Watching the Flames in Calgary

Calgary was our last port of call in Canada before we headed into the States. It was the venue for the 1988 Winter Olympics, the home of the Calgary Stampede and where the Calgary Flames strut their stuff. Add in a large city centre, some nightlife, a few museums and a business district and we thought we couldn't go wrong.

Our Calgary experience didn't start that well. The RV park was about 15 kms from the city and it seemed to be full of people that lived there on a full time basis and didn't really like outsiders. Nevertheless, we bedded in for the night in the RV and made plans for the next day.

We were woken by the sound of the park's cockerel making all sorts of noises as well as the starting up of motorhomes as people began to leave for work. We decided to cut our losses and head out into Calgary. This was a bit of a chore as we could either fork out $50 on a taxi, or $20 on a taxi to take us to the nearest train station. We opted for the latter, which took about 30 mins to get into town, where we went to the nearest hotel to ask for a few hints and tips on what we should get upto.

We had 2 tickets for the Calgary Flames on Tuesday night which we needed to collect from the box office at the Pengrowth Saddledome, which was right next door to Stampede Park. Even though it was raining, we decided to walk it. I have heard really good things about Stampede Park. It's a venue that hosts all sorts of events such as the Calgary Stampede, music concerts, exhibitions and musicals. There was nothing happening while we were there, but the whole place and looks like a lot of fun! After a wander, we collected our tickets and headed back to the city centre.


The main tourist area, or Downtown as it's known, is all pedestrianised. There are loads of shops, bars and clubs that you would expect to find in every city. We took our time walking up and down to see if there was anything different about the city. Sadly there was not.

Out last activity of the day was to visit the Glenbow Museum, a rather famous museum with a load information and artifacts about Canada's history. But for us to have to visit a museum once again highlighted that there just wasn't that much to do.

So it was time to head back to the RV park and catch up on some X-Factor.

Tuesday arrived and we were quite excited to be going to watch an ice hockey game. Ice hockey is massive in Canada, with most games selling out. We had a plan to train into town, take a ride up the Calgary Tower, head into Kensington and visit Chinatown before having a few beers in the "Red Mile". This is where all the hockey fans meet prior to the game.

Calgary Tower was disappointing. It's not even the tallest building in Calgary. It did have a glass bottomed area though, which you could stand on and see 180 foot down, but that was pretty much the highlight.




It was time for beers, so we headed to the Red Mile, chose our sports bar and settled in. Our friendly waitress poured our beers and informed us that she doesn't expect that the Red Mile will get busy tonight as the game is a 7.30 kick off. That didn't dampen out spirits though, and we sank a few more beers, a basket of chicken wings and a burger before following the crowds to the game.

We both really enjoyed it, and unlike other American sports I have been to, I actually followed most of it. The bits it didn't really get were the 1000's of random substitutions that take place every 5 seconds and the lack of cheerleaders, but other than that it was great.

A few more beers during the game meant we were done, so we headed back to the RV for the night.

Cazzie and I both decided that Calgary was one of our least favourite cities, maybe we have been spoilt being able to visit so many different and amazing places, but Calgary wasn't one of them. Maybe we were just unlucky with the weather, the RV park and the time of year.

The pictures can be found here, using a new site called SmugMug - cheers bro!

Stuoobs
xxx

Boozing in Banff

We had heard a lot of good things about Banff, mainly because it's a fantastic ski resort with a terrific nightlife, so we were very excited about visiting here. As the ski season was still a few weeks away, we were going to have to enjoy the nightlife to the full, and as were arrived on a Friday, were we well positioned to do so!

The campsite in Banff was our most basic yet as it was our first "winter" campground. This basically means you only have electricity on your allotted campsite and there are showers / restrooms available to use too. It was however, one of the more picturesque stops and certainly the cheapest to date- $25 per night.

We did arrive late after our long day travelling from Jasper, so we took a short drive around Banff to get a feel for the place before retiring for the night.





After a bit of a lie-in the next day, we walked the downhill route towards the town centre to grab some breakfast. The Lonely Planet Guide recommend Melissa's as the best place for brekkie and who were we to argue? After our 30 mins walk, we had worked up an appetite and headed straight for the restaurant to find the queue nearly out the door, but soon learnt that the wait was only 15 mins or so. Was it worth the wait I hear you ask??? Certainly. The place serves up a brilliant "Big Breakfast" with huge, thick pancakes complete with Maple Syrup. This set us up nicely for our boozy afternoon.

As we were both very full, a walk around time was needed before we could crack on. Banff is full of souvenir shops selling everything from gold plated maple leaves to Rocky and Bullwinkle pyjamas. We did notice on our walk however that the place was littered with pubs! It was time to stop walking and start drinking, and where better for an English man to start off than in an Irish bar! A few scoops in there before heading off to other bars that our waitress in Melissa's had told us to visit. The second was a sports bar that was showing the local derby CFL game (Canadian Football League) between Calgary and Saskatchewan. I assumed that everyone would be supporting Calgary as they were the closest town to Banff, but I was wrong. Everybody in there was a huge Saskatchewan fan. The game went one way and then the other, with the result ending up 44 - 44 after overtime. I just had to look that score up was we were on our 7th beer by the end of the game.

We meandered from bar to bar before settling back at the Irish bar, where live music was about to kick off. It did seem that a lot of bars had live bands on each Saturday - all of which were a little bit average if I'm honest, but the locals seem to like it! After taking in another live band, we called it quits at about midnight.

I can see why Banff is such a great ski resort. We were there at probably the quietest time of year and the place still has a real buzz to it.

The next day we were heading the short 1.30hr drive to Calgary, but decided to stop at a local tourist spot called Lake Minnewanka. I think the only reason for this is we were being really childish and kept laughing at the name of the lake. But I'm glad we did as this was yet again, a lovely, picturesque lake in Canada. Clear waters surrounded by snow capped mountains.


After about an hour here we hopped back in the RV and headed off to Calgary.

Our Banff pics can be found here.

Stuoobs

xxx

A 3 stop strategy on the way to Banff

I am writing this blog as a passenger in the RV while Cazzie is driving.  There are times when we will spend most of the day travelling as Canada and America are so huge!

When I last left you we were in Jasper and planning our route to Banff and this involved 3 stops.

1 - Athabasca Falls.  The Athabasca river is the longest river in Canada and runs for 1231 kms.  The river runs quite peacefully up until it hits softer rock, it erodes it and Athabasca Falls is born.  This place is very similar to Maligne Canyon with its frozen waterfalls, swirling pools and blue rivers. 

The place is, as all attractions in the National Park, really lovely.

2 – The Columbia Ice Fields.  We drove past this on the way up to Jasper from Revelstoke and noticed that there was a visitors centre here.  Having seen the leaflets for trips to this Ice Field, we decided to stop on the way to Banff to see what it was all about.  Once in the centre, we booked ourselves onto the 90 min tour.  This involved getting a bus to the huge Ice Explorer that would then transport us onto the ice field.  We hopped on and started a very steep decent to the ice field and then a very slow drive into the middle if it.  The ice fields have been created by the coming together of 4 glaciers that create a huge sheet of ice, which in places is over 300 metres thick – that’s the size of the Eiffel Tower.  The main glacier is the Athabasca Glacier.  As we stepped onto the ice to try and take photos, we were told to stay within the marked areas, as there was a chance you could fall into potholes in the ice and never be seen again.  So, remaining very close to the Ice Explorer, we attempted to take photos, which wasn’t easy!

It was very windy and very cold.  The lowest recorded temperature here was minus 76 degrees!  One thing that did hit home a little was the effect that global warming has had on this place.  The ice field has retracted over 100 metres during the past 50 years and is shrinking at a faster rate the ever – about 10 metres per year.  We don’t ever really get to see the effects of global warming the the UK, so this got me thinking.  Our tour guide in Jasper informed us that the lakes and rivers have dropped by 60 % in the past 20 years too. 

3 – Lake Louise.  This place was always on the list to go to.  I had heard so many nice things about the place, such as it’s the most beautiful, scenic place you will ever go to. We arrived, parked up and took the short walk to the lake and we were not disappointed.  It was beautiful.  The lake was so still, the views were amazing, there was snow covering the ground and there wasn’t a gust of wind in the air.  It also felt like Christmas with all the pine trees about!  What was really good about the place was all the touristy shops were 5 kms before the lake, so the lake itself wasn’t spoilt. The only hotel that was there was the impressive Fairmont. We walked 2 kms down one side of the lake and took as many photos as we could, and this one is my favourite.

I could go on about all these places, but again, the photos that I took tell a much better story.  Just click on these links and you will see them all. 

Athabasca Falls

Columbia Ice Fields

Lake Louise

This has probably been the best day of the trip so far.

After Lake Louise we headed to Banff, which will be the subject of my next blog!

Stuoobs

xxx