Lofty's Visit to Canada & Alaska 2005
I flew from London/Gatwick on a bright sunny day in mid May and having reached a height of 37000 feet remained in sunshine throughout the whole trip, even the views of Greenland were great.
Having arrived in Vancouver where I took an internal flight to kelowna arriving some 17 hours after leaving Gatwick, a long day! I stayed in Kelowna for the first week and having hired a car toured the area which was very relaxing. The weather was warm and the week was dry apart from a few spots of rain, the port area was interesting and Kelowna was a good all round shopping area, needless to say it had masses of places to eat out and too many "take a ways" to count.
I was pleased and relieved to see that Canada still had some of the geese named after it. When fishing at my local lake recently I thought they had all emigrated to the UK!
The resort we were staying at was fine, quiet and well kept, some of the neighbours were a little reserved and wanted to keep them selves apart from the the riff-raff
While others were positively hostile taking and devouring anything that happened to come their way.
Looking down "Duck lake" which was very close to our apartment, signs of snow still on the distant mountains which we had flown over to reach kelowna.
After one week at kelowna we flew back to Vancouver and joined our ship for the trip to Alaska.
This photograph of the "Norwegian Sun" was taken from the speedboat which took us up to the glacier
The ship was splendid with a free and easy atmosphere, non of the dressing up for meals as with some cruises, but if that is your scene then it caters for you as well, as it has many restaurants aboard as well as self service and bars.
And if you don't like stairs then there were plenty of lifts to choose from .This area had four and was laid out in keeping with any high class hotel.
The decor around the ship was very impressive.
Having got the eating out of the way and found my way around the ship I we were off, with splendid views from the early morning to the late evening and beyond. We stopped at four ports, half and day trips were available dependent on how long the ship was in port, all of them catering for the adventurous as well as the laid back.
It is true to say that even a good camera could not capture the beauty of the scenery which was truly captivating.
This eye catching spot was in Ketchikan, with interesting shops guaranteed to supply all the gifts from Alaska that you needed. Even the Brothels location was well advertised to visitors, although it was said that it was not now in use?
Skagway was a larger port, I took up and offer to prospect for gold, but I suspect someone has been there before me albeit there were a few crumbs left.
Whale watching at Juneau was worthwhile along with the very calm seas, although whales were seen there were almost impossible to capture on camera , the seals along with the buoy was more co-operative
Having left the port of Juneau the "Norwegian Sun" spent several hours cruising up the Tracy Arm a narrow fjord, we were headed for the Sawyer Glacier however the further the ship went the larger the icebergs got until eventually the captain called off the trip for fear of endangering his ship and passengers to the ice.
Disappointed at having had to turn back I took a trip on a speed boat out of Wrangell up the Strikine River to visit "Shakes Glacier" .Within minutes of leaving the port we were seeing large numbers of bald headed eagles which were resting on the sand banks of the river, we then sped on, our female captain getting great pleasure in darting and diving to miss the fallen pine trees the littered the river bed.
The further we progressed up the river so the ice closed in, our captain was determined to reach the glacier, although she informed us that previous trips this year had failed due to the pack ice, left over from the winter as well as ice breaking off the glacier
I must say that the effort on her part was well worth the bother, the views were spectacular never have I seen such beauty in a lump of ice!
Mind you I suspect it was all helped by the champagne cooled by ice from the glacier that our four Canadian, fellow passengers, had brought with them, along with the freshly cooked prawns they purchased on the dockside and shared with all, they were delicious and very much appreciated.
Unfortunately like all good things the trip had to come to an end, but I still had the cruise back to Vancouver along with views missed on the way up and of course the beautiful sunsets.
And when I arrived back in Vancouver the sun was just rising, along with better weather than when we left a week ago.
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Having arrived in Vancouver where I took an internal flight to kelowna arriving some 17 hours after leaving Gatwick, a long day! I stayed in Kelowna for the first week and having hired a car toured the area which was very relaxing. The weather was warm and the week was dry apart from a few spots of rain, the port area was interesting and Kelowna was a good all round shopping area, needless to say it had masses of places to eat out and too many "take a ways" to count.
I was pleased and relieved to see that Canada still had some of the geese named after it. When fishing at my local lake recently I thought they had all emigrated to the UK!
The resort we were staying at was fine, quiet and well kept, some of the neighbours were a little reserved and wanted to keep them selves apart from the the riff-raff
While others were positively hostile taking and devouring anything that happened to come their way.
Looking down "Duck lake" which was very close to our apartment, signs of snow still on the distant mountains which we had flown over to reach kelowna.
After one week at kelowna we flew back to Vancouver and joined our ship for the trip to Alaska.
This photograph of the "Norwegian Sun" was taken from the speedboat which took us up to the glacier
The ship was splendid with a free and easy atmosphere, non of the dressing up for meals as with some cruises, but if that is your scene then it caters for you as well, as it has many restaurants aboard as well as self service and bars.
And if you don't like stairs then there were plenty of lifts to choose from .This area had four and was laid out in keeping with any high class hotel.
The decor around the ship was very impressive.
Having got the eating out of the way and found my way around the ship I we were off, with splendid views from the early morning to the late evening and beyond. We stopped at four ports, half and day trips were available dependent on how long the ship was in port, all of them catering for the adventurous as well as the laid back.
It is true to say that even a good camera could not capture the beauty of the scenery which was truly captivating.
This eye catching spot was in Ketchikan, with interesting shops guaranteed to supply all the gifts from Alaska that you needed. Even the Brothels location was well advertised to visitors, although it was said that it was not now in use?
Skagway was a larger port, I took up and offer to prospect for gold, but I suspect someone has been there before me albeit there were a few crumbs left.
Whale watching at Juneau was worthwhile along with the very calm seas, although whales were seen there were almost impossible to capture on camera , the seals along with the buoy was more co-operative
Having left the port of Juneau the "Norwegian Sun" spent several hours cruising up the Tracy Arm a narrow fjord, we were headed for the Sawyer Glacier however the further the ship went the larger the icebergs got until eventually the captain called off the trip for fear of endangering his ship and passengers to the ice.
Disappointed at having had to turn back I took a trip on a speed boat out of Wrangell up the Strikine River to visit "Shakes Glacier" .Within minutes of leaving the port we were seeing large numbers of bald headed eagles which were resting on the sand banks of the river, we then sped on, our female captain getting great pleasure in darting and diving to miss the fallen pine trees the littered the river bed.
The further we progressed up the river so the ice closed in, our captain was determined to reach the glacier, although she informed us that previous trips this year had failed due to the pack ice, left over from the winter as well as ice breaking off the glacier
I must say that the effort on her part was well worth the bother, the views were spectacular never have I seen such beauty in a lump of ice!
Mind you I suspect it was all helped by the champagne cooled by ice from the glacier that our four Canadian, fellow passengers, had brought with them, along with the freshly cooked prawns they purchased on the dockside and shared with all, they were delicious and very much appreciated.
Unfortunately like all good things the trip had to come to an end, but I still had the cruise back to Vancouver along with views missed on the way up and of course the beautiful sunsets.
And when I arrived back in Vancouver the sun was just rising, along with better weather than when we left a week ago.
Next
Back to Homepage