May 23rd to June 11th 2003
Thank you to Margaret Mace for putting the following notes together.
(Scroll down for photos.)
A small group of Probus members flew to Vancouver , spending 3 days sightseeing in the city before boarding the Norwegian Wind, a Caribbean Cruise Liner. (This probably accounted for the palm trees and parrots making up the decorations on board.)
The first highlight was the trip to the stunningly beautiful Butchart Gardens reached by ferry on day one. Built in a vast quarry by a Mr. Butchart they were huge and were amazingly beautiful. Several of us hopped off the tour bus and spent the whole afternoon there just wandering to our hearts’ content. The second was Stanley Park in the centre of Vancouver; the locals call these “the lungs of the city.”
A feature which was hard to cope with was the Canadian breakfasts; which are monumental in size and are considered ‘normal’ by the locals.
A ‘low-light’ was the number of ‘homeless’ on the streets of Vancouver. We had not seen this before. They all had their beloved dogs and openly displayed their signs “$5 please for my hash’.” (Of course we now have such people on our own streets.)
We then boarded the cruise ship and were impressed by the efficiency of moving a great number of people systematically to the correct room and without a hitch and so we sailed away to the “Inside Passage” between Vancouver Island and the mainland, towards the Arctic circle. This was the first cruise for many of us and it was exhilarating. The scenery was such that we had never seen before: ice bergs, otters, strange towns looking like sets of a movie and yet purely functional. A visit to a renowned brothel at Skagway was a “must” for many of us. Red velvet curtains, low lights but NO girls. A whale watching trip in a Zephyr only to see water spouts but no breaching or fluking of the hump back whales—disappointing but novel.
As well as the comfort, the dining, the entertainment and games on board; we had the opportunity to do a train ride to the place where 5 flags of neighbouring countries meet. (America, Yukon, British Columbia, Alaska and Canada) This train journey was magical! The thaw for summer was just starting and waterfalls cascaded down rocky slopes, we could look back and see the rest of the long train circling round the bends we had just conquered. A wonderfully relaxing extra on the trip and just lovely.
Then there was the fact of the Captain’s announcement on board “We cannot get into Glacier Bay, too may cruise ships in there. I (the captain) am going to take you into a less known but very beautiful fjord.” Groans of disappointment BUT we were so lucky. As we headed for the Sawyer Glacier the ship inched its way through the craggy walls of rock, we stood on deck; it was stunning and scary. We had only inches of clearance on either side of the hull as he manoeuvred this huge ship. Waterfalls drenched us while we stood in amazement at the sights, rugged up to the eye balls and with rum ‘toddies’ in our hands for inner warmth.
Suddenly it opened out into a bay with a glacier oozing into it at the end. While we gasped in amazement at the turquoise blue in the ice, it “calved” with a huge crack of sound and a large piece flaked off. A tremendous sight, how lucky were we to see this! Seals took a free ride on this piece and we watched them while he edged this huge ship around to begin our return journey to the open sea.
Skagway, Ketchican,Tlingit and Inuit history kept alive by “story tellers” this was indeed a wonderful journey.
Now back in Vancouver we boarded our own coach for the Canadian Rockies tour. There had been some grizzles about not being on the glass topped train BUT the beauty of our coach was that when we found somewhere spectacular we could spend our own time there.
Highlights here abounded: Jasper National Park, Hell’s Gate over the Fraser river, Columbia Ice Fields which thaw into three of the great oceans of the world (Pacific/Arctic/Atlantic), Lake Louise
(so beautiful), Banff and the “must do” gondola ride up the slopes.
Finally the end of the trip at Calgary where we flew home via Hawaii where some surfed, some swam, some shopped and I visited Pearl Harbour. In seeing Pearl Harbour I had knocked off one item from my “Bucket List.”
It was a well planned tour, wonderfully ‘different’ from many of my travels and worth every penny.
The group on the Athabascan Glacier in the Columbian Icefields
Some of the group on the deck of the “Norwegian Wind”
Margaret and Betty with a typical Canadian backdrop
Dining in the “Trattoria” Italian restaurant on board the “Norwegian Wind”