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So its yet another early morning with the alarm going off at 0430 but to be honest we were both awake anyway so it was a quick instant coffee(complete with the joys of powdered milk...yuk!) shower and down to reception to get the free transfer bus for the three minute drive down to the rail depot or station to you and I.

We swapped our internet reservation forms for tickets and joined the ever increasing queue for a latte (seems like there was a lot of people this morning who had to suffer the curse of powdered milk also).

Now we had booked Gold Star service on this train meaning that we would be travelling in the glass ceiling two story train carriage that would allow us the best views and a

bit of comfort on our four hour journey down to the coast and Seward. Lady luck was obviously shining brightly on us this morning as we were assigned seats 1A and !B, right up the front of the train on the second floor with not only ceiling windows and side windows but we had the benefit of no one sitting it front of us and huge front windows to boot. These really are the best seats on the train and it made it more special, thank you Alaska Railroad Corporation.

The train itself was a massive diesel unit painted bright canary yellow although someone had gone a bit mad in the shiny hammerite silver paint on all the wheels and mechanical parts of the train, they were all looking a bit too starlight express.

As the train left Anchorage we were invited downstairs to the buffet car for breakfast where we sat with Marty and his daughter travelling form Iowa. The food was good with the only decision to make really being whether to have bacon or reindeer (they call it cariboo here) sausages. Jonathan stuck to the bacon whilst Trevor tucked into to a slice of Blitzen or Rudolph with his scrambled eggs.

Now we could gush and gush and gush some more about the next four hours on the train as it delivered beyond anything that we had imagined. Every single view, every single turn or twist of the track gave us views to die for and the camera was working over time. We passed Glaciers and snowcapped mountains. Pine forests that rose from up high down to the countless lakes that lined the railway tracks route. We saw thrashing rivers being fed by spring water waterfalls, perfect grass meadows and the perfect reflections of all the mountain ranges in the lakes below. In other words we passed some of the most beautiful scenery ever and the best way to get a handle on that would be to look through our photographs as we just dont possess enough adjective, nouns or verbs to describe the pure feast to the eyes that this train journey was.

Outside of the insane beauty we also saw the bizarre, log cabins in the middle of nowhere with Grissly Adams firmly in residence, a housing estate as we were leaving Anchorage that actually had its own grass runway strip at the bottom of the gardens. Instead of cars the houses all had planes parked up ready to fly across the state to work. As Alaska is so big and so uninhabited it seems that flying is the way that a lot of pople get around and because the abundance of natural lakes here everyone seems to be able to fly and the float plane (seaplane to you and I) is as common as a ford fiesta!

The train was not the quickest form of transport but to be honest you would not want it to be either, it meandered though the luxurious vistas of flora and fauna. The train announcer would make random announcements over the trains P.A stating that there was a moose at three o'clock or a bear and eleven, of course by the time that you were scanning the countryside to find said bear or moose it had bolted or moved on, the sound of the trains diesel engines scaring it away but we did manage to clock one wild moose for all of about two seconds. To be honest the views and the vistas were more than enough and we did not feel cheated in the slightest.

We arrived in Seward (named after the man that brokered the deal buying Alsace from the Russians) and made our way straight onto The Radiance of the Seas. Now Royal Caribbean could do with investing in a little bit of signage to help its passengers here as it really was finger in the wind to work out how to actually get to the ship. The town of Seward did not look like much, a small fishing village complete with wooden shacks lining the shoreline and harbour. We would guess that tourism was now rivalling fishing as the biggest employer in the town as the harbour was full of glacier tour boats and ferrys for whale watching etc. A lot of people come down here for the train journey and then to go out on a boat then make their way back to Anchorage, it would be a long day but worth it.

After going through the normal paraphernalia of checking in and waiting for our room to be ready we got settled on board in cabin number 7136 ported (best for views along the shoreline as we travel) and headed up to the pool deck for our first cocktail of the trip. We raised a glass to our family who we normally are on one of these cruise ships with. Its actually the first Royal Caribbean cruise that we have been on without Jonathan's sister Caroline.......you were missed. x

Cocktails downed we went off to explore the ship and check that everything was still where we expected it to be which on the whole it was. The Radiance is one of the refurbished Royal Caribbean ships but to be honest you don't notice it too much. The main change being that there are a lot more specialty restaurants on here than there used to be, all to try and get you to part with more $$$.

Now we actually had quite a gap of time to fill this afternoon as we were onboard by 13:00 and the lifeboat drill was not until 1930 with our dinner time scheduled for 2015 being the second sitting. To fill this slot rather than sunbathing on the deck (we are in Alaska after all) Jonathan headed off to the gym for an hours run (the first in about three weeks) whilst Trevor went back to the room to sort through the mass of photographs that we had taken today and generally chill out.

It was casual night onboard the ship tonight so no need to get the tux out, we had sent them all off to be pressed anyway as after living in our cases for the last two weeks they were looking a little worse for wear. By the time our 20:15 dinner came about we were both feeling shattered so after a three course meal we headed off to the champagne bar for a night cap cocktail and off to bed....it been a really long day.

As we closed the curtains on the still light filled sky it was a pleasure to see the sunlight disappear after a week. Black out curtains, what a fabulous thing to have and with that it was good night from us both.

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