Way up north to Alaska!

I`ve wanted to sail the Inside Passage to Alaska for years and this year we did it! We sailed with Holland America who after 2 cruises with them I can safely say are my favourite ocean cruise line. The best food and service we`ve had on a cruise ship bar maybe the first one we did on a huge Royal Caribbean ship in the Med when it was all new to us. It was a medium sized boat - the Vollendam - with just over 600 crew and 1400 passengers. Luxurious cruising with class!

   Leaving Vancouver

Finally managed to achieve no 45 on my list of things to do before I`m 64 and lost $20 here.

Gorgeous wooden promenade deck to patrol with lovely furniture linking to days gone by.

 On board entertainment was mixed but Adagio , this violin and piano couple, were excellent.

Cocktail not lager!

Sailing through the Inside Passage the mists were lovely. Many saw pods of dolphins and whales. We never seemed to be in the right place at the right time!

A favourite bit of entertainment for me and Sue were the onboard cookery displays. America`s test Kitchen ( a huge TV show over there apparently) linked with Holland America to do recipe demonstrations and supply copies / goodies.

A favourite element for  Sue are the mats in the lifts - changed daily so that you knew what day it was. Sue wants these for our house to stop my 2/3 times a day habit of asking that very question!

Dress code is just smart casual on Holland America ships and suits me fine. Hate the tuxedo look and feel!

 First stop Juneau. A pretty unattractive town of 70`s concrete and tourist shops. The library offers free wifi and the old Red Dog Saloon are about the best things going for it.

We`d booked private trips at less than half of the ship excursion rates and they worked out well . The best bit of this day were trips whale watching and to the Medenhall Glacier despite the early rain.

The film in the visitor centre was worth seeing and we`d have loved more time to walk up to the waterfall and glacier but just didn`t have the time.





It was back on the bus for the whale watching.

Glaciers surrounded us

As did whales!

A great trip where we were assured we saw 9 different whales. They had a name for each of them, recognised by their tail fins. Seemed like every whale we shot was called Flame though!





Next stop was Skagway- a gorgeous little town. All original old town but was like walking through a Disney film set. It didn`t help that all of the shops seemed to be for the tourists. What do the locals do when the 20+ jewellery shops pack up for the winter and head to the Caribbean?

View from the back of our boat in Skagway

Snow blower for the train

Old prospectors

Red Onion Brothel and bar

Still no bears!

What`s that I see?

 A few "tarts" hanging out of the window advertising their show in the theatre. As I walked along with my camera and 55-200 lens on this one praised me saying " I like your equipment but hope you can extend it some more". Story of my life - it was fully extended!

First nation people posed for my photo

This building was covered in driftwood

Loved this town which was the launchpad for a trip driving on the bumpiest bus ever through the Yukon territory.

 The bus looked the part but was way too bumpy!Still the 2 Chinese women  who came on a Celebrity cruise from Seattle got off early when the Canadian border guards refused to let them in without an ETA (type of visa) so they were saved the bumps!

Supposedly the coldest bit of our trip it was about the same temperature as at home. The bus was so warm I was able to hop off in a T-shirt for a photo opp prompting the Australian guy near me to remark " It`s true - where there`s no sense there is no sensibility" as his wife felt my arms to see if I was cold and found that I wasn`t! He commended me on having a jacket when I got off!







We stopped at a commercialised old crossing for lunch and the chance of a husky ride on wheels if we wanted ( we didn`t) . Huskies we found were not all huskies. They use mainly mutts or mongrels cross bred with huskies for the job.

This however is an alpaca!

 Huskies

 A more reliable form of transport?

 





Then again there is always the horse for transport!

Some didn`t bother leaving the bus for the shots!

An ancient desert in the Yukon. I forget how!

Must have been warm then too!

Then it was on to Glacier Bay - without doubt the highlight of the trip for me.

 Whilst we saw many glaciers the Margerie Glacier was the highlight but it is diminishing at an alarming rate. As hundreds gathered on-board to cheer the odd bits of calving (ice shearing off and dropping into the sea) you couldn`t help but feel guilty to be celebrating the loss of this glacier. Whilst years before this calving ice was being replaced further back as it fell these days it is diminishing fast

There was an eerie silence on board shattered only by the occasional chanting of a First Native singer joined in her music by slightly embarrassed Park rangers who had boarded along with representative of national Geographic who explained to us all we were looking at and answered questions.

Only 2 cruise ships are allowed in the bay each day now and we were there for around 2 hours edging around about a mile away from the 2 mile wide glacier.

Then we were on our way back to Ketchikan

Seal Island

 Our Ketchikan visit featured a Sourdough Tours trip on which we hoped to see bears. We`d ignored the $299 pp boat trip and instead found this one featuring similar highlights on the dock at $75 which we beat down to $60 pp. What did we think? Well if you remember Jim Bowen on Bullseye I`d summarise this trip as " If you`d paid $200 more this is what you could  have had" in the Jim Bowen style. Our First Nation guide and driver mumbled his way monotone through downtown Ketchikan before pulling into what looked like a garage forecourt but was in fact their tour headquarters. Here we sampled very nice smoked salmon heard tales and watched an arthritic carver working on a totem pole which you could buy for $1200!
We drove on to a car park selling jam and crafts before crossing the road to another car park where if we were lucky - in the 10 minutes we stood there - we might spot a bear. Despite Christine asking there was no way we could cross the fence on to boardwalks and fields as "It `s private and the boat people have paid $200 more to spend 2 hours there". They saw bears - we didnt!

 Stuffed animals abounded at the Sourdough Tour headquarters

 At the car park we did see birds and seals eating the plentiful salmon

 Next we went to a First Nation village

 Our guide put on his traditional costume explaining we couldn`t go in and watch the carver here as the boat people had paid $200 more to see him.

 Inside the village hall we heard them singing and dancing their traditional music and styles. We weren`t allowed to peak in as the boat people had paid $200 more for the privilege our guide told us again. here our guide demonstrates the 2-300 more they had paid.

We tipped our guide modestly at the end. I felt like saying you might have got $2-300 more if you`d shown us what we went for!

 Ketchikan itself was pretty enough as we made our way around Creek Street which had once abounded in brothels but was now a prettily painted tourist area.

Bears here were undecided as to whether they wanted us!

Our last touristy bit on the cruise was a visit to the Alaskan Lumberjack show. Over the top showmanship with pathetically scripted acting but surprisingly skillful lumberjack demonstrations. Great fun in fact!Sometimes you just have to embrace it!

Of course Chris and Sue had to get a pic with the lumberjacks

So the cruise was the highlight for me. Mainly for the glaciers and Inside Passage sailing but also for the food and service. We paid a supplement to go to what is supposedly the best restaurant on the seas - Rudi`s Seafood Restaurant - which was a pop up for one night. It was fantastic but if I`m honest the food every other day was too on the Vollendam.

Rudi`s plate

Seafood tower. This crab calamari and octopus dishes were on top of each other when delivered.

Me and Sue even got invited to a Mariners Lunch for those with previous sailing points which was very good

All in all a fantastic holiday with a great blend of city / big country viewing all topped by a glorious visit to the serene Glacier bay. I don`t think I`ll ever forget the silence on board as we took in the majesty of that scenery. Even peter was impressed for an hour or so until he went back inside saying of the calving  " If they all like this so much they can come and watch the snow drop off my roof in Huddersfield when it comes". Some it seems are less impressed than others.....