Part 6 - Alaskan Cruise "Zaandam" - Vancouver, Ketchikan, Juneau

Sunday 12 May 2013

We boarded the Zaandam the next day –  the hotel provided a free service to transfer our luggage across the road to the ship – so we only had our small bags to worry about.  This was fortunate, as it had started to rain.  We thought we would wander over to the ship about 3pm with plenty of time to board.  However, there were 3 ships leaving at the same time and only 6 US Customs officials –  as the ship was going to Alaska, we had to go through US customs before we boarded.  It took us 2 hours and we were the second last to board the ship – we literally had to run to get onto the ship before they pulled up the gangway.  As we had missed the mandatory Life Boat Drill, we attended a special one for late passengers! All part of the excitement of travel!!

Sailing away from beautiful Vancouver

Our comfortable verandah cabin on the Zaandam

We enjoyed our cruise on the Zaandam from Vancouver to Seward – we had three ports of call, Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway and only two days at sea, so quite a different experience than the Oosterdam cruise. 

Tuesday 14 May 2013

We had an interesting day in Ketchikan, despite the clouds and rain and 7 degrees!  We joined a smaller boat that took us around the islands and inlets to see all the local wild life – I managed to get some great shots of bald eagles.  The boat was able to get close to shore where we went on deck to see the pine forests, spruce, redwood, moss, red starfish and skunk plants.  We were taken to an old Salmon Cannery (now a museum) and heard about the history of the salmon industry.   We also sampled some salmon and had hot chocolate to warm us up! 

Ketchikan

On board small boat

Bald Eagle

Red Starfish

Salmon Cannery housing the museum

a happy tourist!

We then went by bus to a Saxman Totem Park where we wandered amongst the Totem Poles learning about the native Alaskan culture.

Crab and Alaskan beer for lunch

Creek Street, Ketchikan

Wednesday 15 May 2013 
The shipped stopped in Juneau where it was 6 degrees – luckily for us the sun came out during the day and warmed things up a tad!  We hopped on a bus that took us to the amazing Mendenhall Glacier.  We walked out towards the waterfall where we took photos.  Later we went up to the visitor centre and saw a short film about the glacier.  From the window we saw spectacular views across to the glacier and perched in a tree nearby was a porcupine! 

The spectacular Mendenhall Glacier

Porcupine in tree!!

The highlight of the day was visiting a Glacial Forest where we travelled in little buggies up a winding road to a lookout 580 feet above sea level overlooking Juneau (capital of Alaska)  We passed spruce, cedar and hemlock trees and lichen – hard to describe the experience – it was quite amazing.  The owner has made gardens in the upturned trees – he called it a Glacial Garden, but it was more a forest.

We had lunch at Tracy’s Crab Restaurant just near the ship – huge legs of crab, but not as tasty as our Mudcrab – some more Alaskan beer too!

Amazing furs in the shops!

After lunch we decided to brave the Tram (more like a cablecar) up Mt Roberts (1,800 feet) that was very steep and scary! Amazing views – the best part of the ride was meeting some interesting people from Texas while we waited an hour in the queue to come back down!