Skagway

The name refers to 'a windy place with white caps on the water'. And is a town in the part of Alaska that has been contested by the Americans, Canadians, Russians and the Brits. Skagway grew big in the gold rush of 1896 and by 1898 the town of a handful of homes had become the biggest city in Alaska at 8,000 to 10,000 people but by 1900 when it was incorporated the gold rush was more or less over and now the town looks much like an open air museum with about 850 inhabitants but 1 million visitors a year!

A charming place though in a beautiful location. Effective & fun milking of their 3 years of fame. Some decent tourist local art & gift shops amongst the standard ones, a good book store and nice furs for sale -:). The only major accommodation apart from a tiny concrete RV park is more or less all of this kind:

The ladies did not mind doing a little shopping although queen Kaatje refused to be driven and wanted to be hand carried by mommy around town all day.

 

We found a very nice playground and found little of the expected wind or Alaskan rain. Yet again we had a fabulous day with sunny dry weather. After hours in the playground it was not hard to find our way back to the ship.

Apart from the old buildings the town is littered with old railway material - so Rick named them all as we passed them - the tanker car, the engine, the coal wagon, the caboose.

and ehm......well this one is not in his book and also not a friend of Thomas so.....Its an engine with a giant snow plough.

Yet again the surroundings where stunning and I could watch for hours at what the clouds do to the mountains or the mountains to the clouds. Their relationship along the Alaskan coast is intriguing!