JUNEAU D'Y'KNOW

State capital of Alaska, but no roads or rail to anywhere else. We've been before but couldn't really remember it. We took the cable car (locally know as a tram) last time to the mountain top. Noticed inflation as we paid $20 last time, now $60 pp. Didn't bother.

Has a nice old town with shops selling jewellery, souvenirs and bars. I think we are the last cruise ship through before winter, so a lot of the shops were shutting up. Someone said they moved to the Caribbean for the winter. Wanted to try the King Crab legs on front but wasn't hungry enough. Weather has been stunning, warm & very little wind. Got back on board & fell asleep in the lounger chair for an hour in the sun - lovely when you're jet lagged.

The native totem poles are a bit hairy raising.

 

KETCHIKAN

 On board Discovery Princess, the same class of ship we had sailed before, so we sort of know our way around. We had a display of the Northern Lights on our way up, but our jetlag is still making us over tired especially so for Lin with her cold. 

We must be near the end of the season, Ketchikan was pretty quiet & all the businesses closed as we set sail at 14:30.

That pretty row of painted cottages are the prostitute's residences. That creek was full of dead and dying salmon, I guess they all die after spawning. There were so many that the seals were playing with the remaining live ones, not bothering to eat them. We're off to Juneau next.

SEATTLE & ONWARD

 Well, if we tired before we were certainly exhausted after the first day. Cab to Gatwick was good as was check in - the first time we have enjoyed "the no need to take anything out" bag security system. Norse flight good, arrived early but it took over 2 hours of kicking your bag in the queue for passport entry. Then off to the Delta terminal for the run up to Seattle. That was also an excellent flight arriving early. After the cab to the hotel we finally got to bed at 11pm, all-in-all 27 hours after we left the flat, and no sleep and jetlag.

Lovely in Seattle, hot - got a bit of sun sitting on dock and enjoyed a good US burger in the bar overlooking the front. Pike's Market was busy, beautiful flowers on sale, lots of street music.

SETTING OFF

Five weeks away, packing is a bit of a challenge as our two cases are not overly large. Forced the shoes into the carry-on bag - made the cases easier but now they weigh a ton(told you a million times, don't exaggerate!) The prep for the trip wasn't great. Granddaughter's birthday bash went on to 3am & left us putting the great grandchildren to bed. It was nearly all great but left us exhausted. It not completely great as there was a super spreader present and loads of people have developed colds & coughs including YT & DB.

The start of the trip has been a bit stressful, airport's checking in software hacked, big delays - the route to ship boarding involves a change at LAX to get to the port in Seattle. Don't want any delays. Started well, cab at 5:30, smooth ride around the M25 parking lot, checked in, bags dropped, through security and sitting in the cafe with coffee & breakfast by 7:30.

Flying with Norse, something over 11 hours or so, I hope it's not too uncomfortable. Premium Economy should help.

Just ordered dinner on line for the LAX - Seattle leg. Modern luxuries, eh?

CATCHING UP

 I am just trying my hand at creating pdf's on my mobile phone (again). I find it difficult to get the formatting OK. Touching base, is that an Americanism? Lin & I do puzzles jointly every day. They are of US origin from newspaper/encyclopedias and you may know them - Tightrope;- Connections;- Revealed. Because they have those US origins we struggle sometimes. Two nations separated by a common language.

The 4 great grandchildren we took delivery of in 2023 are all developing. They have been visiting in the last couple of months and are a handful. 

Willow

Robert

Tommy

Ada

We have been looking after the great grandchildren for the last 2 weeks. An abundance of joy and stress. It's great that we can still be part of their lives, but it is tough when they all running riot.

Travelling still remains a big part of our life, we are exhausting ourselves while we can. We've done some same old and some new travelling so far this year. Started with same old cruising, this time with P&O to visit Lin's German relatives in Hamburg. Didn't really go to plan. We were supposed to have 2 days in Hamburg, but on arrival the captain announced there was a port workers strike and we had only 1 day there. Quite a kerfuffle for both us & the family who were expecting us in the late afternoon. It didn't finish there, we have planned a nice Bruges visit on the Belgian railway. Nope, the train drivers were on strike.

Searching for poffertjes in Rotterdam

Next up was a Danube river cruise, we didn't notice any blue, but the highlight for us was the opera in the Viennese palace. We had never been to the opera, & it was quite an eye opener for us. I guess it would help if you understood the stories being portrayed.

Vienna

Munich, Soviet Coke

Now for something completely different (was that Monty Python?) We had never been on a coach trip...so off we went, 4 days on an historical tour of the D-Day beaches, 2 historians on the coach, picked us up from our home town, across on the channel ferries, P&O again, stayed in Caen and visited all the allied beaches and battlefields up until the break out towards Paris. So many stories. Normandy is a beautiful area. The coach trip was actually very good, they really looked after us.

Being an engineer, the machines are of interest, the above have different roles, the Sherman general tank, a tank destroyer, armoured car, AVRE bunker buster, German Tiger & the only tank that could regularly defeat the Tiger,  the Sherman Firefly - a Frankenstein development that replaced the standard gun with a British Quick Firing 17 pounder gun.

The exhaustion continued - golfing trip, fishing trip, family holiday to Turkey, atomic weapons research establishment, a road trip around the west country that took in the Roman centre of Britain, a town full of scarecrows and a Concorde supersonic airliner equipped with parachutes and a rope ladder.

Cirencester - map of Roman roads

Scarecrow town Lynmouth

Concorde rope ladder

Atomic weapon development Orfordness

Finally we have been on a steam train weekend at Eastbourne, a Victorian seaside town not far from London and  charity hare walk in Ipswich.

We really need a rest! Are we going to get it, let's see? Happy days.

Love Linda & Wally

FLEET AIR ARM

 Visited the museum at Royal Navy Air Station, Yeovilton.

The Royal Navy led the way in developing naval aviation starting only a few years after the first powered flight at Kitty Hawk.

This is a really nice exhibit. It recreates the deck and inside the 1970s Ark Royal. It starts as you enter the aircraft lift taking you through the innards of the ship, hangars, mess areas, machinery space up to the bridge. There you are greeted by auto activated video presentations given by actually serving current people who contrast the 70's with today.

This is a Concorde that was used for development. It contains lots of 60's instrumentation although it's safety equipment includes a rope ladder and parachutes.

The museum has several historic videos of the role of the RN in several disasters. The actual footage and stories of the Fastnet race storm in 1979 and the Boscastle flood in 2004 are amazing.

Wally doing his bit!

ON OUR WAY...

 ..... home. Left Barnstaple this morning & now heading eastwards. Now in Yeovil calling in on Montacute house on the way for our first Devon Cream Tea (which goes on first, I can never recall). Montacute was built in 1601 in Liz 1's time. Lots of original features but when it was passed to the NT in 1930 all the interior had been sold off. The NT advertised for suitable stuff & several wealthy folk obliged. It was built by Sir Edward Phelips, who was a courtier for Elizabeth I, speaker of the House of Commons and a lawyer involved in the prosecution of Gut Foulkes. He invented the corridor when he bought the front of another stately home & installed it on the front of his house.

Another beautiful garden with yellow flowered tree that really attracted the bees. There were so many that the buzzing was loud. Anyone know what the tree is? 

Had a nice dinner in the Manor.

SCARECROWS, ARLINGTON COURT & CARRIAGE MUSEUM

Don't understand why it's this time of year, but Linton & Lynmouth have a scarecrow festival. Town is stuffed with them

We also visited Arlington Court which was the home of the Chichester family, Sir Francis, the RTW sailor you would know. It was last owned by Rosalie who made the house beautiful, so light & airy and with lovely gardens. It also houses the National Carriage Museum. I never knew there were so many types of carriage. Can you pronounce Brougham correctly. It was one of the carriage designs on show.

This would suit Ada

MINEHEAD, LYNTON & LYNMOUTH

 Nice scenic drive into Devon along the coast, enlivened by still more scarily steep hills. Went up and down by the water powered cliff railway. The whole place seems designed to take money off you, I calculated the railway must take £200 grand per year, and even a pee costs 50p.