Advertisement
After a cappuccino, and some WiFi time it was back on the truck and on the way to Lake Louise.
We stopped at Lake Louise Mall to get info about bus travel for Jill who is returning to England. From the Mall Lake Louise was 45 min away to the lake and a ½ km to the camp site.
This night was spent at a campsite inside an electrified fence. On the way to the showers a grizzly with two cubs was seen outside the electric fence. We all watched until it became dark. The bear count has reached over 20 since the beginning of the trip. The morning wakeup was early so that the 7:00 bus could be met by four of our group. I went with the truck so that I could have a leisurely breakfast buffet with newspaper and real coffee from a real cup.
Lake Louise has changed since the last time I was there almost 15 years ago. A new addition with underground parking has been added. It may be my imagination but it looks like the old part of the chateau seems to have been refaced to match the new wing.
Inside the building there are many shops to appeal to the travellers who buy diamond jewellery and chinchilla scarves as souvenirs. . The service staff upstairs wears tiroller outfits including ¾ length pants, suspenders and little brimmed hats. The Poppy restaurant mirrors the flowers growing outside, is decorated with folk-art flowers and borders and is attempting to reflect a European ambiance… does not achieve it! The big yellow mugs used to serve breakfast coffee totally destroy the effect.
Around the area of the Chateau there has been a definite increase in parking lots. Also a company named Brewster seems to have bought up everything from Columbian Ice field access to touring buses. All the Chateaux built by Canadian National Railroad from Quebec to Toronto to Lake Louise have been bought by Fairmont…. Probably Montreal, Ottawa and Victoria too. The Banff Chateau has Fairmont attached to its name. So much for Canadian content.
The Poppy Restaurant offered a breakfast buffet; fruit, cereal, soft breads, warm scrambled eggs with bacon and sausage, yogurts and jams…. Overly exciting and gourmet it was not.
The server did bring me a lovely small porcelain cup for my numerous refills and my leisure breakfast began
Plenty of Warnings
Do the bears think they are safe from the humans?
with coffee, newspaper and terrific view.
Two hours later others from the group began to arrive at the famous view. We all took pictures of one another. There were a lot of other tourists arriving by big bus, private cars, motorcycles and bicycles.
Looking around at was left of the original chateau like the marble stairs, the ceilings and some of the furniture I encountered a group of hotel employees discussing changing the lounge by adding food stations around the pillars and retaining some of the furniture but considering making room for more casual seating.
This can only portend that when I come in the next fifteen years I probably won’t like the ‘new’ look. I liked it the way it was way back when I saw it the first time.
Shops with truly expensive objects abound in the hallways and in the basement.
One shop sells only musk ox wool creations. Jacques Cartier Clothier Inc. www.qiviuk.com buys the soft downy fibre from Inuviakuit Natives who haervest the inner fibre from the Umingmak, inuit for ‘bearded one“, brings it to Peru and Italy to be knit into sweaters, gloves, scarves, vests and skirts with fantastic
colours and patterns. Needless to say the garments are very expensive. Even if you knit to buy 28.5 gms of spun fibre costs $72. Qiviut garments are non irritating, durable, soft and retain warmth even when wet. I bought myself two balls in Skagway, www.changingthreads.com, and had them sent to my home. Can’t be working with such precious fibre on the dusty bumpy truck.
While speaking to one of the people at the shop the story was related that musk ox and vicuna wool is so hypoallergenic, soft and light it has been used with burn victims. In Arequipa, Peru the Qori ( Gold) factory can be visited to see where the garments are created. I hope to visit the place when we get there. According to the promo info Queen Elizabeth, Mrs Chretien, Anna Wintour and His Holiness the Dalai Lama all include one of the beautiful designs from the Qiviuk Shop, in their wardrobe.
One last look and walk around at the Chateau and a visit to the toilet then its out off the edifice and up thru parking lots to the upper area to get back on the truck for the drive to Banff.
As the drive/run down the province continues:
*rest stops will continue to come just in time so that I do not have to use the pail at the back of the truck.
*lunches are store bought stuff consisting of crackers, cheese dip, bananas, cold cut meat, Yoplait, kefir, orange juice, and other nice stuff like ready made salads and granola bars.
*being on cooking group is still messy. Because of the soot laundry is always necessary after cooking dinner in the evening and then breakfast the next day.
*the shots of the road and mountains are happily dated. Otherwise I could use the same curve in the road, the same peak and the same flowing water for each segment of this trip thru the Rockies.
*the days at Dawson, Skagway, Jasper and Lake Louise were eventful and it gives me pleasure to write about something besides sitting on the truck, watching the scenery flash by and having only the people on the truck to speak with.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.062s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 13; qc: 29; dbt: 0.0318s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
