Juneau-Sitka-Ketchikan

19 - 21 August

Waterfront at Juneau

Our flight to Sitka had a four-hour stopover in Juneau, so we headed into town for dinner. The taxi driver recommended a restaurant on the harbour, and the food was good. We love the local ‘Alaskan Amber’ beer, too… Juneau is the state capital, although it’s much smaller than Anchorage. A huge mountain range rears up immediately behind the town, which spreads out along a narrow inlet.

We flew into Sitka very late at night, and arrived at our bed and breakfast accommodation to find a note on the door telling us to let ourselves in, take off our shoes, and go upstairs to our bedroom. Total contrast to the rather spartan rooms at Glacier Bay. Our bed was about a football field wide, if a bit short in length, and covered with enough pillows for ten rounds of a pillow fight. It was the Rose Room, and roses were everywhere, from the carpet on the floor to the china on the table to pictures on the walls to fresh buds in the vases. Chintzy, homey and very …decorated! But very comfortable.

Sitka

Breakfast next morning – early as we'd booked a driver for a condensed 2 hour tour before our flight to Ketchikan at 11 – was salubrious, and came with a wonderful view of the bay from the dining room windows. French toast (and gluten free for Jo), eggs and bacon, baked fruit, gf pancakes and maple syrup, muffins, scones, toast, fresh fruit, home-made raspberry preserves and sauces - the choice was staggering. A dangerous place to stay for a few days. The owners were friendly and chatty, and enjoy having a stream of foreign and local visitors come through their house. We narrowly avoided an international incident when the owner noticed – before I signed the credit card slip – that we’d been accidently charged $1400 instead of $140.00. The mistake was hastily rectified!

Sitka

Sitka was lovely, a small town, about 8000 people, with a strong Native American influence. The cultural centre was brilliant, very well set up and arranged. The Tlingit people (pronounced Klinkit) are the traditional owners of this part of Alaska, and still have a strong presence with gatherings and ceremonies happening from time to time. A bit hard to get much of a feel for the local indigenous situation in a couple of hours, but judging by the cultural centre, they had a very rich craft and artifacts tradition, which they are still carrying on.

Alaska used to be owned by Russia, until it sold the territory to the US in 1867 for $1.7m, and Sitka was the capital, then called New Archangel. It’s famous for its wooden Russian Orthodox cathedral, which houses the largest collection of religious ikons outside Russia. A benediction was just finishing as we arrived, and although the elderly bearded priest, dressed in gorgeous vestments and swinging an incense brazier, shook our hands and welcomed us warmly, once he started to say Mass we felt we were intruding, and took just the one photo before we left. The only congregation was two elderly women and a tall young priest in a black soutane. The old priest had opened double doors leading into a room with the altar, and the mass began, with beautiful sung responses, in parts, from the three worshippers. We’d have loved to have examined all the ikons more closely, but we just didn’t have enough time. And our shoes were so loud on the bare wooden floor, so we crept out.

Ketchikan! It's a fascinating town, full of interesting architecture and character, and reeks of Alaskan history. We ventured out as much as we could, taking some photos and looking at the restored buildings around our hotel, which was in the old part of town. Pretty, and pretty touristy, but I guess tourism is why it’s still there, and restored.  The cruise ships come in their hundreds and disgorge thousands of people, who line up to buy – jewelry made in other parts of the world! We’re told the cruises travel at night, and stop during the day so the passengers can visit the next lot of identical jewelry stores…

Weird.  

The New York Hotel, where we are staying, is a delightful old hotel with the barest of restoration. No lifts or air-con, and the steepest staircase I’ve ever seen. The room is pleasant – plain and functional in an old fashioned way, with a patchwork quilt and old fashioned plumbing in the bathroom, and a magnificent view of the small boat harbour across the road. It was built in the 1920s, on the corner of the infamous Creek Street, the location of the original brothels and bordellos built alongside and practically over Ketchikan Creek, a white-water challenge that roars down beneath the walkways and the buildings to erupt into the harbour where a dozen fishermen are lined up on the bridge opposite our room, pulling in salmon.

I’m writing this from inside the Inn at the Creek Café, part of the hotel, and watching people leaning into the wind in their foul weather gear outside. It’s ages since I’ve been in a cold wet climate. Ketchikan is world famous for its salmon, its rainfall, and its majestic temperate rain forest. Like Sitka and Juneau, you can only get here by sea or by air. The mountains are too steep to cross.

We’re finding Alaskans to be very similar to Territorians in their relaxed open manner and their friendliness, and the sense that they are a long way from the rest of the country, in more than just miles. Like the NT, people seem to arrive here in their youth, and just never leave. A few months ago I met a woman on-line through a book review site who lives in Ketchikan, so we caught up with Elizabeth and her husband Terry for a drink, which turned into dinner at a hotel and a very enjoyable evening. Terry was born in Ketchikan, and Elizabeth arrived there as a young woman and never left. We learnt a lot more about Alaska, and decided Alaskans were even more like Territorians that we first thought! We also decided we would love to come back and spend a lot more time in this part of the world, especially further north. Mountains are very addictive, and as for glaciers.... The sense of total wilderness is overwhelming, even from the deck of a boat. I don't think I'm ready for hiking and camping out in it, and taking on the bears, but I'd certainly be happy to cruise up and down these bays and inlets for a while.

Rubber boots: the Alaskan equivalent of the NT's iconic footwear. We saw some furry thongs in one shop that would sell well in the Dry season at home!