Been either having too much fun on land or been out to sea with no signal, so got a bit of catching up to do. I’ll be brief … ish
We’ve settled into a rhythm of largely ignoring Hurtigruten’s paid “expeditions”; they seem to us to be over priced and involve treating adults like children too much of the time. A recent example in Sitka: €149 to travel by bus less than 1km to a Science Centre, which could be accessed via a pleasant 10 minute walk and entered for a mere 8 bucks. I’m sure they got something more than the general entry - a cup of hot chocolate and touching sea urchins, I understand - but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t worth the extra 140 euros.
We spent yesterday in Sitka, the Russian capital of this region when they “claimed” it from the native Tlingit people. I still find it slightly sickening that the Americans and Russians felt they could do a financial deal to transfer the ownership of the land when they had given the local natives the square route of bugger all for it in the first place. Not that this was exclusively Russian behaviour - all colonial powers did it and little reparation (if any) has ever been paid. I'm not convinced that acknowledging its original ownership at every opportunity is really enough. Native land just taken by colonisers, but when it came to doing deals with each other, money changes hands. Hmm.
Russia, had wanted it for its abundant sea otter fur in the 1740s, but of course by over using the “resource” they had made it uneconomic by the 1860s and sold the whole lot to the Americans for the princely sum of $7.2m, which apparently amounts to about 2 cents per acre. A bargain for the Americans given the resources yet to be found, and as usual, sod all for the native Tlingit people. I could go on, but I won’t. Point made, I hope.
The history of Sitka made it a fascinating place for a wander for the five or six hours we were ashore. Having eschewed all excursions, even the free ones, we managed a long walk in the Historic Park, surrounded by totem poles, a visit to the local museum (not even mentioned by Hurtigruten) where we saw, amongst other things, some frankly brilliant waterproof clothing made from whale bladder and seal skin ( I think - as usual the detail might have escaped me). This is an entirely waterproof suit!
And a walk would not be complete without a coffee or two - which we managed to appropriate in the Backdoor Cafe, which I heartily recommend should you ever be here! And then there is the Russian Orthodox Cathedral. Beautiful place. And I understand that many of the Tlingit people are now followers of the Russian Orthodox Church - of course they are.
Totem Poles, I now understand, are created for one of four purposes, and none of them are the worship of idols so despised by the first missionaries. They are heraldic (to illustrate the crests of the clan and household that commission them), mortuary (to contain the ashes of cremated important people), memorial (to commemorate individuals), and for ridicule (to shame people into paying debts).
Whatever their purpose they are quite beautiful and a longish walk round the historic park rewarded us with many examples, of which we now have far too many photographs!
And so to whales! Point Alphonse (or whatever it was called), came and went without a further mention, so I suspect Hurtigruten was again guilty of a certain amount of exaggeration. However as we left Sitka and headed for the open sea up and out of the Alaska panhandle (all American states that have a sticky out bit, call it a panhandle), two humpback whales obliged us by poking their substantial heads out of the water right outside our balcony. Of course I was not quick enough to get any sort of picture, but who cares, it is in my mind. They couldn’t have been more than 20 metres away. Magnificent beasts and they then obliged us by diving and showing us a fabulous view of the fins. You’ll have to take my word for it because by the time they had resurfaced (and my camera was at the ready) they were probably half a kilometre away and the picture is either pixelated, out of focus … or both!
Hey ho. I saw a whale in the wild really close up, and I don’t really care if I got a great photo (that of course is not true). I then waited on our balcony for about half an hour freezing my butt off, hoping for the “money shot”. But they had long gone.
Finally we spent all night and a good part of today cruising north to Icy Bay, which turns out to be a fabulous place but having just got off the zodiac that took us right up and through the ice field, the pictures of that will have to wait until tomorrow. Other than the just completed trip almost to the bottom of a glacier, today I have spent much of my time gazing at the magnificent mountain ranges on the shore, and writing this tripe. That and eating, drinking beer, sitting in the sauna, and probably dozing off and dribbling. Here are my last few pics for now.
One of the many totem pole pictures. Awesome!
Waterproof boots made from the bladder or gut (or some other part) of some aquatic mammal - (of course I've forgotten the details!)
The man is an idiot. Main street Sitka. I rather liked Sitka.
On the harbour front at Sitka; the biggest halibut in the ... world? No idea, but somewhere in this picture is big fish.
Sunset, last night. Or it might have been the night before. I am completely losing track.
Icy Bay, which was fabulous, will follow tomorrow. Time for the bar.
It's a really good job that you create your blog as it would simply be impossible for you two to recall even 1/4 of everything you have seen and done in this one trip alone. Amazing.