2023 May-Jun UK-Canada-Alaska
Once again, in 2023 we both enrolled in U3A doing various courses which kept us occupied; Christine continued with her video editing course; and we both enrolled in a modern ballroom dance class – although we’re not very good, it’s something we both enjoy. And once again we enrolled in ‘Travel Chat’ and gave some more presentations continuing our sailing travels. Most of the attendees do organised trips, so our unusual mode of travel seems to interest them.
Our main travel in 2023 was a six-week trip in May/June, back to the UK to visit family and friends, followed by a brief holiday in Iceland before travelling across Canada to join an Alaskan cruise. We started the planning in February, and it was quite an exercise to work out the various flights and accommodation. Due to Covid, it would be the first time we’d been able to see the family since our move to Australia in 2019.
The holiday started in London where we stayed with Rob, Jas and the girls, Rosie (10) and Juno (7) for the weekend, recovering from the flight and, on the Sunday, we all did the ‘Wimbledon Village Treasure Trail’ walk. Our mission was to eliminate suspects and weapons throughout our walk, to unveil the identity of the crook. The clues are usually on permanent features, such as plaques or inscriptions on walls. Some are easier to find than others and some are quite cryptic. It worked well having a mixture of adults and kids, so we could help each other.
Then it was off to Gillingham in north Dorset by train to visit our good friends Gill & Aidan on their 10-acre block of land. They were now in the process of building a new house, having demolished the old fibro one. We stayed in an annex of the new house for five nights and helped them around the land. It was great to catch up with them and see how much their property had developed over the years. They kindly lent us their car so we could catch up with family and friends during our stay in the UK.
At the weekend, we headed off to Reading to visit Keith’s youngest daughter, Charlotte, and her wife Rachel and their daughter Alba and brand-new twins Esmé and Austin. Amazingly, Emily (Keith’s oldest daughter) was also in the UK from New Zealand, having just represented NZ in the World Triathlon championships in Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. Rob, Jas and the girls travelled out from Wimbledon – so, we managed one afternoon with all three kids and all the grandkids.
Next, we were off to Newport, South Wales to visit Keith’s siblings and their offspring. Unfortunately, Keith’s older sister was now in a nursing home, but it was good to visit her. Her twin daughters had recently moved into a lovely apartment on the ground floor of a renovated stately home. It was great to spend some time with them as well. Sadly, the girls lost both their parents within 6-months of each other the following year. We were pleased we’d taken the time to visit…
After a couple of days there, we faced the long (170km) drive down to Southbourne (near Bournemouth on the south coast of Dorset) to stay with more good friends, Doug & Shirley. They took us on a hike through the New Forest – a popular walking area near where Keith and I lived before moving to Australia.
We also caught up with Chris & Julie, more old friends who also live in the New Forest. Julie has ponies which she rides in Events, and Chris had recently acquired an old Morris Minor of which he was very proud. It was good to catch up with them.
From there it was a glorious drive back to Gillingham in north Dorset to return Gill and Aidan’s car to them. It certainly is a beautiful part of the country. Then it was back to London ready for our flight to Iceland with Rob, Jas and the girls – they were joining us for the four-day holiday.
Our flight to Reykjavik arrived in the middle of the afternoon, and we collected our hire cars and drove to our holiday accommodation. After settling in, we went for an explore around town. By this time, it was getting towards evening and the children were hungry, so we went to a lovely restaurant and had a delicious meal.
After dinner, we went for an explore around town. The Hallgrímskirkja is the largest church in Iceland, and it’s the tallest. It’s about 74.5 metres tall and was completed in 1986. The statue on the forecourt is of Leif Eriksson, the son of Iceland and the discoverer of Finland. The statue was given by the United States of America to Iceland on the 1,000th anniversary of the Althing, the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It was founded in 930 AD and is the oldest surviving parliament in the world.
We also admired the modern glass honeycomb Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre situated right on the harbour. It opened in May 2011. The next day was bitterly cold and Jas had to study, so the rest of us went for an explore around the city. There were some really good statues around the city and there’s a lake which we walked around. The children enjoyed the playground. Later that evening we had a lovely meal at another restaurant that had been recommended by Jas’s friends.
As we only had four days in Iceland, we had decided to just stick to the Golden Circle tourist route, which covers the southwest corner of the country. Our first stop was to the Thingvellir National Park, which is the rift valley where the Eurasian plate meets the North American plate. Keith was particularly keen to see that.
From here, we headed off towards Geyser, the home of the original Geyser. It’s mainly dormant now, but there is another one called close by, Strokkur, which erupts about every five minutes or so. It was quite spectacular.
And then it was off to Gullfoss, a magnificent double height waterfall – the volume of water was amazing.
Then we drove south to a town called Selfoss where we had another Booking.com accommodation on a farm property for two nights. The girls enjoyed seeing the animals and there was a lovely kitten that they played with. The next day their parents organised for the girls to go on a horse ride, while Keith and I went exploring. We drove further east along the southcoast towards Seljalandsfoss, another spectacular waterfall. You could actually walk behind this waterfall. It was very wet and cold. Yet another waterfall, Skogarfoss, is one where you could climb up to the top of and look down. The sky was clear and beautiful, but it was still bitterly cold and very windy.
As we drove through the countryside, there were some beautiful churches – with their typical white timber walls and steep red roofs. Our furthest destination was Vik on the southernmost point of Iceland. Our final stop was to the famous Blue Lagoon on our way to the airport – the thermal hot springs were lovely and warming.
Then we said goodbye to the family and flew to Toronto for a couple of days – we’d never been to Niagara Falls and thought this was a good way to break the long flight to Vancouver. We booked a day trip to the Falls including a boat ride on the Hornblower to the base of the falls.
Someone on the tour bus recommended a visit to the City Islands, just off the shore of Toronto city, so the next day we took the ferry across. The Islands are basically a huge playground for the residents of Toronto with fairgrounds, parks and paths. We enjoyed a walk around before taking the ferry back to the city.
The next day we flew to Vancouver. The views of the Rocky Mountains as we crossed British Columbia were amazing.
After a couple of days in Vancouver, we flew to Anchorage, Alaska for a night before flying to Fairbanks where we began our Princess Cruise experience. The cruise included three days of land travel in the Denali National Park staying at various wilderness lodges. Denali used to be known as Mt McKinley – the tallest mountain the in the US.
The first night we stayed at the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge. The Lodge was definitely on the riverside, and we had a great view from our room. The following morning, we enjoyed a cruise along the Chena and Tanana Rivers aboard a genuine sternwheeler. An Alaskan native guide took us ashore at an authentic Athabascan village so we could experience the traditional Native lifestyle and see some working husky dogs.
In the afternoon we were transferred by coach to the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge. The next morning, we had a Natural History Tour of Denali National Park and a visit to the ‘Savage Cabin’ – early accommodation for caribou hunters but currently used by Park Rangers. Today’s Park Rangers face many of the same challenges that the Park’s first rangers did.
In the afternoon, we once again transferred by coach to the Mt McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge, crossing rivers and ravines along the way. From this hotel there was a lovely walk to a ‘tree house’ with fantastic views over the valley to the mountains beyond.
The following afternoon, we took the ‘Direct-to-the-Wilderness’ train which travels from Talkeetna to Whittier – 174 miles – about five hours in one of those panoramic viewing carriages, to join the Grand Princess. The first day we cruised toward the Hubbard Glacier – the largest tidewater glacier in North America. We were lucky enough to witness an ice calving where ice chunks break away from the edge of a glacier.
The following day we cruised into Glacier Bay – the views were magnificent and we enjoyed a relaxing day at sea followed by dinner and a show.
Our first day ashore was at Skagway – tiny in size but big on preservation, the town offers an authentic glimpse of the Gold Rush era. Keith and I started the day with the ‘Klondike Summit to Sea’ bicycle tour – very scenic, but the air was so cold you could feel it in your lungs – we both subsequently suffered with a nasty cold. The tour began with a 25-minute van ride through historic Skagway and up the coastal mountains to the summit. The road retraces the route taken by thousands of gold-crazed prospectors during the rush of 1898. As we coasted along the paved Klondike Highway, we saw the White Pass & Yukon Route Railroad, cascading waterfalls, awe-inspiring glaciers, majestic mountains, and historic sites. We even got to cross the US border on a bicycle! Back at sea level, we enjoyed a stroll through the historic town. The Grand Princess dominated the end of the main street!
Overnight, we sailed south to Juneau. The Goldbelt Tram is an aerial tramway located directly south of downtown. The tram makes a six-minute ascent of 1,164m up from the cruise ship docks to a height of about 550m through the rain forest to the Mountain House, offering expansive, panoramic views of Juneau and the Gastineau Channel.
Ketchikan was the next stop. Ketchikan has the world’s largest collection of standing totem poles, found throughout the city and at Saxman Totem Park, which we toured. During our visit to Saxman Native Village, we learned about the lifestyles, heritage, and history of the people in this community.
Later we strolled through Ketchikan town – the area near the mouth of Ketchikan Creek earned the town a measure of infamy during the first half of the 20th century for a red-light district known as Creek Street, with brothels aligned on either side of the creek – “where both fish and men came upstream to spawn… the fish once, many of the men repeatedly”.
Our cruise continued down the Inland Passage, through Puget Sound towards Vancouver taking a day and a half to get there. Once back in Vancouver we stayed a night before facing the nearly-15-hour flight back to Brisbane!