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Well that was not much of a nights sleep! So after losing eight hours we both stirred around 1am and gave in around 5am and admitted that we were actually awake. Breakfast was at seven so its been a long day indeed. The good thing that came out of that was that we managed to get the washing and ironing done before getting on the cruise ship tomorrow and paid Laundromat prices versus those lovely Royal Caribbean prices (not lovely at all).

So Anchorage, well its hard to describe but the best comparison I can give you is Australia has Alice Springs and America has Anchorage. Its like a city that caught in a time warp and it wears it 1970's architecture proudly.Yes there are buildings from all the other eras too such as 1940's deco and a 1980's shopping mall but on the whole there is

a lot of smoked glass around this city. The lovely free map turned us that there were 12 points of interest in Anchorage to go and see and we also laugh when a convention centre is listed as one of them. If a tourist was visiting Brighton would you tell them that the Brighton Centre was a must see......thought not so to make it onto Anchorage's must see list gives you a big clue as to what there is to see.

Its not all doom and gloom though as there is a lot of history here from the gold rush era and a lot of wealth, Alaska has oil fields and coal mines and scenery to die for (just look at the photograph above).

So after getting the washing done we headed off downtown (humming Petulas song as we went) and started to go through the list of the free maps must see monuments or places of interest. There was the 49th state monument and tribute to president Eisenhower, the Capt Cook monument down at resolution park as it was he who found Alaska. Whilst we are on history, did you know that Alaska used to belong to the Russians?? Well it did and the Americans bought it off them for something like 2 Cents an acre!

Whilst we were pervading up and down the grid system of avenues and streets named after letters (it's just like New York here the whole city is laid out in straight lines and a block system) we could not help ourselves but wander around the mall and ended up buying a few more essentials (had to watch the weight though as still one more internal flight to catch yet). Alaska has the luxury of no state taxes so things really are cheaper here that the main park of America so it was Abercrombie and Fitch for me and American Eagle for Trevor.

The real highlight of the day has to be when we ventured away from the shops and avenues and went for a walk along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail. This is an eleven mile trail that hugs the coast up to the National Park is beautiful with all the pine trees and snow capped mountain backrops you could ask for. When you think of Alaska in your head this is just how you imagine it and here it is for real.

We ducked out of the trail at a really posh residential area all set around a beautiful lake at Westchester Lagoon. The houses were all wooden pannelled with huge extended verandas and decks making the most of there surroundings. In the winter these trails are used as cross country ski routes and they run the city marathon race around them as well. This walk got us all excited about what we are hopefully going to see when we get onto the cruise ship tomorrow so looking forward to that.

Anyway back to Anchorage, the other thing that Anchorage has to offer is tourist tat shops. Honestly nearly every third shop has a stuffed bear outside or a full size cuddly moose that you can stop and have your picture taken with. The shops themselves are full of gone salmon fishing bumper stickers or Alaska themed tat in every guise imaginable from the clean to the not so clean! It's fridge magnet paradise for all in these shops and I dont think that any of them are going to run out of stock anytime soon.

So after being out in the town from 0900 this morning to be honest by 1600 we had seen everything that trip advisor and the free map had to offer (and that includes stopping for some lunch and coffee and cake break). We headed back to the hotel and did the ironing and organised ourselves a bit for tomorrow but to be honest jet lag and our very early morning rise is keeping things rather lethargic.

We made the walk from the hotel back into downtown Anchorage for something to eat (this time without the Petula Clark song, too tired for that). With us both feeling a little shattered food was actually the last thing on our mind but trying to get our bodies to see that this really was dinner time was so we persevered. Now according to our bible here in anchorage and the trusty website that is Trip Advisor.com Anchorage apparently has over 400 restaurants. Well I wish that we could find them.

After trying a place that shut at 1600 then another that was so rammed it was wait for an hour for a table we ended up going to a takeaway pizza place that kind off looked like a late night kebab shop. It had a few tables inside so we took a seat at the bar height tables and lowered our expectations.

Well how wrong can you be?

The Pizza was actually really tasty and a meal for two with drinks for under $20, we seriously could not complain one bit. That pizza was good on many levels.

So thats it, Anchorage is over, its a shame that we have not been able to write up a more glowing review but we really do think that the cruise will give us that.

The coastal walks and the lakes and the backdrop to Anchorage is what we will remember has the highlights but folks, unless your going somewhere else and you really have to be here our advice would be try somewhere else.

Its now 04:00 on UK time but 20:00 here and it wont be long till we shut out the daylight (they have 21 hours of it a day at the moment) and try and sleep with the sound of the massive trains going by honking their horns.

Heres to a week on that boat!

P.S. As we are getting on that boat internet wil be a little hard to come by so bare with us as it might take us to get off the boat to upload our latest blog and pictures but be sure that we will as soon as we possibly can.

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