Juneau

The long approach to Juneau along the Gastineau Channel features some scattered and attractive habitations but I could not help thinking about their remoteness and impracticality unless you’re the kind of person who likes to kill your own supper.

The improbable settlement of Juneau shone a little in afternoon sunshine. Its existence I am sure is more a reflection of history than modern day need. It is hard to imagine a less likely state capital. From a distance the residences are more striking than the other buildings and, in fact, on closer inspection, some of those others are positively hideous. There is a parking garage to serve the public library and I have not seen such a ghastly example on that side of the Atlantic since I was in Savannah. In Juneau as in the Georgia example, its very existence shocks because they are heritage towns. The houses appear in places to reflect Nordic influences and in Douglas which in many ways must be idyllic, there is some curiously ugly construction. It is almost as though the inhabitants could afford only the view OR pleasing architecture and chose the view.

The Holland America disembarkation process was dangerously close to anarchic as it did not separate leavers by tour time as on all our previous cruises. However, it seemed somehow to work.

The shops of Juneau closest to the cruise ships (Coral Princess was there also) sell standard tourist tack. The only possible attraction was the prices which marked the end of the cruise ship season. Our own vessel would be heading for Kobe next time out of Vancouver. I enjoyed being photographed with an eagle, a bear and a moose but I was overjoyed with my floatplane glacier sightseeing experience. Talk about dog with two tails! I sat next to the pilot so my attention was almost as much inside the cockpit as out. From heights varying between 1000’ and 4600’ we saw the most stunning scenery including, of course, four glaciers. The massively crevassed surfaces veined with blue were like nothing I could have imagined. If you are in Alaska, take a flight.