Juneau – day 4 of our Alaska Adventure

Day 4 of our Alaska adventure saw us dock in Juneau which is the capital of Alaska and was founded during the gold rush of 1880. We had prebooked an excursion here which was to go whale watching and then to see the Medenhall Glacier.

After meeting on the quayside we were taken by a bus for 20 minutes to where the boats left from. There was seating downstairs as well as upstairs which also had an open viewing area so we opted for the upstairs. The company had a guarantee that you would see a whale otherwise they would pay you $100 per person.  I think my expectations were too high for this tour from watching too many movies – as I was expecting to see whales breaching out of the water alongside the boat but sadly the reality was seeing a tail fin rise out of the water and then back under which was as much of a whale I was going to see unless i bought a cuddly whale out of the gift shop.

After approx 2 and a half hours on the water it was time to rejoin the bus and we were then taken to the Medenhall Glacier where we were given an hour free time. The signs said it was a 45 minute walk to the Nugget Falls so we decided we didn’t have time to do this however after speaking to a few people on the bus back to the ship we would have had plenty of time as it was approx 20 minute walk each way.

There was a visitor centre at the Glacier which showed the history of the Glacier and how the global warming has affected the Glacier and showed how much it had receded over the years.

In Juneau itself other things to do if you decided not to do an excursion include the Mount Roberts Tramway which takes you up 1800 ft to the top of Mount Roberts and once up there you will find hiking trails, a raptor centre – this will be something we will do when we go back. There is many jewelry shops and souvenir shops, and the place to get free Wi-Fi is in the library on the top floor and they set a room aside for cruise ship passengers to use it. Other options to see the Medenhall Glacier is by helicopter (which is what timothy from the tv programme The Cruise did)

Next time I will tell you about trying to sort my husbands fear of flying out by float plane.

Have a great couple of weeks

Kerry

xx