After a quick lunch, we took the Goldbelt Tramway from just about sea level up 1800 feet to Mt. Roberts. I showed the tram from the ship a couple days ago, but here again.
It takes about 5 minutes to ride up 1800 feet above Juneau. Here are a couple views from the top.
There is a trail you hike back town into town, but we just walked a short piece of it. Great views.
There were a couple totem poles along the trail.
Also, two trees had carvings in them.
And a cross high on this hill.
One last look down the tram cables.
Once we were back in town, we wandered a bit, just looking at the city.
Ten sculptures line the waterfront in Juneau called Aquileans. Their website can explain it better than I can.
“The inspiration for Aquileans sculptural form is archetypes of the Alaskan landscape including two iconic ecological shapes, a whale fluke and an eagle’s wings in flight. Aptly titled, Aquileans is a combination of the Latin words for eagle and whale. Each sculpture reflects and refracts sunlight during the day and at night are illuminated with a program of color changing LED lights reminiscent of the Aurora borealis northern lights phenomena.”
Our ship, the Noordam, in the Juneau harbor.
This Raven-Eagle Sculpture depicts a raven on the left and an eagle on the right, two moieties of the Tlingit Tribe of southeast Alaska. A Tlingit is either eagle or raven by birth and according to custom must marry the opposite. Birth heritage is passed on by the mother.
Back on board the ship we are treated to the Juneau waterfront by night. Note the blue lights along the water’s edge. These are the Aquileans sculptures lit at night.
We’ve had a wonderful time in Juneau, but we will be in Skagway by morning. More adventures await us there.
Mark
