Blogs from Alberta, Canada, North America
May 27th 2012
Hi I hope you hav enjoyed reading about my wonderful 9 week trip of the States and Canada. Apologies go out for taking forever to finish the blogs off, and I hope the wait for some people was rewarded. I thoroughly enjoyed originally writing my journal as I went on my Tour, then writing it up into a book, then extracting and editing each entry for my blog, and as I finished entering the last few entries, even almost 2 years after it had all happened, all theemotions came back to me once more. I would just like to finish the blog with a brief summary of what has happened since the Tour ended. I'm sure there are people who might like to know, whilst others may not give a damn. Here goes: After coming back ... read more
May 25th 2012
hello travel world, well, we have eight months until we leave on our adventure over to Europe. the thought of having to wait 235 days until we can pack up our lives into two backpacks and board a plane to Dublin, Ireland makes me sad. I would like to leave yesterday if that's at all possible. such is life. I can't be too much of a downer considering we're going for an entire year and hopefully longer. in the meantime, we've planned Ireland, UK, Scotland & Wales. the rest of Europe will be done sporatically throughout our summer here. I know, we've started this travel blog eight months too early, but i'm getting antsy. besides, I can read about all the places I want to go to on this website. and if we go on any ... read more
May 23rd 2012
Awful sleep again. I took a sleeping tablet and wore ear plugs but could still hear the drone of the fridge in our room. In the middle of the night I pulled the fridge out of its cabinet but there was a mass of wires all tangled up behind so I had to leave it. When I woke Ian up this morning he asks me did I sleep well as I had kept him awake all night with my snoring???? After another buffet breakfast we head up to Sulphur Mountain. The gondola takes you so far then there is a wooden walkway should you choose to take it to the top. We were knackered when we got there but great views and a little family of chipmunks playing at the top. They run about so fast ... read more
May 23rd 2012
Last evening Jeanette and I once again had papers spreadout over our dining table and with two computers running, sought to fine tune a few areas in our planning for our Europe vacation which starts on June 7. Being the only driver, I will have a fairly busy workload in France and to a lesser degree in Spain. Of course in the earlier part of the vacation we travel by coach through Belgium, Germany, Austria, Italy and Switzerland before ending up in Paris. After a stint in paris we rent a car for both France and Spain. Towards the end of the holiday, we will be in Amsterdam so we are currently ironing out how we will spend our time. We certainly know that we will visit out friends Dorothy and Rens in The Hague while ... read more
Last full day in Banff - probably last blog
Published: May 24th 2012North America » Canada » Alberta » Banff
May 23rd 2012
As it is our last full day in Banff we really should be making the most of it but we are in can't be arsed moods as we had crap sleep again. We head down to the Banff museum, it is not much bigger than the cabin we had at bear ranch! but it is very informative and they have a lot of stuffed birds and animals that have been there since it opened in 1903. I was quite shocked at the size of the cougar, glad we haven't met a real one on our travels. We drive down to Lake Minnewanka and then on to Johnson's Lake. We have been told the walk around this lake is lovely, not too long and no elevation. They lied about the last bit! It was a lovely walk ... read more
May 22nd 2012
Monday morningwe get up quite late so check out and go into the town to get something to eat. There are two bakeries owned by the same people - The Bear's Paw and The Other Paw. They sell many different coffees and bread; bagels; muffins; scones and cakes - all baked on the premises with the kitchen in full view of the customers. We buy two coffees, a bagel with cream cheese, an egg and ham barm and two raspberry and white chocolate scones and pay $15 or £10. That is the cheapest place we have eaten and definitely one of the best. We visit Patricia Lake and Pyramid Lake but again the lake I really wanted to see, Maligne Lake, is still frozen. We start the drive down to Banff which is the Icefield Parkway ... read more
Alberta - The resting place of the car
Published: May 23rd 2012North America » Canada » Alberta » Jasper
May 22nd 2012
When we arrived in Calgary the car troubles were starting to get a little worse but it was still driveable. We were welcomed by family friends given a beautiful home to stay in for 2 nights. Again we took full advantage of showering, cleaning up, and beds. We decided to go out a few nights in Calgary and treat ourselves to a bit of partying. We ended up having too good of a time and spent a little too much money, but we learnt our lessons. Before leaving Calgary we hoped in a river raft and cruised down the Bow River, it was a little chilly and out of season, but was pretty sweet. We left Calgary and started driving into mountains; it was definitely much better driving than the prairie’s. This was the part of ... read more
May 21st 2012
Sunday - drove the Icefields Parkway from Lake Louise to Jasper, said by many to be the most scenic drive in the world. Before we set off we go to the village bakery to buy lunch. We were told the story of a Grizzly bear who hung around the village and became completely humanised to the extent that one day she walked into the bakery and stood up on her hind legs as if to see what was on offer. Parks Canada decided that she was an accident waiting to happen so gave her to Calgary Zoo. Quite sad really that she is stuck in a zoo after years of being a wild bear. I overheard another story of a tourist smearing her son's hand in peanut butter and offering it to a bear. Apparently the ... read more
Victoria Day... from Stony Plain to Morinville
Published: May 21st 2012North America » Canada » Alberta » Stony Plain
May 20th 2012
A brief history of Victoria Day*. Victoria Day (in French: Fête de la Reine) is a federal Canadian public holiday celebrated in six of the ten provinces and all three territories. It falls on the last Monday before May 25th, in honour of Queen Victoria's birthday. The date is also, simultaneously, connected to the current reigning Canadian sovereign's official birthday. It is informally considered the beginning of the summer season in Canada. The birthday of Queen Victoria was a day for celebration in Canada long before its url=http://en.wi... read more
Victoria Day... from Morinville to Westlock
Published: May 21st 2012North America » Canada » Alberta » Westlock
May 20th 2012
Our photo-opps with Jesus completed, we walked to the sidewalk before jogging across the street. Hopping into our vehicle I made a quick u-turn on 100th Avenue and headed back out to Highway 2. Heading north just outside of Morinville we spotted a tourist sign stating "Legal, home of the French Murals."Giggling because our own small town boasts numerous murals, I said, "Let's see if Legal's murals are anywhere near as exquisite as Stony Plains'?" Eye-balling me out her peripherral vision Shauna simplified to, "Really?" "Why not?" "Sure... let's see what they are," she replied astonished by my lust for misadventure. Nineteen kilometers later I hung a right onto secondary road 642. Speeding past two slow moving vehicles, I tilted the moonroof closed as a farmer kicked up field dust in his tractor sending billows of ... read more
