June 3-4th
Seward
After seven days at sea, we berthed at Seward, 60 degrees North in Alaska. We were looking forward to getting ashore, but first we had to queue for over one hour to get through US Border Control.
Seward is a small settlement of around 3,000 people, focused on tourism and fishing.
The summit of Mount Marathon, famous for its tough 5km steep uphill and downhill race, was obscured by cloud. It was 7 degrees C and damp, drizzling at times.
We headed off into town by foot, ignoring the long queue for the shuttle bus. A train with its impressive two locomotives had just arrived with day trippers too, so visitors probably outnumbered residents.
We found a coffee shop in a small converted church. There was a long queue for coffee, but we established ourselves in two armchairs in the minstrels’ gallery, enjoying the coffee, but cursing the slow speed of the internet. Fair to say that we weren’t its only users. Peter struggled to post our latest blog – loading just a few pictures tested his patience.
Very fishy Lovely coffee shop
We set off for a forest trail round two lakes. It was a pleasant Saturday and totally uncrowded, except for a wedding celebration at a clearing. We experienced yet another bride and groom, who had posed for photos in the coffee shop. The photos of weddings here in Seward will be very different from those we took in Penang and on the beach in Bali!
Just off the route on the way back to the cruise ship, we marched to a huge supermarket, ostensibly to buy some more throat pastilles for Lynne, but also to purchase some wine. It was pushing it, but the incentive added extra energy to Lynne’s legs. Apparently we had done over 16000 steps, so a bit of exercise was had at last.
Hubbard Glacier
Sunday saw the ship sail up Yakutat Bay to view the Hubbard Glacier, which is an important stop for all Alaskan cruises. Some passengers had booked a trip on a boat to take them closer to the glacier face, but at $300 each we managed to resist…
Especially as we have been lucky enough to have visited a number of awesome glaciers all over the world, our favourite being the Ice Fjord at Ilulissat in Greenland. A glorious sunny day, with blue skies and an air temperature of a warmish 13C. The ship went as close to the glacier as it could safely go and turned on a pin-head so that both port and starboard got to view the glacier.
