Should it happen to be that you’re the sort of person who’s been reading these Koningsdam Alaska cruise travelogues in sequence – this is a very hypothetical situation and I know it’s not likely in this or any of the adjacent universes – then you’ll already know that we’d had a lovely time during our port stop at Skagway on an excursion with several, very varied parts: we’d driven into Canada and taken the White Pass Scenic Railway back to American soil; we’d gone pan-handling for gold, listened to some lies, and been bothered by some flies at the entertaining Liarsville camp; and we’d looked around the rooms and learnt some of the history of the ladies who worked at the Red Onion Saloon Brothel. If you’re the sort of person who just lands on single posts after searching the internet then you’re learning this for the first time.
We had quite a bit of free time after our excursion in which to look around Skagway for ourselves. Our friends Paul and Carole had been on the same trip as us and were after some hardware for their vlogging equipment so we started off with a walk around to find a store that would sort them out while we all admired just how pretty the historical district area of Skagway was. There was something of a western movie film set feel to the city but, generally, the buildings genuinely are from the gold rush era of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. We all liked the raised wooden pavements (sidewalks if you want to be American about it) and the colours and varying-but-similar styles of the buildings.
You can see from the photo below just how close the cruise ships dock to Skagway. It’s a very easy city to walk into from the port.
After we’d located a store towards the far end of the main part of the city and Carole had bought what she needed for her camera we started back now in search of something for us. That something was beer, which won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone who knows us, and though we’d been entertained in the Red Onion Saloon on the brothel tour we were after something a bit more authentic.
We ended up visiting two breweries in Skagway. The first of those was Skagway Brewing and the second was Klondike Brewing. Both had very different styles of drinks available and we enjoyed both locations very much. I don’t think Paul and Carole were quite so impressed; Paul’s a lager or cider drinker, and Carole likes a Sauvignon Blanc or Bloody Mary so craft ales simply aren’t their thing. They were, however, gracious in accompanying us and polite when describing their experiences.
We started to make our way back to the cruise ship now but there were still some interesting sights to see on the short walk. A number of historic train carriages used on the White Pass train route were visible and there were a few sculptures and monuments dotted around. Most poignant was one dedicated to the SS Princess Sophia which lost all hands (364 crew and passengers) in 1918. That is a link well worth reading, particularly for the letter written by someone who feared the worst during the grounding, and whose fears were well-founded.
To finish, some views of the two ships to the right of the city as we walked away from it to the port; there were berths for more ships to the left side too. Crown Princess was the second cruise ship we ever cruised on.
Our home for this week in Alaska, however, was Holland America Line Koningsdam.
In the next post in this series we’ll have a day of scenic cruising, and it’s very scenic indeed as we make our way through Glacier Bay. It’s a bay, it’s got lots of glaciers, and we even see one calve while we’re there.