ALASKA

Well what a week we've had! We've been on trains, ships, aeroplanes and coaches. We set off from Vancouver on the cruise liner, Zaandam - a floating 5 star hotel. Here we are later in the week enjoying a train journey through spectacular scenery after leaving the ship for a day Skagway.

We enjoyed remarkable good weather throughout the week. But here in Ketchikan we were reminded that the winter snow require enormous snow blowers to be fited to the front of the locamotives.

The local Tlingit (prounced Klinkit) Indian artwork is focussed on the creation of totem poles. These examples in Ketchikan were outside a museum devoted to preserving ancient totem poles. These commemorated great leaders who had died, important events and celebrations.


When we arrived in Juneau we visited the impossing Mendenhall glacier. We learnt that the face of the glacier appeared blue as the compacted ice and snow was so dence that it absorbed all the colours of the spectrum except blue. The face of Mendenhall had been one and half miles wide until the warm summer of 2004 melted a huge section. The ice broke off into the bay and now the face is only half a mile wide. Despite global warming Mendenhall is unlikely to disappear soon as it stretches back many miles into a huge ice field.

LEXIT

LEXIT

Traditional marriage saw wife promising to ”obey” husband. She blossomed as a mother whilst he found life difficult believing (incorrectly) that men from abroad were making it harder for him to gain employment and that his wife was enjoying life at his expense. So he ordered her to obey his command to have one of her legs removed which would prevent her dancing with friends from France, Germany, Italy and Spain. He asserted that she would then become a far more attractive proposition to dance with similarly crippled regimes.