After five wonderful days, our journey is nearing its end. The many friends we've made on the boat will go their own ways, but first we need to pack up and get to our hotel.
Packing up and collecting our belongings for the last time. There'll be no chance to collect it tomorrow, as the boat will be on its way to Whittier.
Part of downtown Juneau. We stayed at the Goldbelt Hotel, which is just off to the left of the picture, and across the street from the dock! Juneau's downtown has expanded about as far as possible towards the mountains (and that's only a few blocks), but has grown north (left in picture) from here, where there is flat ground.
A "tram" (or cable car) for tourists. There's a restaurant and trails at the top. Alas, it was not operating when we were there, although one day we did see the cars moving, presumably in preparation for tourist season, which starts in May. The derelict building on the far right is the old ore processing facility for the gold mines which were the founding reason for Juneau. The rock left at the end of the end of crushing was dropped into the channel, I believe.
After we tied up, those who wanted were taken into the engine room - the one on the port side. This is a 3,000 HP diesel, enabling the boat to travel at 38 knots (50 MPH, 80 km/h) max. Or 14 knots in reverse! Fuel consumption is 150 (US) gallons per hour per engine.
Ah, safely in port, with some passengers still disembarking. A sad moment to realise that our very pleasant journey of the last five days was over, but new adventures awaited.
The Klondike Express at the wharf, as seen from my hotel room. We came up the channel, (left to right direction in picture) and when the boat left, it exited to the right.
To Juneau
