Today we are at Juneau, it is overcast with misty rain, so this is the first wet weather we have experienced. We don't have any tours planned so we will see where the day takes us.
There was already a cruise ship in as we arrived with one following us.
The following photos are coming into berth which we did at around 7am.
This is the cable car that goes up the mountain.
We headed off into Juneau in the drizzly rain, there are now 4 cruise ships in port, Coral Princess, Grand Princess, Celeraty Millennium, Norwegian Jewel, Tour busses everywhere and people trying to sell you tour tickets, two more arrived, Norwegian Pearl and the Amsterdam bringing the number of tourists to over 10000.
The street is full off gift shops, Chris's was interested in a Mink coat but at $27000 USD I said no, so I bought her perfume instead.
We went for a drink at the Red Dog Saloon, they where doing a roaring trade. This gun was Wyatt Earps.
Juneau was first explored in the 1870’s when George Pilz came to the area in search of gold but it was not until 1880 that they found the mother load in Gold creek and staked a 160 acre town site on the beach of Gastineau Channel. Juneau is the the seat of government for the territory of Alaska and became the state capital in 1959. Today tourism is the largest private sector employer. Juneau is home to 262 miles of hiking trails but has only 41 miles of roads from Thane in the south to Echo cove in the north. There are only 22 miles of road on Douglas Island.
In the afternoon we rode the Mount Roberts Tramway to the observatory, Mount Roberts is part of the Alaskan wilderness,, because of the low clouds there was no view, we watched a short video on the Tlingit people that reinforced the stories that yesterday's guide had told us.
We hope to see a live one of these tomorrow.
This afternoon we went and listened to Libby Riddles who was the first female to win the Iditarod Sled Dog race during a fierce blizzard in 1985. Having mushed dogs for over 30 years Libby Riddles is considered one of Alaska’s legends and was inducted into the Alaskan Sports Hall of Fame.
Tonight we went to the exclusive Chef’s Table event for dinner hosted by the Maitre d’hotel Carlos Da Rosa and the Executive Chef Gaetano Patano with 8 other people, what an evening, a personalised tour through the galley which employees 195 staff. Here we had French Champagne and 4 hordouves, then into the main dining room for the remainder of the meal which was another 5 courses. I will post the photos of the meals separately.
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