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| Bear, hunting for salmon. Wrangell, Alaska. |
My friend Susan Kean and her partner George recently went on
a Viking cruise in Alaska. I thank her for sharing her thoughts and excellent
photos from the trip with The Intrepid Tourist.
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| Skagway. |
Our next ports of call on our Viking Alaska cruise were Skagway, on Friday, and Juneau, on Saturday.
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| At the Canadian border. |
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| Looking toward Yukon Territory. |
In Skagway, we did a coach
trip up to the White Pass Summit and across the Canadian border towards the
Yukon. At the border they came on the bus to check
our passports!
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| Mendenhall Glacier. |
In Juneau, we
concentrated on visiting the Mendenhall Glacier. My raincoat, bought in the
west of Ireland, was perfect for this adventure.Our Viking Cruise had
to be redirected as the sea was too rough to make it to Sitka. We were sorry to
miss seeing the Russian Orthodox Church and its famous icon of Mother and
Child. We did hear an excellent talk on icons given by the onboard historian.
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| Wrangell Museum, with Russian, British, American and Alaskan flags. |
We went to Wrangell
instead. It was amazing how they welcomed 900 people at short notice. We
enjoyed the museum and learning more about the salmon fishing industry and
totem poles.
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| Totem pole. |
Next stop was
Ketchikan. In some ways, this was the highlight of the trip as we had booked on
a Wildlife Excursion and saw bears close-up and the salmon spawning and dying. (Pacific
Salmon die after they spawn.) |
| We spent quite a long time watching bears. |
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| Bark of a Sitka spruce. |
For a visit to Alaska (Anchorage and Valdez) in winter, read my post of April 29, 2013.
