The beautiful little town of Sitka
Early this morning, at 7h30, we were sailing into the little seaside village of Sitka. Everywhere around our ship, as we were sailing closer, I could see small islands, covered with spruce forests! This is so remote - so cold - so beautiful, with the faraway Alaska mountains framing the background. Even in summer the mountains are snow capped. Here and there a yacht is anchored to a little island, but mostly these people have small boats as their main transport. This is a great place for peace and quiet .... It took me less than 30 minutes to walk through the main part of the village. There is still an abundance of Russian influence and even a beautiful little Russian – Orthodox church (St Michael's Cathedral) in the centre of Lincoln Street. Lincoln Street is the main place where everything happens. Sitka ranks as one of Alaska's prettiest and most historic towns. This is where Imperial Russian colonists established their capital in 1808.
I found Sitka very relaxed and friendly and not as crowded as I expected. I left Louis at a coffee shop with a glass of beer, and came back with the most gorgeous Matruschkan (Russian) doll, that has a little bell inside. These dolls are displayed in the most gorgeous colours – bright red, orange, soft blue, dark blue - and some of them have the most beautiful expressive eyes. One of these sets of Russian dolls, I counted 30 of them .............the smallest little baby doll was so tiny, sometimes it is even difficult to take it in your hand! I also looked at some of the most beautiful Russian jewellery boxes – apparantly there are only 4 places left in Russia that still make these exquisite boxes. They are off course all hand made, portraying some of the most beautiful hunting scenes, or love scenes or just places in nature .......... very expensive unfortunately for a South African, given that the Rand is R8 to the American dollar!!Later, we walked back to our ferry boat to be transported to the Westerdam. I had a thick jacket and gloves on, and this was in the middle of the Alaskan summer! Can you imagine then, how cold it is here in winter ......? At 17h00 we were sailing for Ketchikan.......
Return from Sitka to Homepage
|
