Anchorage

!Wednesday 28th
So we had elected to do a ship's tour on our way from Whittier to Anchorage.  It is about 80km and an ordinary transfer (you have no alternative) is almost as much as the tour.  I should note that the majority where carrying on to Denali National Park and the lodges owned by Princess.  Others had morning flights out of Anchorage, so that left s relatively small number who either had evening flights, were renting a car or who were staying in Anchorage.  I would have to say with hindsight that this was the best value tour we had taken.  I know it's only money, but ....

We had a full bus of 50 and our driver was a retired music teacher (born etc on Anchorage) and filled us with many stories as well as songs.  To summon us back to the bus he had an antelope horn, which amused others around our various stops. A quick tour of Whittier took 5 minutes, as there is nothing there!  We then queued up to go through the 2 mile tunnel out of Whittier.  This is a combined rail/road tunnel and is one way with defined opening times each way.  Our northbound was scheduled for 9.00 and we only had a 5 minute wait.  Amazing engineering through the mountain with a glacier on top.

Onwards to Portage Visitors Centre, where there was a large blue iceberg parked outside. They assured us that they hadn't towed it from the glacier but it was just natural according to the wind direction.  I forgot to mention that it was cold and wet, the worst day we'd had, but the showers came and went and it was not too bad at the Centre.  However we then moved on to the little (comparatively) boat onto Portage lake and then up to the glacier itself.  Being a small purpose built boat, we were able to get up close.  However the rain & wind chill did not encourage us to stay on the top deck for long.  A great mini cruise and well worth it, which is more than can be said for our next stop at a gift shop (what else) and cafe. Distinct unmemorable 😠

By some chance of confusion or something, some of the passengers convinced our driver that we were supposed to also go to the Wildlife Rescue Centre and after he checked with his office we got the OK.  I won't go into the details other than to say that we were extremely lucky.  Anyway we saw all the wildlife in a semi natural environment.  Vivian was excited yo see both brown & black bears, particularly as they just happened to wander into view for a short time while we were standing there.

Moving on, a 45 minute drive along the foreshore to the airport, where we dropped off half the bus load and then 15 minutes into Anchorage.  Vivian was soooo relieved to see our bags sitting there!  We were all set to walk the 7 or 8 blocks to the hotel, when one of the staff at the Hospitality Centre said that our hotel would pick us up.  Sure enough after a phone call and 10 minute wait, the van arrived and delivered us here.  We're on the 9th floor and have a great view towards the south.  OK, it is a 2* hotel but it has all the services necessary and a good dining room.  It is a little out of town - see above, but after today, there is little benefit in being in the CBD.  But I am ahead of my self again.

Thursday 29th
Had a great sleep and didn't make breakfast until 9.00. Fortunately it is on until 11.00, so no rush.  Another overcast day with temperature around 11 degrees.  Donned our coats and trotted off.  Well Anchorage is a bit of a nothing town.  If you took out all the governmental agencies, there would just be a few hotels.  The hotels to do well, as a large number of cruise ship passengers have a night or so before or after there cruise.  However as I mentioned earlier, Princess and their sister line Holland America, heavily promote their Denali packages.  Back to Anchorage, we walked and walked - even had a hard time finding a cafe.  We are certainly very fortunate in NZ.  Resorted to Starbucks in the end and then headed off to the stream by the railway to see the salmon, which we had been told were running.  We had thought it too early, but we still went and had an extensive walk through the backblocks of the town.  We eventually reached the spot and when talking with 2 lots of fishers, found out that it was low tide and the salmon don't come until high tide.  We were not going to stand there for 6 hours, so walked back to town for a bite to eat.  By now it was after 3.00 and we still could not find any cafes or other eateries.  We did in the end and then came back to the hotel, where at last the blog is completely up to date.