Alaska - just stunning.

 Alaska- just stunning.

We all have a rough idea of what we're looking for in a holiday. It must have a luxurious hotel, the loveliest beach in the world, a landscape and backdrop that ticks all of the relevant boxes, food that is just exquisitely palatable, a cocktail bar, alcohol in vast quantities, hospitable guests from all over the world and sociable people who just love to talk about everything and anything. 

To those who just can't wait to book their place by the hotel swimming pool after a healthy breakfast, this is the one time in the year or maybe the second and third that inhibitions can be thrown away without any feelings of shame and guilt. You work hard throughout the year and you feel as though you've done more than enough to spend a couple of weeks on sun kissed and exotic island in the middle of somewhere private where nobody can find you.

 So you drape your towels over your personal choice of sun lounger, smear yourself with several bottles of sun factor 60 in the hope that the roasting heat will varnish you with the perfect tan to show off to friends and family when your holiday is over for another year. Holidays were meant to be fun, immensely enjoyable and something to reflect on with pleasure when the darker winter nights draw in. But in recent times you were reminded of the alternative holiday, the one designed to take away all the hassle and aggravation of that famous battleground we call an airport.

A lifelong friend had been telling me for ages that cruising on a boat, ship, vessel represented everything that could rightly be described as positively and richly opulent. He went into raptures about the excessive amounts of food and drink on offer whenever your stomach began to rumble. He waxed lyrical about the outstanding entertainment every night and of course he was right. He said that you were meant to feel like royalty and the most important member of the human race. There was never a dull moment and this floating city would provide you with everything your heart could possibly desire.

So it was that my lovely wife Bev booked what must have been our fifth or sixth cruise in the enchanted lands where leisurely siestas are taken at the height of the day and nights given over to music, music and yet more music from varying areas of the cruise vessel. In fact there was entertainment on board wherever you went on the Princess Discovery. Once again there were fascinating lectures on subjects ranging from climate change to a whole host of talks about other cruises that took you to different countries or those who were quite happy to take you around the world.

Our first port of call was the sleepy Canadian town of Bamf which reminded you of some ancient Wild West Hollywood movie set where not a great deal of any significance seemed to be going on. There were no cowboys wearing stetson hats or fast moving guns in their holsters and no hint of potentially violent saloon bars where glasses of bourbon were freely drunk until the wee small hours of morning.

We did though notice that in both Calgary and Bamf that all of the shops were clearly signposted in much the way they might have been during those halcyon days when John Wayne rode boldly into town all guns blazing with a palpable air of authority about him.We spent most of our holiday doing all the things a majority of tourists; asking for directions, looking at maps and admiring the scenery around them.

We now moved on to pay a flying visit to the American state of Seattle, a place so vast and sprawling that we simply didn't have enough time to take in its seductive charms. Setting off on a walk that seemed to last an eternity but was well worth the experience your overriding impression of Seattle is that it's bewilderingly hilly. Seen from a distance the hills were such a dominant feature of Seattle that you wondered whether you'd need a rope and crampons to climb up and down the roads. There were steep, undulating hills in between roads and streets that must have been reminiscent of San Francisco.

We then gravitated towards the ferry port and requested a one hour trip that took you across Seattle which guided you around historic old warehouses and buildings that had stood the test of time. But the homeward journey back to our hotel represented the ultimate test of endurance and stamina. Suddenly we found ourselves wandering around endlessly looking for the right directions back to our hotel. We gritted our teeth heroically, putting our best feet forward and eventually reached our destination.

Now though it was time to head towards Alaska where we were reliably informed that the weather would be terrifyingly cold, freezing and the sidewalks would be knee deep in snow. We packed the appropriate layers of pullovers, gloves, sweat shirts and coats perhaps wary of returning home with stinking colds and symptoms of flu. And yet we were pleasantly surprised because Alaska was gloriously warm although never hot with temperatures nudging the low 70s rather than the shivering minus 20s.

Our first point of Juneau, the capital of Alaska and here was the moment when good boots or shoes were a prerequisite for taking in all of the sights and sounds. After a light lunch we set off for a walk along the rushing, racing, gushing waterfalls where all we could hear were torrents of water accompanying our journey. We must have walked for at least a couple of miles surrounded by stately woodland, tall, upright fir and spruce trees soaring commandingly over us. It was all very mentally and physically stimulating and invigorating, as the pathway seemed to get longer and longer. 

But we were rather hoping to see some of Alaska's traditionally wild animals and they chose not to make their presence felt. We were hoping to see baby cub bears bounding playfully on the edge of silvery streams, caribous casually minding their own business and deers in the most inquisitive mood. Sadly these hopes were not to come to fruition since perhaps they just weren't up for confrontations with the human race.

After negotiating countless steps towards some point where we might have seen something, we headed back home disappointed but determined to capture the image of some grizzly bear out on its constitutional. Sadly there was nothing. Perhaps another time. So we settled back into our first nights on board the Princess Discovery. After a series of excellent singers and magicians while not forgetting a reproduction of a West End musical, we sat down in a jazz music lounge listening to a jazz ensemble called Take Five, a tribute to the jazz standard and classic by Dave Brubeck. Here the superb Ian Bacon trio introduced us to the greats such a Miles Davis, Latin jazz, salsa jazz and smooth as silk arrangements on piano, late night keyboard, a wonderful looking double bass and those magnificent drums soothing and mesmerisingly magical to the ears.

Now it was off to Ketchikan, the kind of place where good, old fashioned cowboys swirl lassoes and horses are allowed to roam across the prairies for as long as they wanted to. At times it almost felt as if you'd been transported back to the days of lawlessness, drinking illegal moonshine for hours on end and watching lively games of cards in equally as animated saloon bars. Such outrageous behaviour would invariably end up in aggressive fights, brawling and tooting and shooting from the hip. 

By the time we reached Skagway everything that had happened to us at Ketichikan had now been savoured and cherished. Whereas Ketichikan had given us a revealing insight into the world of lumberjacks and wood chopping, Skagway gave us ladies of the night, sex and sleaziness. In a splendidly informative and enlightening tour of one of the debauched members of Skagway, we were informed that the seamstresses who used to work their fingers to the bones also obliged the men folk with explicit displays and the kind of blatant prostitution that some of us thought had been the sole preserve of Soho in London and Amsterdam in Holland. This though had been an entirely different kind of red light district.

After two more relaxing days at sea, we gradually spent our last couple of hours of this thoroughly enjoyable holiday we went back towards a little known corner of Canada called Victoria. Now for those of us who were expecting a full day of touring this quaint suburb the realisation that it was just a night tour along dark and deserted back streets did come as a culture shock but still it was a new experience and one that would remain in the memory for many years to come.

Our last day was spent back on board our ship. It was Saturday afternoon under bright, blue skies, warmth and heat coating our faces with the most welcome of arrivals. Then the giant TV screen tuned into perhaps the most delightful, humorous and unfairly maligned of all shows. The Eurovision Song Contest, broadcast live from Liverpool had been beamed across the oceans and we were just transfixed with happiness, wonder and incredulity. What a day, the most unusual and unconventional of days but just joyful as we always knew it would be. Sweden won the Eurovision Song Contest almost 40 years since Abba had exploded into our consciousness with Waterloo. How we love cruises with our loved one. It was a privilege and honour to be there with my wonderfully loving and supportive wife Bev. Unforgettable.