British Columbia, Alberta and Southeastern Alaska

Movies like "Deadly Pursuit" or "Insomnia" which had been shot in British Columbia have brought this beautiful corner of the world to my attention - and eventually - on our travel agenda.

Inside Pasage

File size 74 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. Entering the Tolmie Channel abord our cruise ship MS Norwegian Wind.

Juneau

File size 97 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. Juneau, (still) Alaska's state capital, is a handsome place to explore on foot and to admire some nice 1920's and 30's architecture.

Mendenhall Glacier

File size 68 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. Alaska's "drive-in" glacier (Lonely Planet) was rather a "drive-by" glacier since our 6h-stop in Juneau did not really allow to come any closer without yet another heli hiking venture.

Sawyer Glacier, Tracy Arm

File size 72 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. A few hours later that day we spotted the second glacier close-up, the South Sawyer Glacier at the end of Tracy Arm. Since we had already started to turn left at the time I took the pano our starboard side was already largely swept clear of our charming little iceberg fellows.

White Pass and Yukon Route (WP & YR) Railroad

File size 92 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. For a Swiss, who is used to literally rock-solid rail infrastructure like the Landwasser-Viadukt in even the remotest places, this tunnel exit onto the wooden bridge indeed offered some thrill. Needless to say that the WP & YR goes through some great scenery and is well worth the ride up to White Pass Summit. The spot for the pano was carefully selected on the ride up and shot clock-wise on the way down, in order to have the steep valley behind when crossing the bridge, the train in the curve, the view down the valley and the look back to the tunnel with parts of the wooden bridge.

Skagway

File size 79 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. Skagway is a really pleasant small town with an impressive heritage and a great National Historic Parc Site ranger-led guided tour. Astonishing how well the town handles four large cruise ships simultaneously, if you generously overlook the ubiquitous jewellery shops where we still wonder why anyone would shop there.

Dr. Sun-Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden, Vancouver

File size 108 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. A nice, tranquil spot within Vancouver with an excellent guided tour where we - who wonders? - have learnt more on Chinese gardens than in Suzhou.

Gastown, Vancouver

File size 126 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. Gastown, the revived brick-era origin of Vancouver, noted here for the very fine thin office building across the street.

Granville Island, Vancouver

File size 80 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. What I mistakingly considered the home of MacGyver's house boat (which was really in Coal Harbour as I have learnt from his web site) was nevertheless a good place to experience the water qualities of Vancouver - and a feast for our stomach in the nearby Public Market.

Butchart Gardens

File size 162 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. Perhaps the best spot to appreciate the Sunken Gardens (basically a former stone quarry of the cement factory which yielded the necessary cash for the Butcharts' hobby) is when they suddenly appear as you approach them. Since this was a poor pano spot I opted for a more floral shot of the scenery which cannot convey that surprising, detached and Mediterranean impression if you see them first..

Victoria

File size 91 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. Victoria is a tourist's delight, compact, nice, good to explore on foot, lots to do and eat in a nice sea setting.

Capilano Suspension Bridge

File size 127 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. The suspension bridge, which per se is already very Edda-incompatible, proved worse in this case since all the non-touristy things like the old-growth forest were on the wrong side, i.e. the other side of the bridge.

General Store at O'Keefe Ranch, Vernon

File size 133 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. Not fully authentic since the General Store features goods which span several decades it nevertheless gives a nice impression on how different shopping was a century ago.

Skunk Cabbage Trail, Revelstoke National Park

File size 117 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. The first pano which heralds the beauty of the Canadian Rocky Mountains and a shift from seeing places to short walks to see sceneries, this time to a rare swampland ecosystem.

Takakkaw Falls, Yoho National Park

File size 113 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. These falls with their unpronounceable Cree name are some of Canada's highest. With some imagination you can even discern a rainbow - at least I saw it.

Moraine Lake, Banff National Park

File size 97 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. I awarded Moraine Lake the "best picture postcard view seen with my own eyes", hence declassing Peyto Lake, Lake Louise and Maligne Lake. True, this owed much to this intense turquoise color in the early morning clouded sky.

Athabasca Glacier, Columbia Icefield

File size 86 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. Given the option of walking to and a really tiny fraction on the Athabasca Glacier on one hand, or to experience the presumably largest parking lot on a glacier with a Snowcoach, our choice was easy. This offered a first-hand experience of a really fast retreating glacier before we saw Al Gore's "An Inconvienient Truth" the day after in Jasper.

Maligne Canyon, Jasper National Park

File size 143 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. Inspired by Martin Handschuh, who had admired my Monreale-over-the-head pano, I created another vision habits-defying pano.

Maligne Lake, Jasper National Park

File size 112 kB. Choose JPEG or Java Viewer. With all of Edda's "we must see Spirit Island" pre-trip lobbying it was hard to ignore it. We luckily did the much-touted trip across Maligne Lake, not just to find out that the island was in fact a peninsula everyone overlooks when approaching, but also because the southern part of Maligne Lake was many times nicer than its northern end which probably would not have warranted the trip in first place...