5% abv) beers from a nearby supermarket.

I haven't checked the exchange rate, although something tells me they are going to work out expensive. Still it's not every day that you get the chance to buy Norwegian brewed, heavy weight, craft beers.

We're leaving Stavanger, layer this afternoon and heading back to fjord land proper. Depending on availability of a 4G signal, I might post another update, but if not it might have to wait until we call in again at Hamburg, on the way home.

Almost ready for the off

I'm pleased to report that Mrs PBT's and I both returned negative results on our Covid antigen tests, and are now cleared to board our cruise ship, the Queen Mary 2 tomorrow afternoon.

We are staying overnight at a hotel that's within half an hour's drive from the port - Southampton, and are now enjoying a relaxing evening, following what has been quite a fraught day.

Internet and IT issues with Mrs PBT's phone didn't help, although I have to say the drive-thru test centre, at Gatwick, worked well.  So after having our nasal swabs taken, we had a 30 minute wait for the results to be emailed through to us.

We drove into nearly Crawley, and parked up. Mine came through OK, but for some reason, the email icon on Eileen's i- phone vanished from the screen. "You wouldn't get that with an Android," I told her, which probably wasn't the wisest thing to have said.

Fortunately, my suggestion of a quick reboot,  did the trick, and after she too returned a negative test it was all systems go. We headed for Southampton, and our pre-booked hotel and parking place.

After turning off the M25, we had a relaxing drive via the A3  and then the A272. The countryside as we crossed from Sussex into Hampshire, was glorious, and as we neared the Meon Valley, it moved on another notch on the scale of superlatives. 

This stretch through West Meon and Meonstoke, brought back memories of walking the South Downs Way, thirteen years ago. We had a spot of difficulty finding the hotel, thanks to the sat-nav on Mrs PBT's phone.

We stopped for a spot of shopping at Wickham, a large and  picturesque village, with an attractive looking Fuller's pub - the King's Head. As we were running late, I thought it wise not to suggest stopping for a drink, but also because the reason for our last minute shopping was me leaving my wash bag at home.

I won't go into the reasons, but it was easily solved with the purchase of a few washing accoutrements from the well-stocked, Co-op, overlooking the village square.

The hotel was comfortable and all one might expect from a modern, corporate hotel, although I didn't know that Ronald McDonald ran his own chain of hotels! Actually the Macdonald group run a chain of hotels both here in the UK and in Ireland and its CEO is called Donald, rather than Ronald.

No decent beer of course and whilst we could have driven off somewhere,  I'd already left the car in the long stay carpark and deposited the keys at reception.

So Perroni it was, and some good, but rather expensive, cod and chips. We are waiting now for the taxi that will take us to the cruise terminal, and once on board we can start to properly relax.

Oak-smoked seasonal beer picks up 5-point Untappd rating

I’m fairly sure that I’ve never awarded a beer on Untappd before, with a rating of 5.0. I know that there has to be a first time for everything, so going by the law of averages, it has to happen sometime, but the beer in question was so good, there was no way that I wasn’t going to award it with the highest rating possible.

I’ll come onto the beer in a minute, after a few paragraphs about Untappd, and my experience of the world’s best known electronic beer ticking app. American in origin, but popular on this side of the Atlantic as well, Un-tapping” beers has become a favourite pastime for many drinkers. The App initially found favour amongst the craft-beer faction, but with the passage of time has found increasing popularity amongst cask drinkers as well.

I wrote a post about Untappd, back in 2015, in which I claimed that the world of beer-ticking had moved on from the days of scruffy, barely legible lists, maintained in tatty old exercise books. I stated that with the advent of the Smart Phone, and the growth in associated Apps, electronic versions of “ticking” were now available, bringing the “delights” of this hobby/obsession to a completely new audience.

I first tried Untappd back in 2013-2014, but gave it up after a short while, primarily for phone-related issues. There were other, more mundane reasons too, such as I forgot to use it or sometimes, I just couldn’t be bothered. I picked up with the App at the start of 2020, after buying a new Smartphone over the Christmas period. My trusty old Galaxy J5 was out of space on its hard-drive, in fact, it was so clogged up that I couldn’t install updates, or even run certain apps.

As well as updating my phone, I took out a new, SIM-only phone contract which came with an enormous (for me) amount of free data, which means I don’t have to worry any more about poor Wi-Fi. Not being able to connect to Untappd in real time, when the pub or bar hadn’t got Wi-Fi, or if it did, the quality and connectivity was poor, was the main reason for me ditching the App, but that’s no longer a problem.

I re-installed Untappd, and found, to my delight, that after all that time, my old account was still there, fully operational and enabling me to pick up from where I’d left off. It’s currently listing 438 beers that I’ve tapped, and whilst I’ve obviously ticked far more over a lifetime of beer drinking, that number is a good starting point – as long as I remember to “tap” them!

So, what about this beer with the five-point rating?  Well it’s Aecht Schlenkerla Eiche –  an 8.0% abv Doppelbock, brewed by Bamberg’s famous,  Schlenkerla "Heller-Bräu" Trum Brauerei. I purchased the bottle at Fuggles Bottle Shop, in Tunbridge Wells, and opened it the other evening. Dark mahogany in colour, this stunning beer is packed with the flavours of intense, chewy, toffee malt, set against a background of oak smoke, and it is oak that is the key here. The majority of Franconian Rauchbiers (smoke beers), are brewed from malt that has been dried in a kiln that is fired with beech wood. Smoke from the latter, imparts an intense smokiness to the dried malt which carries through into the finished beer.

Eiche, is the German word for oak, and the malt for this Doppelbock beer, is kilned with oak wood, rather than beech. This imparts a much more subtle flavour, which allows the toffee and caramel notes from the malt, to shine through. The result, an absolute stunner of a beer that is well worthy of that rare 5-point, rating.

Looking back over past blog posts, this wasn’t actually my first taste of this beer, as during December 2010, I enjoyed a glass of it on its home turf, in the atmospheric surroundings of Heller-Trum’s, world-famous, Aecht Schlenkerla tavern, in the heart of Bamberg’s old town.  I wrote at the time, how I’d popped into Schlenkerla where I was able to sample the strong Christmas Doppelbock called Eiche. I described this stunning dark beer as very moreish, but at 8.0% abv, I thought it unwise to have more than one!

That particular year, Bamberg was blanketed with a thick carpet of snow, which added to the Christmas feel of the town and the surrounding villages. December was also an apt time to visit, as Eiche Doppelbock is only available during the festive season, and thus is a true Christmas beer. I’m not sure how Fuggles got hold of their stock, but I'm glad that I did, although I imagine that it’s all sold out by now.

My most recent visit to Bamberg, took place four years ago, in May 2018. On that visit I was able to buy a couple of bottles of the brewery’s Fasten Bier, or Lent beer.  This seasonal Ur Bock weighs in at 6.5% and is like a stronger version of the brewery's normal strength beer but is sufficiently well-hopped to balance the additional body supplied by the malt. I wasn’t using Untappd back then, so it’s hard to know how I would have scored the beer, but given Schlenkerla’s pedigree and heritage, I imagine it would have been a high rating.

That’s it for the time being, but if you are a fan of smoke beers, keep an eye out for Heller-Trum’s excellent versions, as the brewery is now exporting its beers all over the world.