Alaska

Boarding the ship was very exciting. We had walked down to the dock in the morning from the hotel just to see where we had to go. We couldn’t believe the size of the ship. We had been upgraded to a superier stateroom which was great. When we eventually got on board and saw our room we were delighted. It was on the 10th deck and it was really nice. If you look closely there is a faint red box around our balcony but you might have to zoom in to see it.
As you can see Hector soon settled down for a nap after a long day.It was quite exciting when we started to cruise out of Vancouver and we made good use of our balcony. We didn’t do too much exploring as we were a bit tired so we went down to have our dinner and had a fairly early night.

We have arrived in Anchorage and are now back in the land of wireless. The Wireless on the ship was extortionate and very slow so it wasn’t worth paying for. We will try and catch up with things over the next few days.
The last week has been wonderful. We have had lovely weather. The ship was really nice, the food out of this world and we have eaten far too much. We were both quite sad to leave today. We have seen so many great things, both living and scenic which we will bring you up to date with over the next couple of days.
We are picking up our car in the morning. Just been outside eating supper (10.40pm here). It is really warm. Everyone is saying how exceptional the weather is. We have been really lucky so far and hopefully it will continue that way.
Hector is having a great time and there have been many photo opportunities which we will also let you see in the blog. Just a couple for now. Going to bed now. Talk tommorow. x

Some shots from a quick walk arond town.
Similar view to that from our hotel room but from street level.
The electrical power connections seem very archaic.Old bus on city tourAmazing mix of architectural styles.

An early departure form our hotel turned into a not so early departure when Barbara realised after we had set off on the bus to Heathrow that she had left her glasses on her bedside table. The very nice bus driver told us to get back on the bus as he did his next trip as he would be the fastest way of getting back to pick them up and back again to Heathrow. At the hotel they remade a key for the door so I could nip up and rescue them. We had a nice easy checkin and bag drop but a wrong choice of queue in security had us waiting for ages as an old couples bag was shuttled backwards and forwards through the scanner. They then had it put aside to be gone through and sadly my rucsack had to do the same. By the time their bag had been emptied and my rucsack had been emptied there was very little time to get anything for breakfast.

Once on the plane we had a great flight. The lad we were sitting next to saw a cruise guide book I had put out to read and asked which line and which boat we were sailing on. Turns out he is an engineering cadet who was flying out to join the same ship.

We flew up over Scotland, Iceland and Greenland before heading west then southwest over Canada. There were a few clear bits over
Iceland
and Greenland with lots of snow/ice covering rocky terrain.

Managed to get most things packed last night and did some swapping around of things when our online checkin for Canada said we had to check in our bags to go right through. When we dropped the bags off in Edinburgh we were asked if we wanted them checked through or get them at Heathrow.
Plane late from Edinburgh but not too late into Heathrow. Bus to hotel and now settled in . . .

. . . and with WiFi time to update blog.

Thursday 30th
Fly Edinburgh – Heathrow, stay at Preimere Inn T5
Friday 31st
Fly Heathrow – Vancouver, stay at Listel Vancouver Hotel
Saturday 1st
Board Sapphire Princess, 7 day Voyage of the Glaciers (Northbound)
Sunday 2nd
At sea
Monday 3rd
Ketchikan, Alaska
Tuesday 4th
Juneau, Alaska
Wednesday 5th
Skagway, Alaska
Thursday 6th
Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska
Friday 7th
College Fjord, Alaska
Saturday 8th
Whittier, Alaska, Train to Anchorage, Coast International Inn
Sunday 9th
Talkeetna, Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge
Monday 10th
Talkeetna, Talkeetna Alaskan Lodge
Tuesday 11th
Denali National Park, Tundra Wilderness Tour, McKinley Chalet Resort
Wednesday 12th
Denali National Park, Nenana Half-day Rafting tour, McKinley Chalet Resort
Thursday 13th
Denali National Park, Shuttle Bus, McKinley Chalet Resort
Friday 14th
Drive to Anchorage, Coast International Inn
Saturday 15th
Fly Anchorage – Vancouver, stay at Listel Vancouver Hotel
Sunday 16th
Bus tour, stay at Listel Vancouver Hotel
Monday 17th
At leisure, stay at Listel Vancouver Hotel
Tuesday 18th
Fly Vancouver – Heathrow
Wednesday 19th
Fly Heathrow – Edinburgh, drive home

Hector surveys the scene as he waits to get packed before his latest adventure.