After Ottawa came Montreal.
Among other things, art galleries, dinner with a friend's dad and his partner, etc. We were intrigued by the huge mural of Leonard Cohen on the side of the building slightly to the right of the middle of this photo.
If that is a bit too much like 'Where's Wally?' here is a closer photo taken from the street. The mural is based on a photo taken by Leonard's daughter. The artists have added pink to his right hand because he is holding it over his heart.
After Montreal we flew back to Vancouver to join a three week tour - starting in the Rocky Mountains (BC and Alberta) and ending with a cruise up the Inside Passage to Alaska.
In Banff we stayed at the Fairmont. I managed to get this view of the hotel as we went for a walk upstream along Spray River. The hotel has had many additions over the years. However, they have been integrated beautifully into the original building.
I was impressed by this baronial-style hall toward the back of the huge hotel. A really delightful space where I could imagine a ball being held.
This staircase is in the new foyer and I think led to the original front entrance hall.
We also stayed at the Fairmont at Lake Louise. After dinner on the first night we went for a walk along the lake. When we turned around to walk back I was surprised and delighted by this view.
In Whistler we took the gondola up to the first peak. The weather did not look so miserable when we set off. Then it started to hail as we then walked up to the open ski lift to get to the highest peak. At the very top there is a suspension bridge over a great chasm between two smaller peaks. However,...
...Laurie was braver than me. Anyway, someone had to take his photo.
While on the cruise ship we took three land based excursions. At Skagway, Alaska, we went up to a ridge line at the border with Canada. There we saw these strange looking trees with branches on one side only.
It is the result of the Katabatic wind that flows down off the glacier situated above this stunted, slow-growing copse of trees. The growing season is only three months here, so these five metre trees are probably several hundred years old.
Further back down the valley we were taken for a four-hour guided walk along a side branch of the Skagway river. The humidity is such that the forest floor is carpeted with moss 30cm thick and the branches are festooned with a variety of epiphytic mosses and lichens.
On one morning our ship cruised into Glacier Bay. I was amazed at the cracking and thunderous sounds of Margerie Glacier as it inches its way down the valley. The only visual evidence of this movement was the occasional collapse of ice at the glacier face. All the glaciers have been in retreat (hyper-text link) since about 1850. These ones are predicted to largely disappear in the next 30 to 50 years.
For all the visual spectacle of these collapsing lumps of ice, it was quite a discomforting experience.
Our final excursion was a flight in a De Havilland Beaver float plane from Ketchikan.
We flew among precipitous mountains with trees that amazingly managed to cling to the almost vertical walls.
There were numerous lakes in the valley floors...
...where the pilot landed and invited us to step out onto the floats. In the middle of the lake!
Our travels were not without sightings of a variety of wildlife. In Juneau we went whale watching...
...and sighted a number of whales that were feeding in this deep narrow passage between islands.
At Blue River BC, between Jasper and Sun Peaks, we were taken upstream on canoes roped together like a catamaran. The canoes had very quiet electric motors, so the black bear in this photo was apparently unperturbed by the very still and silent human witnesses. I was impressed that our largish group was able to be so quiet.
Elsewhere on a different occasion from a train, we saw masses of red salmon migrating up stream.
This chipmunk was foraging for crumbs of a biscuit being eaten by a hiker at Lake Louise.
I was amused to see these Canada Geese being a nuisance to the golfers at Jasper Park Lodge. It made me think of the kangaroos on the golf course at Anglesea.
And here the flock of geese being given right of way in Vancouver near Stanley Park.
We hope you have vicariously enjoyed our travels. At last back at home we have begun to get our selves back into a familiar routine.
However, we feel refreshed by our journey and will long remember the sights, sounds and friendships shared on our Canadian/Alaskan holiday.
Christopher and Laurie
30th September 2018
