Banff To Calgary 26 August 2016

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Banff To Calgary



We were travelling with the Brewster Tour company which was the dominant company in this area. The next morning, we were met by an older driver Stewart who was a real character. There was a young 12yo girl travelling with her grandparents and an old neighbourhood friend. The bus driver bantered with the confident little girl who reacted so well. It reminded of our Gemma who would have loved being on the bus, chatting to the driver. Stewart was full of information and a fantastic person to travel with. We were ready for another full day of stunning scenery and exciting experiences.



Before leaving Banff, we drove up to the Banff Gondola. More stunning views. The gondola station was very busy but we got into the Brewster VIP lane so waiting to get onto the gondola was minimal. We travelled 8 minutes for 1,560m rising 698m. We watched the sun chase shadows across the Bow Valley and 20 or so mountains in the surrounding 6 ranges as the gondola climbed up the Sulphur Mountain. We saw the beautiful blue lakes cradled in the hanging valley. We didn’t have time to walk across to the Sanson’s Peak where meteorologist Sanson made observations weekly from 1896 to 1932 (so Stewart told us).



After the gondola ride we drove back to Banff for lunch, passing the Banff Hot Springs. After lunch we waved Banff goodbye, heading out along the Bow Valley, seeing the impressive Banff Springs Hotel first built in 1888 but rebuilt several times due to fires and th need to expand the building. The story on this building is that they built it back to front by error so the kitchen staff got the magnificent scenery and the guests got the car park etc. They have now built a large rotunda for the guests to admire the views!!!!



Today we saw Emerald Lake, Peaceful Lake, Bow Waterfall on the Bow River, Natural Bridge, Kicking Horse River and Spiral Tunnels, all of which were in the Banff National Park, Canada's oldest national park, with its valleys and mountain chains being formed 75 million years ago.



At Emerald Lake we saw a bride and groom paddling in a canoe on the Lake. There was a wedding reception facility on the banks of the Lake. Peaceful lake was a 5-minute walk from Emerald Lake.



The Bow waterfall was an ancient lake even though the Canadian Rockies is one of the youngest mountain range in the world.



Spiral Tunnels was interesting. We were lucky enough to see one of the very long goods trains on the line so we could actually see how the train line snaked its way down and around the mountain and through tunnels.



Natural Bridge was rugged, thundering stretch of the Bow River, which has caved its way through a hole in the basalt rock over the centuries. The manmade bridge provided an excellent vantage point for good photography.



An hour south of Calgary we experienced one of the many highlights of our journey – a 15 minute helicopter ride over Stoney (Indian/first nation people) land. The Stoney people after a successful land claim, have created multiple industries to become financially self-sufficient, not requiring any government assistance. The now have a casino, mines, primary industries (farming etc) and some secondary industries. We learned that they were a unique group of First Nation people as many of the groups still rely heavily, financially on the Canadian Government.



The helicopter flight was in blue skys …… so beautiful! It was a real zing, even though I have been on many helicopter rides, I still get a massive thrill being able to tip and turn around in the air with excellent vision of the land passing us by below.



I was a bit luck however, and a bit reckless. With my excitement of experiencing the flight, after I got off the helicopter, I jumped in the air not thinking of the blades of the helicopter. Tom was frantic when he saw what I did, but all’s well that ends well. I had cleared the blades and no harm was done. Sheryl got a good photo of me though %!^(MISSING)^**@##$*&.



From here we drove into Calgary. This is a big city of 1.2 million people. Our Hotel International Suites was central to the CBD or should I say ‘downtown’. Sheryl & us both had large rooms with kitchen and lounge – not that we utilised it staying only 1 day.



It was 6.00pm by the time we checked in so we walked through the restaurant strip to check things out before heading up to the Calgary Tower which we had a voucher for. When Calgary staged the Olympic Games, the Olympic torch was made in the same shape as the Tower.



This tower was a little different in that it had a partial glass floor. It was fascinating watching some people timidly step towards the transparent floor. Even Sheryl did it. We encouraged a couple of girls onto the floor by offering to take their photo.



The Tower also provided earphones and audio which described many of the sites we were viewing. We saw where the Calgary Stampede was staged 2 weeks earlier than our visit. The Olympic Park was also visible, both close to the city centre.



After being satisfied with what we had viewed, we went down for dinner. The lift in the tower had walls which shower us what we would be looking at if there were windows to the outside of the Tower. That was a little different – very cool.



We decided on an Irish Pub/Restaurant which had mostly Irish waiters. We decided to share bruschetta with 5 different toppings. One in particular was yum – crunchy bacon, fig, rocket and blue cheese. Yummy!! We washed this down with Trump beer and Irish Pale ale.



What a day. We flopped into our comfy bed and woke up the next day ready to fly to Vancouver to pick up our Alaska Cruise. The flight from Calgary to Vancouver took 1hr 30mins also requiring us to turn our clocks back an hour. There are 3 time zones in Canada. This heralded the end of our 7-day Rocky Mountaineer tour – wow and wow again!!! On the way back to Vancouver, we saw the beautiful rugged, snow-capped Rockies with the occasional mountain-top blue lakes. The experiences never end!!!!

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