Monday, September 11th - Sailing up Tracy Arm fjord and walking a Voksmarch in Juneau, Alaska.

We knew the ship was supposed to enter the Tracy Arm fjord first thing in the morning, so Monika was out of the cabin by 6 a.m. and I followed a half an hour later. It was cold and rainy as we entered the fjord and the relative wind created by the ship cruising along at 24 miles per hour was enough to gradually give us a real chill. We finally retreated inside to have breakfast, but not before we saw snowfields up on the mountaintops, waterfalls coming down the mountains, and some small icebergs floating by with that curious blue-green ice.

After breakfast we returned on deck in time to see the ship pirouette around in a quite narrow section of the fjord. As the guy beside me said, we were close enough to the rock walls of the mountains that you felt like you could almost reach out and touch them. The sheer walls were surprisingly smooth, possibly ground down and polished by the ancient glaciers that had carved the fjord. The mountainsides also had veins of lacy waterfalls cascading wildly from the ice fields down into the fjord.

Having come about, our ship steamed back out of the fjord and turned back north towards Juneau. We had lunch as it edged very carefully up to the dock in Juneau and then set off to get the instructions for our Volksmarch at the Gallygaskins gift shop on Franklin Street. Our walk started with a big zigzag up the hill just behind the state capitol building. Along the way we found a very tiny, octagonal Greek Orthodox church, and right across the street the world's smallest Roman Catholic Cathedral, looking for all the world like a Baptist meeting hall.

At the top of the hill the road led back into a gorge that had Gold Creek at the bottom. Gold Creek was where Mr. Juneau had found gold in 1880, resulting in the town of Juneau being founded. The water was rushing and tumbling down the upper part of the creek, and when we walked back down off the hill to see the lower part we found some frothy whitewater rapids on the bottom section of the creek. We found it surprising but very pleasant to have such a wild scenic valley and creek almost in the middle of the state capital. Monika was also very relieved to see a sign that shooting was not allowed within ½ mile of the road.

Coming down the hill we turned right to pass by the governor's mansion and continued down the street, ultimately traversing a cemetery with some very old, moss-covered graves. We curled around where the Juneau public schools were located near the Gastineau Channel and followed the channel back to Douglas Island bridge, which gave us great views of the cruise ships docked in the harbor and also led us to our second checkpoint.

Returning to downtown Juneau we found a grocery store where I picked up two bags of pretzel rods, that being possibly the only food I could not find or order on the Zuiderdam! To our astonishment above the exit of the store were three beautiful stained glass windowpanes of Alaskan scenery and wildlife. By then we were feeling bruises on the bottoms of our feet and a bit of muscle strain, but we finished our walk and then wandered down to a Ben Franklin five and dime store to buy a pair of gloves that I had forgotten to pack for the cold weather.

Continuing our shopping spree, we picked up a few more mementos on our way back to the Zuiderdam including a new cribbage board, a refrigerator magnet with Alaskan scenery, and some post cards. Dinner was a lonely affair as Phyllis and Bill had been confined to their cabin after Bill came down with an intestinal bug and Lois was still out watching whales. We waited for Lois out on the veranda watching as dusk settled over Juneau. When Lois returned she had not only seen humpback whales but also killer whales and sea lions on an island in the bay. Lois and I had a late snack while Monika rested from our walk, and then we all turned in for the night.