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September 18 The Netherlands instead of Belgium ...On Friday, Sep 12, Flavia and I were supposed to have a longly anticipated date in Brussels. We had prepared everything, exchange lots of messages clearly stating how much we had been looking forward to it, but then the bad luck struck and unbelievable and unplanned happened ... the Euro-tunnel between England and France went alight and as the fire was still pretty much alive on Friday, the chances of Flavia making it to Brussels on time were nothing other than none ... As a matter of a quick readjustment, we still luckily managed to book a flight with KLM from London to Amsterdam where I picked up my signorina in the evening ... And that's how we came about spending that weekend in the Netherlands instead ...
On Friday, we quickly assembled a weekend plan and on early Saturday morning we took a train to Zaanse Schanz, which is a small village 13km north of Amsterdam that even some of my Dutch colleagues never heard of, and the ones who did gave me a wide smile when I mentioned I visited the place. As nice as it is, it basically stands for one thing - TOURISM ;o)) ... The village has been maintained to resemble the life in the Netherlands in its very traditional way. The houses look like they supposedly did 200 years ago, and so are the wind mills. We did a tour in one of the wind mill producing colors and there were others to check out, which we eventually didn't find time for, i.e. wood cutting mill, flour mill, etc. ... One of the old-time-version of a shop I enjoyed a lot was the original Albert Heijn ... very nice ...
Later in the afternoon we took a train to a town - Haarlem, which is famous for its market at the town square accompanied by a cathedral. The city center is utmost beautiful and there are plenty of houses to check designed in the typical Dutch style of archtiecture. Flavia and I were sold on the food available at the market of course and apart from a great Italian bread, we also bought some cheese and given the misfortune with our trip to Belgium, we were desperately in need of some Belgium pralines :oP ...
On Sunday we did another early start and made it to Rotterdam, which is famous predominantly for its modern style architecture, after its town center has been wiped off the surface of the earth during the WWII by both German and then also the American army (if I got that correctly :oS) ... Many buildings were quite interesting and contrary to what I had been told by everyone I actually enjoyed what the city had to offer. We did a little bit of a disappointing tour of the harbor though, which didn't bring much new to the table apart form an endless view of containers, but well ... 9EUR badly spent, which isn't that drastic ...
In the afternoon we set out for the town of Delft, which was an exact opposite to what we saw in Rotterdam. The city looked very traditional full of the Dutch architecture we saw elsewhere, i.e. Amsterdam, Haarlem or even Zaanse Schanz ... We loved the center, the small shops, the pulse of the city ... it was just great, although Flavia expressed she could never live there as it was still too small for her needs, eheh ... what a party animal :o)) ...
On Sunday evening we took it a bit easy and landed on the beach of Scheveningen (I'm sure my spelling is wrong ... but well ...) ... It's a nice, cozy and cheese Dutch beach close to the Hague and it was a welcome relax after the weekend of sight-seeing around the country ...
Flavia left the Hague on Monday morning and I'm sure she had as much fun as I did, which is of course - LLLOOOOTTTSSSSS :oD ... September 03 Quick stop in Vancouver before we returned home to LondonOn Friday afternoon we arrived to Vancouver International Airport, passed the customs and easily found our way back to the hostel. This trip we did some three weeks before and it felt like we only left the place a couple of days ago ... all that time of our holiday passed by so quickly ...
On Friday evening we did a bit of a walk around the center of Vancouver and I finally managed to get into the Tom Lee music store to check out on the guitars. Flavia and Carol were patient enough to stay around and wait for me while I was checking out the instruments. Another must do was to buy some sushi opposite to the SameSun hostel, which is easily the best sushi I have ever had for a price that I simply do not understand - 6CAD for 12 pieces of sushi - miracle ;o)) ... Michal was also given time to conduct some of his camera shopping business, which in this time consisted of a return of a malfunctional Samsung camcorder and receiving a voucher in exchange to buy other electronics he didn't need, hehe ... Later that night we met Michal's friend from Cuba whom we both met (Michal met her more than me though ;o))) a year ago. She took us over to a club where we conversed for a while before she dropped us back in the center ...
On Saturday we decided to cancel our plan to visit the capital of British Columbia - Victoria. It would have been different if we were to see it at the beginning of the trip, but by then we all were too tired to travel somewhere 3-4hours and then return back spending again 3-4hrs on the bus/boat. So we all opted for some shopping. Michal bought a laptop, I bought a guitar and the girls found some cool magnets ;o))) ... We all were happy, especially Flavia, who met a good friend of hers from Australia called Darren.
The day after the weather turned all rainy and we didn't bother catching an early taxi to the airport where we hung around a bit longer than usual, but by then I had lots to read, the girls had some further souvenire hunting to do and Michal kind of also chilled out. The flight back to London went as expected. Thomas Cook didn't come to senses while we were in America and offered us the same level of hospitality as on the way there, so nothing to write home about ...
When we returned to London, Michal decided to use the first of the two flight tickets he accidentally booked and travelled home to the Czech Rep on the exact date. The girls went to Flavia's and I headed back to my apartment to kick off the unpacking and other choirs ... On Tuesday morning at 5.30am I was to wake up, dress up, pack up and leave London for my project in Holland ... The holiday was over and I was more tired than before I left, or at least I felt so, hehe ... From Tok to AnchorageOn Sunday, Aug 17, in the evening, we again crossed the border, this time returning to Alaska. We found ourselves the same accommodation in a nearby Tok as we did on the way to Dawson City. It was cheap, comfy and included breakfast that the girls especially enjoyed. On Monday early morning I called the troops to get out of bed, grab some food and hop on the car heading down to Valdez, which the Lonely Planet travel guide claimed to be among the best places to see in Alaska, and I cannot do otherwise but prove them right on this one!!!
Travelling down to Valdez, one first encounters the Warthington Glacier some 20 miles away from the twon I guess. It was the only glacier we could actually touch, which is how close we got to it. Then in another 100m we had to stop again to hike down to this mountain cliff, which offered incredible views of the valley leading down to Valdez. The serpentine road brough us down closer to the town where we made another stop to have a closer look at very picturesque waterfalls and then we thought it was about time to actually hit the city limits and see what else is there to see.
The town is very nice. It has a harbor where the giant cruise ships anchor and then a large marina for these small yachts and the fishing boats that offer the stands with fishermen cleaning their daily catch of salmon. You get to see this quite frequently around Alaska end of August though ... After we have grabbed a quick lunch and walked around the harbor a bit, we set out to see a glacier just outside of the town and then drove down a peninsula also outside of the town where a creek with shallow water flows and where also plenty of salmon gets stuck, which eventually attracts the bears to come down and feed on the fish. And lucky we truly were. It is very rare that one can see a mother with cubs catching salmon and we saw that right there in Valdez where a black bear mom popped up with her small cubs and provided for unforgettable memories ...
After we have taken hunderds of photos it was time to drive back to Anchorage, some 250 miles from Valdez. Our intention was in no way to stay there and on Tuesday morning we left the place for Seward, which is a famous touristic destination on the beautiful Kenai peninsula. We kind of enjoyed Seward, but after what we saw in Valdez, I felt like I expected a bit more. Seward seemed to be a bit disorganized when it came to tourism and that took me a little by surprise. If you don't wish to buy a boat tour, there isn't much else you get offered by local agents.
We took a walk through the center of Seward and then decided that it was good to move on, so we drove towards a town of Homer. On the way there we passed by the Kenai lake where we drove a little offroad hoping to spot some grizzlies, but no luck. The scenery provided for a good enough compensation though. Then we passed by a village called Cooper Landing and then further west towards the coast and then south to Homer.
The next day - Wednesday - we woke up a bit later than usual after so much driving in the past few days and stopped by the local Tourist Information Office where we were handed instructions as to what not to miss upon. First we drove up and down the mountain surrounding the center of Homer to get some nice views of the place. Homer is famous most likely for its Spit where one can find bars, restaurants and especially amazing views of the nearby glaciers. In the afternoon we felt we saw enough of the place and turned back to drive towards Anchorage. On the way we made a few stops here and there to walk down to the coastal beaches, but nothing major was to be seen there. In the evening we stopped at Cooper Landing to spend a night in a cabin. It was in fact the first time we chose something different but a hotel. This is a testimonial how far our backpacking ambitions went on this trip - you get the picture ;o)) ...
On Thursday morning we again slept in a little and then drove a few miles to a place called Russian River famous especially for its cascades where people get to see salmon fighting the stream and sometimes bears catching it in mid-air. Yeah, the bears were our target. I really wanted to see them again. Unfortunately it didn't happen, but we could find many bear traces on the trail to tell that the bears indeed lived in sizeable numbers in the area. I still enjoyed the hike superbly and took away a few cool photos of a jumping salmon. We reached Anchorage again early evening and I was happy for the crew to perform some retail therapy before we were to leave Alaska the next day in the morning.
We indeed left Alaska on Friday around midday full of emotions and thoughts. I really loved the way the locals are treating the environment and I fully agree with the moto they embedded on their licence plates - Alaska, the last frontier. I loved the nature, the animals and the peace of all that life out there. I have travelled a lot in my life and I am sometimes very easy to please and get easily excited about places, but Alaska found itself a special place in my memories and I know that one day I will need to see it again and if I have the money by then to pay for a flight from Homer to Katmai Island, which is famous for the Kodiak bear to fish for salmon in quite some density, I know I will happily pay to see the spectacle ... September 02 Yukon round trip and return to AlaskaOn Thursday, Aug 14, we have entered the Yukon territory and after about a hunderd kilometers far from the border we have reached our first destination - Dawson City. The trip there was far from unpleasant as it lead us through the Canadian side of the Top of the world highway. I was probably the only person on our group who admired the free fairy across the Yukon river that fought through the stream to carry us over to the town. Everyone else found it dangerous, or at least that was my feeling.
The town itself doesn't look much of a treat to be honest. It is somehow greyish and sad from the distance, but all of those feeling evaporated once we tuned in onto its vibes. I cannot deny that the cheap hotel accommodation wouldn't have cheered us up either, hehe ... we paid some 35CAD and were put up in a decent room downtown. There were lots of vacancies around, so the prices were low. Still that day we managed to drive all the way up to the peak of a mountain rising above the city, which gave us a great view of not only the town itself, but far around it. On the way there we passed by a cemetary, where we later paid a tribute to a Czech adventurer Jan Eskymo Welzl who travelled over Siberia on foot and found himself in Dawson city at the verge of his life and then died there. We also saw Jack London's cabin and quickly checked out a cabin of poet called Robert Service, whom we never heard of and never actually found out who he was :oS ... Our bellies called for some attention and after dinner we stumbled across these two ladies who stayed in Dawson City over summer and they invited us to join them on their night out to a local cabaret where we saw a free cancan show ... it was well worth it!!!
The next day we took a guided tour through Dawson city, which exposed us to a story following the Whitepass trail adventures that we learnt about in Skagway, Alaska. Gold was actually found in Dawson city and the city swelled to its limites, but then saw all the newcomers vanish once the gold rush was over. We also got ourselves onto the most boring tour we had done on our holiday, which was the visit to Dredge No. 5 close to Bonanza Creek. If your enemies are to visit Dawson city, make sure you send them there too. Otherwise stay away from that tour through a rusted pile of iron sheets ;o)) ...
On that Friday we drove some 500km down to the Yukon's capital - Whitehorse, where we found accommodation in the local Best Western hotel, which again didn't blow a hole in our wallets, which we all were sincerelly happy about. That day, Aug 15, was mine and Flavia's half anniversary, which we celebrated in a Whitehorse McDonald's. Well, it was fun ... when we reach a year, I commit to celebrate in a more relevant manner ...
As much as Dawson city was interesting, Whitehorse was boring. Fortunately there are things to do around Whitehorse. We visited this animal preserve where we got to see Muskox, Caribou, Dollsheep, Bisons and other beautiful creatures. After that we drove over to a town called Carcross, near Alaskan border, which is directly linked to the Whitepass trail route and the train from Skagway goes there too ... Apart from the town being simply beautiful, one gets to see Emerald lake and the world's smallest natural desert (or allegedly smallest ... who knows ???) ;o))) .... These two attractions are definitely worth it, so check it out for yourself ...
From Carcross we then drove up to Haines Junction, which is located in Kluane National Park, which was an adventure scheduled for the next day ...
On Sunday we first tried to get ourselves onto a flight over the Kluane National park glaciers, which would also expose (if lucky) Canada's highest peak - Mt. Logan. But that didn't happen due to cloudy weather above the ice fields. So we then launched into a hike around Haines Junction, which was really beautiful. We saw the Katherine lake, I tried to climb up a steep rocky hill and almost broke my bones over it, and then we also visited a Ghost town of Silver City and the Kluane Lake. Later that afternoon we set out to drive back to Alaska, which we reached in late evening hours.
Having crossed the border back to the US, we managed to drive another 100 miles or so to reach Tok where we spent a night. Michal and I were pretty knackered after all that driving ...
From Whittier to Alaskan / Canadian borderWe arrived at Whittier on Aug 11, disembarked the ship and took a shuttle to Anchorage where we planned to visit the Alaskan National Heritage Center. Well, I'm sure the attraction is worthwhile, but we somehow didn't gather the strength to get take a half hour shuttle to visit the place and instead strolled around the center of Anchorage and then found a free internet connection in a mall on the sixth street downtown. Anchorage didn't impress us way too much as a city. It is very cubical and without much of a spirit.
At 1pm we grabbed a free shuttle from downtown to the airport provided as a courtesy of Princess cruises and at 1.30pm we were lined up in front of the Hertz car rental counter to pick up our rental car. I booked a Mazda 6 and got a Ford Fusion, but that didn't bother me a bit. The car was big enough to contain all 4 big bagpacks, four passengers and other smaller luggage, so all was good.
The very first part of our road trip lead us to Denali National Park, which is some 200 miles north of Anchorage. As expected, the place was pretty packed with tourist and it took us some time to find accommodation. If you find yourself in a similar situation, I recommend that you seek accommodation north of the Denali village where we found vacancies, while the otherway appeared to be totally sold out. On Tue, Aug 12, we dedicated all day long to the Denali National Park with its incredibal natural capital and also the highest mountain of the US - Mt. McKinley (Mt. Denali). The park was simply stunning, the nature beautiful. One can purchase a bus ride to certain stops while the buses can be hopped on and off throughout the trip. We first bought a ticket to the Eielson visitor center, which cost us around 30USD, but then decided to travel all the way to Wonder lake. We all agreed afterward that the Eielson center would have been sufficient and wouldn't recommend spending another 4hrs on the bus travelling to the lake as you wouldn't get to see much more than what you get to see prior to that ...
On that day we saw moose, carribou, bears (from a distance) and these little squirrels, rabbits, etc. I simply loved the park ...
On Wednesday mornign we travelled to Fairbanks where we unfortunately missed a tour to El Dorado gold mine. I wish we didn't though :oS ... The center of Fairbanks is no wonder, so feel free to give it a miss. In the morning we got to see these interesting animals - Munkox's and carribous on a farm next to the Alaskan Fairbanks University ground. Then we checked out a Walmart and headed for a tour on a paddleboat, which was according to my girlfriend's travel guide a top tour in Alaska. It was actually amazing. We saw this demonstration of a dog sled, learnt a lot about life in Fairbanks and saw this camp reminiscent of the Atabaskan indian's culture. The end of the Fairbanks tour was dedicated to a dinner at KFC that made our Italian ladies sick and destroyed their desire to do fastfood ever again on our trip :o))) ...
From Fairbanks we headed south-east towards Tok, which is a small uninteresting, but in no way insignificant village on the way to Yukon. The place used to be called Tokio, but then abbreviated to Tok after Pearl Harbor I guess when locals didn't feel the warmth of friendship towards the Japanese. To Japanese it probably didn't matter as much anyway given the attractiveness of the place. There's nothing to see or do in Tok apart from refilling your car's gas tank and spend a night. The locals take it as such and don't even make any effort to make the place sound like a big deal ...
The day after - Thursday - we headed further east over the Top of the world highway, which was an incredible ride!!!!! The views are unprecedented and we took another million of photos. On the way we drove through a cool place called Chicken, Alaska where I forced my Flavia to give me a kiss on a spot called 'Got laid in Chicken, Alaska' ;o))) ... nothing but a show off was of course intended by that photo, hehe ...
The Alaskan / Yukon border truly sits on the top of a mountain range and it does feel like one was on the Top of the world. At times the road is bumpy, slippery and muddy, but I cannot do anything else but recommended! Dawson city was our first destination in Yukon, to which we had about a hunderd kilometers to go, but that I will save for the next blog ... September 01 Vancouver to Whittier with Princess Cruises On Aug 4 (Monday) midday we boarded a Coral Princess cruise ship that took us eventually to Alaska. Let me make here a few notes about the ship. Coral Princess belongs to the Princess Cruises corporation and up to approximately 2000 customers can comfortably board the vessel with a staff to customer ratio approximately 1:2.5. The Princess company has been apparently around for some time and even almost one month after we have set our foot on their boat, I am still full of great memories of the great service we have received when travelling with them. All their staff are very well trained and always happy to help out whatever it was we wanted. The highlight was the food though, which was simply amazing and easily the best food I had ever been fed over the course of a week time. Now back to the actual trip, which I had originally been trying to plan as a backpacking adventure. Well, five-star cruiseship takes the backpacking characteristic off the equation, but the sort of adventure prevails :o)) ... (certainly the one adventure where you try to roll off the dinner table after you ate 9 course meal and you can no longer breathe ...) ... Anyway, the first two days we spent on the board of the ship that landed us at a touristy place called Ketchikan on Wednesday early morning. Trying to save some funds we decided against booking of any organized tours on the ship and stepped on the Alaskan landscape fully on our own. The tour operators were of course lined up in front of the cruise trying to sell us all things possible, but we resisted. I strongly recommend always checking with local Tourist Information offices for useful information, which we did. This time we weren't that lucky as the guy ended up being pretty vague about what to do in his small hometown. However, he set us on a trail where we got lost and my Flavia fell into a pothole of mud and screamed the hell out of the whole forrest ;o))) ... Apart from that we managed to see the main attractions, such as the creek street and the place where salmon frequently jumps above the water level. On Thursday we landed in Juneau, the capital of Alaska (most people think it's Anchorage and so did I of course ...). We invested our money into two organized tours in Juneau and I think we made a good decision. The first one was a Guide's choice of a hike, where the local guide brought us up this fairly easy hike to a beautiful mountain glacier. And in the afternoon Flavia and I indulged ourselves with a Photo safari tour where we had a photographer advising on what and how to take photos showing us the best places to take shots. The best time came when they brought us onto an open sea to show us whales that gathered in a tiny gulf to catch fish and those couple of hours immediately became our top 5 moments in Alaska altogether I believe ... On Friday the cruise ship landed in Skagway, which is a place where the veins of the gold rush trails started, and so we dedicated our visit to the Skagway part of the story. As we travelled around Alaska the following days, the story slowly unfolded and gaps were filled up. From Skagway we also took a train that brought us up to a Whitepass trail, which the stampeders used to get up north and where approximately 3000 horses died by maltreatment of greedy humans. The train ride was quite expensive, but it was also a must-see, as it provided for amazing views of the Skagway surroundings. In the afternoon I pushed everyone into another walk around a fairly simple trail ... On Saturday the cruise ship entered the Glaciar Bay, which is famous for its spectacular glaciars. Around 10am we were passing by one of the main glaciars of the national park when an essential piece of ice disattached itself from the massive and slid into the ocean accompanied by this typical noise linked to glaciar movement. Our group were in breakfast when it happened, so none of us has a photo of the spectacle ;o)) ... Then later in the day the rangers came on board of the ship and gave presentations about the park, which I found amazing, especially when they produced photos of the animals that live there. Sunday was our last day and the cruise ship arrived very close to Whittier which was our final destination. The last day was, again, dedicated to water tied glaciers and as we spent it all on the board of the ship, we can also say that we filled it up with food of all kinds. What stood out for the girls especially was the exhibit of cakes that we first photographed and then ate our little share :o))) ... What we saw outside at that point was a College Glacier and we again loved it and took many photos. On Monday morning the disembarkation procedure took place, we paid all our debts and left the ship for a bus that took us over to Anchorage where the next chapter of our adventure began. |
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