Record of our trip
After the excitement of seeing the Northern Lights we had a good nights sleep and then headed to the airport for our flight to Anchorage. The flight was great and followed the route we had travelled by rail and coach – we could see the road and the railway snaking through the mountains below us and had another great view of Denali.
We rose early on Wednesday and reported to our departure lounge ready for our 06.25 disembarkation. The port of Whittier was grey and foggy and the rain was pouring down, fortunately the Alaskans know how to deal with these conditions and we followed a covered walkway across the quayside to our waiting train. The trip to Mt McKinley Lodge took about 6 hours, the first five were in a glass domed railway carriage which gave us a great view of the Alaskan landscape as we headed inland and north. We were sharing a table with a couple from the Midwest who, like everybody else wanted to talk about Brexit, and after that to find out what we think about Donald Trump!!
We boarded The Island Princess at Canada Place and looked down from the deck to people watching from the spot where we had stood three days earlier. The weather was glorious and the seaplanes were buzzing around the harbour as we prepared to set sail. We left Vancouver sailing under the Lions Gate Bridge which provided a nice symmetry to our arrival in New York under the Verrazano Narrows bridge three weeks ago (can it only be three weeks?). Continue reading North to Alaska…
Some of you might be aware that my family spent a year in Vancouver in 1970, I had my 8th Birthday in Canada. We moved here from here Isle of Wight, as a child I just took that in my stride but looking back now I can see what a huge step that was for the family. Now, being back in Vancouver 46 years later I was keen to find our old house and the school that Carl and I attended.
We are starting to get complaints that we aren’t posting often enough (!) so in an attempt to catch up, and before we lose our internet connection for a week here are our thoughts on Vancouver…
Wow, what a beautiful city. Vancouver is built on a peninsula between the Burrard Inlet and English Bay. Our hotel is on Denman Street in the West End, a block from Stanley Park and running almost North-South with water at each end – idyllic. Across the Inlet is North Vancouver with its three mountains, Cypress, Grouse Mountain and Mount Seymour, they are covered in forest and look fantastic against the clear blue skies.
Mark And Kim's Adventures 