Quebec - 28-30th August

We had a four block walk to Gare Central in Montreal to board our train to Quebec. The train was fast, punctual and comfortable for the 3 hour trip to Quebec. The trip provides views of very green countryside, both farms and forests, and of the mighty St Lawrence River.

On the promenade beside Hotel Frontenac

Our Quebec accommodation is delightful old apartments within the walls of the old city of Quebec. The old town is a walled city on two levels - upper and lower - and thankfully has retained much of its history and charm; even if this means lots of tourists. It is World Heritage designated.

We had a walk to get our bearings and had a long lunch at Aux Anciens Canadiens, a restaurant set in one of the oldest houses in the city which serves traditional Québécois food. The meal was excellent (chicken stuffed with duck or a wild meat pie), though the maple syrup pie for dessert was a little too sweet for our tastes. (Memo: watch out for anything that seems to be based o maple syrup). The restaurants here seem to do a fixed price lunch that is great value compared with their evening fare, much as happens in France.

Hotel Frontenac has a prime position in Quebec's old town

More strolling in the old city before returning to our apartments. An expedition was sent for food and Michael headed to the train station to collect the Kindle that he left on the train and that Via Rail very efficiently found and notified us of.

Cheeses, followed by baked salmon and salad made a delightful evening meal.

Quebec is the city that was the start of French Canada. It was the cradle of French development in North America, was the pivotal point of much French history here and it remains the capital of Quebec Province. It remains delightfully (but not, I think, inhospitably) Francophone; the people are welcoming and most have enough English to be very helpful indeed.

On our second day we focussed on the old town, upper and lower. The upper area is larger and probably more gentrified (historically). We spent some time looking at the walls of the city (most are preserved and restored, making it the largest walled town in North America) and then took the Maurice Phipps tour of the town. We wandered down looking at various memorial plaques and found the Ursulines Museum. The Ursiline nuns arrived very early and set up a convent and a school for Amerindians and locals girls - making them the oldest institution of learning for women in North America. Today, the convent operates an historical museum and  remains a teaching centre. We had a look through the museum - these were tough and courageous women, and the museum is excellent.

We wandered through the old town. It is very well preserved. We took in the Catholic (Notre-Dame) and Anglican (Holy Trinity) cathedrals, before finding coffee and a brioche. Lots more wandering with our guide took us to the lower old town, where we found E'Chaude, our lunch stop. We elected the "three small courses" meal - two appetisers and one dessert - all small, but all quite delightful. We had an excellent, and relaxing, lunch.

Course 1: Scallops

 Course 2: Poached Eggs on Mushrooms

Course 3: Quebec tart

Further wanderings brought us to the ferry wharf, where we embarked  a mile across the St Lawrence to Levis. The lookout here provides a great view of old Quebec - the old town and the Plains of Abraham. A relaxed taxi driver took us to the lookout over the river and back to the ferry, which delivered us back to the old town.

After a further brief look around the old town, we took the funicular to the upper town near Hotel Frontenac, so we headed inside for a drink. The bar has a great view over the river, so we shared the view and a bottle of Alsace Riesling.

It had been a great day exploring, so we headed home via a small shop that provided some cheeses, wines and shashliks for our evening meal.

Our friendly fire-truck outside our window

For us, the excitement never ends! Cooking the shashliks the smoke alarm in the apartment went off. No problem - use the broom handle to reset the smoke alarm. All fixed! Now open the door to let some of the smoke out - big error - the building alarm now goes off!

Bottom line - Quebec fire services are very efficient (they arrived within 10 minutes), very courteous and understanding and (according to Bernadette) gorgeous hunks. Problem solved!

The next day, Friday, was our last full day in Quebec. We head off the see the Citadelle, the inner bastion fort of the city. Construction was started by the French, so the design is French, but the English did most of the building. It was designed to protect against the French (initially) and the Americans. It is still a military area, being the base for the famous Royal 22^e Régiment (the name is in French - this is the only Canadian regiment that is Francophone).

Changing of the Guard

By chance, we arrived just in time for the daily "change of the guard" ceremony. This is an elaborate 35 minute performance of marching, and saluting, including the regimental band and the regimental goat. It was actually quite good - these soldiers have been trained to execute this drill very well. Even the goat performed to perfection.

We were then taken on a 90 minute tour of the Citadelle - you can't just wander aroud on your own. There are great views of the St Lawrence and of the Plains of Abraham from the ramparts.

St Lawrence River from La Citedelle

For Canadians, the successful all-Canadian assault on Vimy ridge in 1917 was an event that bound the nation and remains an important memory. Soldiers here salute the memorial cross in the Citadelle when the pass and Je me souviens ("I remember") is the regimental motto (and is roughly equivalent to "lest we forget" in Australia).

Leaving the Citadelle, we passed outside the walls through St Louis Gate. We strolled past the impressive provincial parliament building (called the National Assembly!) and found a small restaurant called L'Hobbit in the St Jean Baptiste area. This was more locals than tourists - a good meal of soup and steak and chips.

Quebec's National Assembly building

Bernadette and Christine decided on a rest for the afternoon, while Michael & Maurice headed off for Battlefields Park. This park includes the Plains of Abraham, where the French and English decided the destiny of Canada in 30 furious minutes in 1759. The Park has a discovery centre, with three good multi-media segments. Our timing was excellent - we did the three multi-media elements and then hopped in the last tour bus of the day.

The bus is a bit kitsch, with a drive/guide dressed as Abraham, the original French farmer of the area. However, it does improve and does give you a sense of how

Martello Tower on the Plains of Abraham

the battle between Woolf and Montcalm proceeded. The park is now a National Monument area, with lush green grass and mature trees, unlike the fields that it was in 1759.

We hopped off the bus near the end to visit a Martello Tower. Developed around 1810, these round defence gun towers are the same as the towers erected along the English south coast to defend against Napoleon. Here, America was the presumed enemy, though the towers never saw action. The tour ticket gives access to the tower, which has displays explaining how they worked.

Back home for a light supper, with limited cooking - we had been spooked by the excitement of the previous evening and we didn't think that the Quebec firemen would be a charming on a repeat visit.

Montreal - 24-27 August

Flight in was a red-eye from Fairbanks, via Chicago. We're back in Canada again - change back to Canadian money.

Contacted the apartment company and found that we could get into the apartment early - a great outcome, as a shower is so welcome after an overnight flight.

Unfortunately, Christine & Maurice are delayed and won't be in until noon tomorrow (Sunday).

For the afternoon, we had a wander around the local area. Our apartment is near Old Montreal, which is quite lively on a Saturday afternoon. We had an excellent meal (trout almondienne) at  a table on the sidewalk, watching the world go by. The city is more French than English, but there is no problem getting by.

Saturday crowd at Jacques Clavier square

It was a day for weddings. We saw one large wedding party at Notre Dame cathedral and about six other wedding groups down near the Palais de Justice. Beautiful weather meant that it was a fine day for wedding photos.

We have found the local supermarket, so it was great to buy food so that we could eat in at night and also for the morning breakfast. However, we'll have to find better wine (perhaps even Canadian wine - I certainly don't want to buy the Australian "Wallaroo" at the 
supermarket).

A well-fed Montreal groundhog

The next morning, we had a lazy start and then took the Metro to Parc Jean-Drapeau, located on two islands in the St Lawrence. Beautiful weather was attracting many people to the park, mainly to an "island beach" on the island. We had a wander around and even saw one of the local groundhogs who live in burrows on the island.

We wanted to be at the apartment to meet Christine & Maurice, so we headed back. They were held up by a long immigration queue, but eventually made it. We had a walk through part of the old town, which was again a busy area, before settling down for a nice lunch in a restaurant chosen at random.

Back at the apartment, we had a light supper and an early night.

Blue tones inside Montreal's Notre-Dame

Next day, we headed out to explore the old town in more detail. We took a tour of Notre-Dame Basilica, which is the premier church of Montreal - but not its cathedral. Apparently, Notre-Dame was built and run by the Suplician order, so when the first bishop arrived he had to build his own cathedral. Not to be outdone (he was also French), he built a large church after the style of St Peter's Basilica.

We then explored the Pointe-a-Calliere Museum. This museum is on the site where Montreal was founded and provides a view on Montreal history and archaeology.

We continued to wander around the old town and the old port area, finding lunch at a restaurant in Place Jacques-Cartier.

St Lawrence cruise

Later we took a one hour cruise on the river from the port. This gives a different view of the city. We saw part of the rapids on the St Lawrence River that made navigation difficult in earlier times. Initially a canal (The Lachine Canal) was constructed to allow craft to by-pass the rapids. This has since been superseded by the larger locks of the St Lawrence Seaway, and the old canal is now an attractive recreation area.

We had dinner at our apartment, having acquired supplies at the local supermarket.

External stairs in Plateau Mont Royal - tough in winter!

Having completed our explorations of the old town and port, we ventured further afield on the next day. Initially, we took the metro to the area called Plateau de Mont Royal, which is an older residential area. Though reduced in popularity some years ago, it is now considered very up-market. Though the day was warming up, we strolled through the streets. The houses are set in tree-lined streets (often maples) and many are of stone with a residence below and with the upper residence reached by an external stair,

We also wandered through the commercial streets, generally of small shops (often fashion) or restaurants, before catching a bus to Mont Royal. Mont Royal is the large hill (Montreallers would say "mountain") near the city, after which the city is named. The hill is topped by a park and by two large cemeteries (one Catholic, the other Protestant), The park is popular in summer (for picnics and walking) and in winter (for cross-country skiing, skating and snow walking). Even though it was a Tuesday, there were plenty of people walking, jogging or picnicking.

On Mont Royal observation point

There are excellent views of Montreal from the observation area on Mont Royal, while the area is landscaped with paths through forests and through more formal grassed areas and a small lake. We had lunch at the restaurant by the lake.

We set out to walk to St Joseph's Oratory, which is situated on the side of the mountain. The temperature had climbed to 26 C, but with the high humidity, this felt like 34 C, so the walk was not pleasant (and it was further than we anticipated). Perhaps the discomfort getting to the Oratory was "karma", because pilgrims apparently come to this place, with numbers climbing the 99 steps up to the church on their knees.

St Joseph's Oratory

The church developed from a small chapel established by a Brother Andre in the early 20th century. Brother Andre was the illiterate doorkeeper of the school across the street, but people claimed that he would heal the sick as well as give spiritual guidance. His superiors brought the adjacent land and let him set up a small chapel to avoid the nuisance of all the people that came calling.

He was clearly popular. His friends set out to build a large church on the spot. Nearly a million people attended his funeral in 1937 and the current church was finished in about 1980. It is very large, over multiple levels (when you've negotiated the 99 steps, you have the benefit of escalators thereafter). The church dome is the third largest of its type (after St Peter's) and the top of the dome is the highest structure in Montreal (but it is on the side of a hill). The building contains a large chapel (the crypt), a smaller chapel full of lit candles (and the canes and crutches of the cured) and a much larger church.

Exhibitions document Brother Andre's life (he is now a saint) and display his heart (too ghoulish!!). Still, they don't charge entrance (they do at Notre-Dame)!

Leaving, we saw a heavily pregnant woman slowly making her way up the stairs on her knees - on  a hot and humid day. She was 80% of the way, and while she was clearly finding it difficult, she seemed determined. Where does piety stop and superstition begin?

We found our bus (with little walking this time) and headed home. A cooked chicken, a baguette and some wine made a fine dinner.

Fairbanks - 23rd August

We had a lazy day, as we had overnight flights to look forward to. Bernadette even finished marking the assignments that she brought!

We had a look around the downtown Fairbanks area, which is fairly small and a bit downbeat. Grey skies and light rain added to the atmosphere.

We had a walk by the river and checked out some of the historical signs and monuments, before heading off to the visitors centre. The visitors centre was excellent. They had a great display on the history and life of the Alaskan interior. This included a fascinating film about a man who, at ago fifty, decided to live in the wilderness. He hand-built a cabin, grew vegetables and fished. He lived in the cabin for thirty years, only leaving when the winters became too much for him. He was clearly an excellent craftsman, but was also an amateur film-maker. This meant that he recorded his time through film and with detailed diaries.

From there we wandered around town, finding a local restaurant (Soapy Smith's) for lunch. The food was good (crab cakes and ribs) and the environment interesting. I met the owner, who was one of thirteen children of the first governor of Alaska. Restaurant walls documented aspects of Fairbanks and Alaskan history, including numbers of photos of his father with notables.

More of a stroll and we found the Fairbanks town museum. This free museum was also well worth time. More on the history of Fairbanks, but also on dog mushing and on the impact of gold rushes on the north. This tied in well with what we had seen in Skagway, which was the jumping off point for the Klondike.

Back round the block to the Coop Diner, which looked just like a diner. We had coffee and shared a cheesecake. The cheesecake was excellent and the coffee fresh and the whole lot only $7.50.

Dahlias, and other flowers, grow large in the long days

We have been surprised and delighted at how friendly people are in Fairbanks, in the hotel, in shops and in the restaurants. The days are getting shorter here - by about an hour a week. People comment that it is possible to see stars at night now, which means that, on the right clear nights, the Northern Lights might be seen. No luck for us though - it's too overcast. People here also seem to be looking forward to the cold weather returning - they seem to be over the "warmer" weather, particularly as they had a dry and quite hot summer (30 days of over 80 F).

A hotel shuttle carried us to Fairbanks International Airport. To give you a sense of scale, this airport has six gates! So, no queues, no fuss.

We have a flight to Chicago and then an hour or so till a flight to Montreal. No meal service, so we buy food to take on the plane (as seems to be the custom in the US).

Denali & Fairbanks - 22nd August

Morning was Denali. We hopped on the shuttle to the Wilderness Access Centre (WAC) to see a short film on the origins of the Park. The Park really exists because a few people saw the importance of preserving wild places and creatures; prior to that the Dall sheep were under real threat due to hunters killing them to supply meat to the workers building the railroad.

So, the Park was created in 1917. Far-sighted early superintendent had a vision for the development of the park. They encouraged tourism and gradually achieved the building of the 80 mile road to Wonder Lake that exists tray. While tourist numbers were low, the popularity of the park grew over time. In 1980, Jimmy Carter increased the size of the park from 2 million acres to 6 million acres, including the 2 million acre wilderness area.

We also headed to the Visitor Centre - to see another film. It was good to have a 5 km walk through the forest from the Visitor Centre to Nevana Canyon, where various shops and resorts are located. We had lunch there, before heading back to our accommodation.

Coming from our hotel in the morning we saw a moose that had been hit by a truck overnight. Going back later, we saw a couple of guys with a pick-up cutting the beast up and loading it. Apparently, you put your name on a list and when you name comes up, you get the next road-kill. So, the highway gets cleared and someone gets a freezer full of meat!

Alaska train heads north

From there, a shuttle took us to the train, for the four hour ride to Fairbanks. Again, we rode through mainly empty country, often of low forests or tundra. The rail track runs by raging streams and over deep ravines.

There is the odd unexpected sight. For example, you find large radomes at one of the three early-warning ballistic missile stations in the world. Incongruously in this pristine country, you find a coal mine and a power station.

Fairbanks is a city of about 32,000. It is a city that is widely spread-out. It is extremely cold in the winter (minus 40 - same either F or C) and can be warm on summer. We leave tomorrow night, which will be plenty of time to see what we need.

Had a good Italian meal near the hotel - halibut on a mushroom risotto.

Denali - 21st August

Today we explore Denali.

Denali is actually the native name for Mt McKinley, which lies at the heart of the park. A large part of the part is wilderness. In this area, there is only one road, which stretches 80 miles into the park. It is a bitumen surface for 15 miles and that is as far as normal traffic is allowed. For the remaining dirt road, only the busses from the transport operator are allowed.

There are tours down the road (a tour means that you get narration and a box lunch and you stay on that bus) and there are shuttles. A shuttle still means narration (though how much is up to the driver) and you bring your own lunch. You can get off the shuttle at any stop and hop on a later one. Both shuttles and tours stop when wildlife is spotted.

We took the shuttle 60 miles out to Eielson Visitor Centre. We had a great driver, who had been driving here for 13 years. Fortunately, most visibility was good and the rains of yesterday had disappeared.

Grizzly wandering across a riverbed

The drive is through the wilderness area. Initially, the road passes through forest (spruce, birch), then through increasing areas of tundra (scrub). As the road gets higher, vegetation is much more sparse and close to the ground and the hills and valleys evidence the glacial origin of the landscape.

You are constantly on the lookout for wildlife.

So, we saw caribou (same as a reindeer), Dall sheep, a moose, a golden eagle and about eight grizzlies. One grizzly had two cubs; the others were on their own. All the bears seemed to be feeding themselves up, mostly on grasses and berries. One grizzly was frantically digging, probably in search of a ground squirrel.

At Eielson Vistors' Center, looking towards Mt McKinley

Out at Eielson you look for Mt McKinley. As usual, it was partially cloud obscured, but we could see its base.

The shuttle drive is really excellent. The wild landscape of Denali is well worth seeing and the opportunity to see animals in the wild is superb. The Parks Service do a great job in making the wilderness accessible without putting its very nature at risk.

Dinner at McKinley Village, adjacent to our accommodation, was good.

Denali - 20th August

Up early for a quick breakfast and off to the Anchorage Railway Station by 7:15am. The rail is simple - you either go south or north.

We had a booking on the rail to the north, to Denali National Park. Denali is considered a special park; a large wilderness area around the massive Mt McKinley.

It's a mostly single track line, developed in the early 1920's. It's very popular in summer. Our train had three extra "special" carriages, labelled the Wilderness Express, which are for tour passengers from various cruise ships. This wasn't us - we had simple tickets.

However, we all see the same scenery. Our carriage was mostly empty (it was being shifted north, to be ready for a full train south the next day). We had comfortable seats and access to a "dome car". There was also a café and a dining car.

Denali Express and an Alaska River

The trip was eight hours. The train isn't fast - the total distance is about 280 miles. However the ride is comfortable and you get a look at lots of scenery in inner Alaska.

You spend about 45 minutes getting out of Anchorage, but that's only because the city is widely dispersed. For most of this, you are travelling through forests (birches, spruces and other softwoods). As you continue, you also see small lakes, with cabins surrounding them.

In many ways, the scenery isn't far different to much of Siberia or Russia. Softwood forests, often dense, but otherwise areas of sodden open areas - there is a lot of water around. Alaskans obviously like the outdoors - you see cabins in many places.

View from Hurricane Gulch Bridge

Moving further in, you see more and more rivers. Often they are grey water (from glaciers, with glacial silt), and sometimes clear water. What you don't see, is lots of people - this is very much a thinly populated state. In fact, over 40% of the people live in Anchorage. The railway is important because there aren't many roads.

Moving closer to Denali, the hills get steeper and higher as you move into mountain country. Unfortunately, it's overcast and unclear, so Mt McKinley remains elusive. Perhaps we'll find it tomorrow.

Eventually, we get to Denali. Lots of people get off the train, and lots more are waiting to get on to get to Fairbanks. A shuttle bus is waiting (along with many others) and collects us for transport to our accommodation about 7 miles south of the park entrance. Here, accommodations tends to be clustered at this area, or a couple of miles north of the entrance - there is no accommodation in the park (except camping).

Our room is clean and comfortable - even including internet and an available laundry. We'll try the restaurant tonight. Tomorrow we head into the park.

Anchorage - 19th August

Our ship docked at Whittier before 7am. A thick fog blanketed the inlet. We had breakfast and headed off the ship.

Whittier isn't much more than a port. It is at the head of Prince William Sound and is otherwise hemmed in by mountains. It was nothing until WW2, when the US forces decided to build a secret port here. This was because of the deep water and because the place was defensible - it is protected by mountains and the frequent fog shields against attack.

The Army cut a long single width rail tunnel through the mountains to enable entry and exit. The rail tracks were paved in 2000 and the tunnel is now shared between rail and, alternatively, traffic in and out. Exit traffic gets 15 minutes from the hour.

Photo stop on the Whittier Road

We found our bus and waited for everyone to arrive and for the exit timeslot. Whittier is about 90 minutes from Anchorage. We had a photo-stop to see Portage glacier and then a stop at a wildlife refuge where we saw a few disinterested moose, elks and bison.

We got to our Anchorage hotel about midday. Anchorage isn't really an attractive city, and the gloom and rain didn't help. Nonetheless, Anchorage is by far the largest city in Alaska, with about 300,000 inhabitants.  The city is spread out over a very large area. The city started as a rail town and then boomed as a service town for the Alaska Oil Pipeline.

We had a wander around. The best thing is the Anchorage Museum, which is excellent. It has displays of northern art and an very good display on the history of Alaska and its people.

We've only got half a day here - tomorrow we get on the train to Denali. Half a day is about right, I think.

We stayed at the Ramada Downtown. It's not flash, but it is clean and the staff are very welcoming. Next-door is the Slippery Salmon Bar and Grill, which has cheap and filling meals and good cold beer and wine.

Hubbard Glacier - 18th August

We awoke to see ice in the water. We were approaching the Hubbard Glacier, which is the largest tidewater glacier in North America. By 8am, the large glacier was clearly in sight, with the smaller, dirtier Turner Glacier to its left.

At Hubbard Glacier

We had a great time at the Hubbard. While there was some light rain, we had a very clear view of the glacier, which stretches miles across the bay. The terminal wall glistened with the pale blue colour of glacier ice as we crept closer. In fact, the ship come less than 100m from the 320 foot high wall. It was clearly an exception view, both in terms of visibility and how close we approached – so much so that the crew were coming out and taking photographs. Occasional rifle-shot sounds heralded calving events, though this glacier was less active in this regard than the Margerie yesterday.

Blue ice on the face of Hubbard Glacier

We spent about an hour at the glacier, with the captain taking the ship through a slow rotation. The ship then headed off towards the open sea,

This was our last full day on the ship. We relaxed and caught up with our reading. We also packed our bags and prepared to leave early tomorrow.

Dinner was in the Churrascaria restaurant. Cuts of meat are barbequed on long skewers abn brought to your table progressively. They keep bringing meat of various sorts (beef, lamb, chicken, pork, ribs, sausages) until you say "stop". The meat was actually very good.

Glacier Bay - 17th August

Two hundred and fifty years ago, Glacier Bay didn’t exist – it was one giant ice river over 100 miles long and thousands of feet deep. This was the end of the Little Ice Age. Today, that giant glacier is gone, having retreated north.

What remains is a bay, with many islands and inlets, along with numbers of glaciers in the upper bay that flow down from the high peaks. Some of these glaciers are tidewater glaciers – they flow down to the sea and calve off chunks of ice that form diamond-like bergs in the cold waters.

The area is Glacier Bay National Park; a World Heritage area. This is for the glaciers themselves and also for the evidence of the regeneration of the land as plants and animals gradually reclaim the land left barren by the ice sheets.

From about 7 am, we were in Glacier Bay. It was much colder, but still clear and cloudy. This was a great day here; normally it is very foggy with very poor visibility.

Selfie at Glacier Bay

We slowly cruised up the bay, with narration by Parks Rangers who had come on board. We got to the upper reaches of the bay. Towering peaks were snow-covered, with significant ice sheets. We crawled up Tarr Inlet to see Margerie Glacier. This glistening blue ice river comes down to the water Our captain  brought the ship up quite close to the glacier edge (maybe 250m away) and we could see the mile wide glacier and the 250 foot high edge. The view was brilliant. Every so often we would hear a loud crack and a part of the edge would crash off into the ocean. Margerie Glacier is stable, in that it is neither advancing nor retreating. It moves at about 7 feet per day.

Margerie Glacier calving

An adjacent glacier, the Grand Pacific Glacier is wider but is a dirty colour, which is apparently evidence that it is retreating. Apparently, we had a special day, in terms of the visibility and the willingness of our captain to position the ship close to the glacier. We stayed there for over an hour, as the captain slowly rotated the ship so that the glacier was seen from both sides. We were out on the observation deck at the front, enjoying the spectacle, even though it was very cold with light rain.

From there we headed up Johns Hopkins Inlet to see John Hopkins Glacier. This is very active, advancing at 12 feet per day. It is

Johns Hopkins Glacier

actually advancing. Again, we were lucky with the visibility and also lucky to get close (though nowhere near as close as we were to Margerie, because this glacier puts out more icebergs in a narrower channel, making passage difficult).

Turning, we headed out, passing Lamplugh Glacier and Reid Glacier. We spent some time looking for wildlife and actually saw a whale and some sea lions.

We had dinner in the Four Seasons Restaurant, one of the two large free restaurants. A table for two, by the window, was accompanied by a quite good meal. We followed with drinks and dancing in the forward Observation Lounge and then a dip in the hot tub. In fact, the hot tubs are very popular.

Tomorrow is our last full day. We spend it on the water, including time at Hubbard Glacier.

Skagway - 16th August

Skagway is the “end of the line” for the marine ferries. However, unlike the other towns we had seen, it is connected by road to the outside, with a highway going inland to meet the Alaska Highway in Canada.

Skagway’s zenith was 1887 to 1888, when it was the primary jumping off point for miners in the rush to the Klondike gold fields in the Yukon. The town sprang from nothing to a lawless community of over 20000. Miners struggled to get to the Klondike fields 700 miles inland. Initially this meant a torturous climb over While Pass from Skagway, or the alternative, steeper, Chilkoot Trail from nearby Dye, to reach Lake Bennett. Once there, you built a boat and sailed via lakes and rivers to Dawson. Both trails crossed into Canada within 20 miles and the Northwest Police were there to ensure that you had 2000 lbs. of gear per person before you could proceed (about that required to live for a year in the remote wilderness). So, many trips were necessary for a person to cart their 2000 lbs. of possessions from Skagway to the lake. Unsurprisingly, about half the people who set out didn’t make it to Dawson City, but many thousands did.

Today Skagway is a town of under 1000, existing on tourism – they get about one million visitors a year (750,000 by cruise ship, the rest by the RVs that stream from the highway).

White Pass & Yukon Railway

The key attractions are the town itself, particularly the main street which retains many buildings from the early days, and the narrow gauge railway that runs over White Pass to Whitehorse in Canada.

The railway was built around 1900, to service the miners. Of course, by then much of the rush had ended. Nonetheless, the railway soldiered on, even paying dividends to 1912. Like the railway, the town fell away dramatically in the early 1900’s, but the deep-water ice-free port and the railway meant that it survived as a very small transport hub and as a limited tourist destination.

Skagway main street

A major revival in the town’s fortunes occurred in 1941, when the Army came to town. They set up a major operation to use the port and railway to support the rapid construction of the Alaska-Canada Highway, so that the north could be strengthened against the threat of Japanese attack. The war ended and the railway went from 30 trains a day to less than one.  The railway died out in the 1980’s but was revived as a tourist attraction in the summer months.

Our ship docked about 7am. Following a leisurely breakfast, we headed into town. The day was colder and rain was threatening, so we had lost our sunny days. Nonetheless, this was a good day for this part of Alaska.

Red Onion Saloon (and formerly a brothel)

The main street is attractive, with wooden buildings from the 1900’s and wooden boardwalks. Six blocks of the town are a Historic District that forms part of the Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park. There is a walking trail around the town, describing the old buildings and the history of the town. It also wanders by Pullen Creek, when we again saw salmon spawning.

Of course, most of the shops are the ubiquitous jewellery, shirt or curio shops, but the old buildings themselves are of interest. We wandered around for a few hours, including spending time at the excellent local museum and the local library to use the Internet. We then headed back to the ship.

The restaurant we had booked for that night was Teppanyaki. This is a small space, for about 12 people, but provided an excellent meal. As we ate, our ship slipped its mooring and headed out to sea, toward Glacier Bay.

Juneau - 15th August

We awoke to find ourselves docked in Juneau, the capital of Alaska. It’s a city nestled on the edge of a channel and surrounded by mountains. It has about 44 miles of road, which connect nowhere else – sea or air is the only transport. It isn’t large – about 30,000 people, but it certainly the largest city in south-eastern Alaska.

Though this part of Alaska is famous for rain and mists – Juneau has fifteen sunny days a year – we had a beautiful, clear day.

The famous sight at Juneau is the Mendenhall Glacier, a “drive to” glacier that sprawls 12 miles down a valley before its ice face on Mendenhall Lake. There were four large cruise ships docked in Juneau. Booths on dockside sell tickets to tours, while nearby shops offer a tourist shopping experience. Apparently, many of the shops close to the docks are either owned by the cruise lines or have commission arrangements with the cruise lines. Jewellery seems to be the most common wares, particularly diamonds and tanzanite. Exactly why you would come to Alaska to buy diamonds isn’t clear. Other ships sell shirts and various tourist curios.

Sockeye salmon spawning

We bought bus tickets to Mendenhall Glacier, which is about 13 miles out of town. You walk up to the visitor centre on a boardwalk beside a small stream. Sockeye salmon spawn at this time of the year. We saw large sockeyes in the stream. They were their spawning colour – a deep red. The female create small depressions in the stream bed for their eggs and the females and males keep other fish away. Dead salmon are seen – some have been taken by bears, others have died after spawning. It was great to see the stream with so many spawning fish making their way upstream.

Mendenhall Glacier

We walked to a photo point to see Mendenhall, which you see from a distance, across the lake that the glacier calves into. The visitor centre also has some good presentations.

Back to town, we had a drink and meal in the Red Dog saloon, an old saloon with a sawdust floor and a honky-tonk player.

The Juneau Library over the road gave us access to Interest and the opportunity to catch up on mail. The weather started to close in, with light rain and mist, so we headed back to the ship.

That night we ate at the East Meets West restaurant, the steakhouse on the ship. The steak was excellent - a large rare rib-eye, with an excellent Californian cabernet sauvignon.

Ketchikan - 14th August

Clocks back an hour to Alaskan time gave us an extra hour’s sleep. Even so, we had to rise early to get breakfast early. We awoke to find ourselves docked in Ketchikan. This is a small town strung out along the coastline of a rugged tree-clad island. Ketchikan was the “world-capital” of salmon catching and canning in the 1920’s, but is not probably more reliant on tourism. Before 9:30, two other large ships slipped into dock, so there were plenty of tourists looking for something to do or buy.

Planes and boats are the travel choices here – Ketchikan has on 32 miles of road and isn’t connected to anywhere else by road. There is a ferry system – called a marine highway – operated by the government that connects these isolated coastal communities with the rest of Alaska and with the continental US. Otherwise, float planes are the local taxi service.

The island is a large lump of granite, with a thin soil covering. This means that things like water and sewer pipes can’t be buried, and even though winter is relatively mild, there is some chance that they will freeze in winter. Ketchikan has around 170 inches of rain a year and most people collect rain run-off into cisterns to provide their water. Currently, they are in a drought (a relative term), which means that individuals often have to buy tanker loads of water from the city council. For us, Ketchikan offered a warm, sunny day with mostly blue skies.

This was ideal, as we had booked a flight to a bear viewing area. This involved travel in a float plane

Boarding the float plane

for about 30 minutes, across the Tongass National Forest to land on a secluded shore. Our pilot was a local, Michelle, who has operated her air service for 20 years. We had great views. The flight was at low altitude, often travelling down valleys rather than over them, ending with a few sharp banks and then a beautifully executed landing through what looked like a narrow gap between the shore and an island to finish right at the landing pontoon.

A ten minute van ride brought us to the start of our short trail to the bear viewing platform. Bear safety is taken seriously – our guide carried a can of bear-capsicum spray and a 44 revolver.  The viewing platform is a “hide” located about 10 metres above a small waterfall on a creek. Large salmon were evident in the water, but apparently the low water level (due to the lack of heavy rain) meant that the fish could not jump further up the stream.

Then, patience, and quiet, was required. After a while we were rewarded as a large black bear wandered down to the stream, had a brief look around and wandered across the water and into the forest. At least we had seen a bear!

About 20 minutes later a female bear with two cubs in tow appeared. They didn’t seem too interested in fishing, but did poke around for a while before disappearing. One cub clearly had an injured back paw.

After a longer wait, mamma bear and cubs reappeared and nosed around the stream for a while, while we excitedly blazed away with cameras.

We had seen what we came for – we had spent about 2 hours at the viewing platform. It was back to the pontoon to see our plane appearing. We loaded on and headed back to Ketchikan, again weaving through valleys before a sweep over the town and a bank to drop down to the water by the dock.

We headed back to the ship for lunch, and then left the ship for a quick stroll around Ketchikan. An hour is plenty for this and, in fact, much of the shops seem to be various curio shops or jewellery stores. They must do plenty of business as large numbers of the passengers seemed to be returning to the ship laden with shopping bags.

At 4pm, our ship slipped its moorings and continued through the maze that is the Inland Passage in Alaska. Apparently, there are 5000 islands in this state, manner forming a jumble among this part of the coast where the eastern “tail” of the state forms the coast. We were told that while both black and brown bears are found on the mainland, each island will be all black or all brown bears. We were surprised to find that bears are hunted (and eaten) – the season opens 1^st September. The restrictions are that they can’t be hunted within a quarter mile of a stream or a road and there seem to be bag limits.

Anxious to avoid the main dining room, we have booked for the Le Bistro restaurant tonight. It turned out to be excellent. A starter of scallops was excellent, followed by duck and pinot noir. We selected the brulee desert and arranged to take it back to our room, to be eaten later after we had been to the show.

Apparently, entertainment is an important thing on cruises (so we are told by the people who have been on multiple cruises). Our ship has various entertainment areas, from pianos in bars to a nightclub and a large theatre (and the obligatory casino). We went to the theatre to see a one hour show by two acrobats who had been part of Cirque de Soleil. They were excellent.

Inside Passage - 13th August

We had a great sleep. The water is flat calm and the ship glides along with no sense of motion. We found breakfast and avoided the temptation to eat more than necessary. We feel that we, more or less, know our way around now and the stairs are proving good exercise.

We spent a few hours reading our books before lunch.

There are lots of lunch options – we choose the German lunch on the large outdoors area near the stern. Like most meals, it was a buffet, so you could choose that suited you. For us, excellent roast pork and a good salad, with some NZ sav blanc. We sat at a small table by the starboard side and watched the world slip by. Here the ship travels through very narrow channels with islands on both

An orca waves its fin at us

sides, often only 50m or so away. The land is rugged and thickly forested with fir trees down to the waterline. You see fish jumping in the water. We watched groups of whales (orcas, we think) pass by the ship, with spouts blowing and occasional fins flapping or tails displayed.

After a while we went back to our cabin and had a coffee sitting on the balcony and watching the shoreline and the whales go by. It’s certainly very beautiful and very relaxing.

Following pre-dinner drinks at a couple of bars, we headed for dinner in the main dining room. We found bars that were empty – there is no sense of the number of people that are on the ship. For dinner, we were seated with an American couple and a Canadian couple, all of whom seemed to have been on multiple cruises around the globe. Both couples had joined this cruise at the last minute, apparently at substantial discounts. This seemed to be the way both couples approached cruising.

The main dining room was disappointing. A limited a la carte looked fine but the food was pretty poor and the service worse. We won’t bother with this dining room again.

Embarkation

After our rapid tour of Vancouver’s sights yesterday, we had a morning to fill in the gaps before we headed for the dock. We walked downtown, along Granville (the main north-south street) – it was now a normal street, having been converted into a mall for the weekend. We made a quick stop at the Telus store to sort out our SIM card – this Canadian mobile phone company sells pre-paid SIMs, but their internet site only accepts refills based on a Canadian credit card!

Then off to have a look at the Vancouver library, based in an interesting modern building with a circular theme. We had a stop for a coffee, before continuing to wander. We headed south, which took us through the Yaletown district. Apparently once an area of warehouses, it is now a much more up-market domain of apartments and restaurants – certainly it seemed the nicest inner-city area.

Following a cheap lunch at a Yaletown Chinese (which produced the only pork chow mien that could ever be described as vegetarian), we headed back to the hotel to collect our bags and get a taxi to the wharf, which is adjacent to the main downtown area.

There were three boats leaving that afternoon which made for quite a crowd. You drop your bags for your boat and join the queue to get through customs. That took about 60 minutes, followed by another 30 minutes to book into the boat. No stress – just go with the flow.

Aboard we found our cabin and had a brief look around, before the mandatory safety drill. At least, they take the drill seriously (mandatory, no drinks or food, silence please), but do it in good spirit. OK, so we are evacuation station E, lifeboat 9 (the evacuation station is printed on the mag card that is our room key and our charge card – there’s no cash on the ship). Out cabin is great – I’ve stayed in smaller hotel rooms. A double bed, a compact bathroom, a couch, plenty of storage, TV, fridge, coffee maker and a glass sliding door to a balcony.

Firstly, this is a seriously big ship. It’s about 78000 tons, with 2000 passengers and nearly 1000 crew. It has 12 levels (though passengers use levels four to 12). First rule for us – stairs are mandatory; lifts are out; so that we can try to offset the food and wine. Passengers seem to be mainly US or Canadians, but a big mix of others (Mexican, Chinese, Italian, Spanish), with many age groups.

The corridors go on forever!

There are bars and restaurants everywhere in a maze spread over 8 levels. We found a bar and had a few drinks, watching as the ship slid out of the berth and glided out of Vancouver harbour.

Later, we found our way, with some guidance, to our dinner reservation in the Italian restaurant. It has a great location with tables against large windows. The food was fine (not brilliant, but OK) and the service great. The waitress even arranged to send the deserts that we didn’t want to our room for later!

We are still trying to sort out how the ship works, but it all seems OK. Surprisingly, it doesn’t seem at all crowded, though the ship is fully booked.

Vancouver

The usual long, boring flight carried us from Melbourne to Vancouver. That's simply geography; nothing to do with the airlines. Virgin Australia from MEL to LAX was fine (in fact, great service and a comfortable seat in business class, though the cabin temperature was too high for my comfort). A six hour layover in LAX was simply six hours of our lives for no payback, then a comparatively short three hour trip to Vancouver. So, left at 11 am Melbourne time, arrived about 25 hours later at about 6pm Vancouver time(same day).

A brief walk and a Japanese meal (as you would in Canada) and off to bed, and a great night's sleep.

Sunday in Vancouver presented light, then heavy rain. By noon, the rain was gone and the temperature rose to 20 C. After we found the tourist office and collected some info, we headed off to Gastown for a stroll and brunch. Then by bus to Stanley Park. We found the bike hire place and collected some bikes.

It's about 10 Km around the boundary of Stanley Park and it's very popular. We did the loop at  a leisurely pace (as did everyone else - the speed limit is 15 km/h, all in one direction). It was a beautiful day with great views. 

Bus back to town and Chinatown, Sun Yet Sen gardens are great and we will be back, but otherwise Chinatown isnot impressive. Off by foot for a drink at a local bar.

Then off to dinner in Yaletown, which is a few blocks east of our hotel. We found a great seafood joint called Rodney's - had fresh oysters, scallops and shrimps (prawns) - recommended. Much of Vancouver might not be great, but Yaletown has a really good vibe.