Wednesday, 1 August 2012

Monday 16th July 2012 ­ Homeward Bound! Don't Look Down!!

Don't look down!  627 feet below my feet!!

I have until mid-day before the transfer to the airport so having repacked everything – why did I buy that extra fleece jacket on the Seven seas Navigator and the usual half-hundred weight of fridge magnets – I make for the city centre and a wander round the shops actually looking for a belt.  I seem to have lost rather than gained weight on this trip!!  There are plenty of cowboy outfitters to choose from so avoiding the pink cowboy hats and the ‘made in China genuine leather belts’ I find a hand carved Canadian belt at one of the many stalls in the main shopping mal.

Lunch in an Irish Pub of – yes you guessed - Halibut & Chips and a pint of Guinness before I return to the hotel and bang on time a Jaguar sedan arrives for my transfer to the airport.  My driver points out the walkways – known as ‘15s’ because they are 15 feet off the ground that connect the various shopping malls and that I had tried in the morning, he tells me they are essentials since in the winter the city is permanently covered in 3 feet of snow!

The Air Canada direct flight to London Heathrow is more enjoyable than the flights to Anchorage but after 8 hours 40 minutes of trying to sleep I’m relieved to be back home.  Despite all the hoo-ha about immigration I had disembarked the aircraft, retrieved my baggage and exited immigration and customs in just over 20 minutes!!

A wonderful trip with many memorable moments, the best of which was watching surfacing Humpback Whales feeding off Hoonah, Icy Point Strait in Alaska.  Thewilderness of Alaska, the sheer beauty of the rivers and mountains on the Rocky Mountaineer will take a lot of beating on my next adventure – a cruise to Maritime Canada from 5th September.  Another blog – sure thing!!

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