Calgary - Banff

Playlist
The Bad Plus – Prog
Happy Apple – Happy Apple Back on Top
Various – Holiday Hits Vols 19 & 18
Sarah Harmer - A Collection of Songs
David Reilly – Anthology Vols 5 & 6

Up at 7 am and out and down to the river and wrote up my diary notes...

Back for breakfast at 8:30 and the man from the B&B took our photo and gave it to us a few moments later...



Obviously, this has been doctored to protect the not so innocent..

Another big breakfast and then we were off, having paid slightly less than we’d expected...

We took the scenic route towards the Rockies but there’s only one road into the Banff National Park and it cost us $100 for our entry Pass for the next five days...



We arrived in Banff around 11:15 and our Italian hosts at CasaBanff (on the corner of Moose St and Squirrel St!!) showed us to an excellent suite where we unloaded the bags before heading out to the Bow Falls on the edge of town...



This was the self same river which flowed past the garden of our house in Calgary...

We took some pictures and saw our first wildlife of the trip, a red squirrel...



...and a Mountie...



Then we drove to the other end of town and on out to Minnewanka Lake where we spotted more wildlife in the form of a ground squirrel and a four horned sheep stranded out on a road at the end of the lake, where it was later joined by more of its herd...



After a refreshing ice cream we walked on and down to the shore of the lake and some breath-taking views...



Then back to town and a stroll along Main Street which comprises almost entirely souvenir shops...



We found ourselves in an Irish Pub, something we’d never dream of frequenting at home, but there were Canadian beers to be tried of which Anne had two and I had three...



I was tempted to buy a watch from the $15 Boutique but what chance would there be of it working for long if it only cost £7.50?

So, instead, I bought a CD by Canadian songstress Sarah Harmer for $10 – an infinitely better souvenir of Canada!



Back home and changed (and listened to the Harmer compilation I already have on the jukebox) before heading out for our evening meal (again, no lunch had been required due to the size of the breakfast)...

But we were foiled by the queue at The Old Spaghetti Factory and so we returned to the Irish Pub for more beer try-outs and some excellent fayre with a previously untried dish of liver and onions for me and a spicy chicken and mango salad for Anne...

When we emerged it was pouring with rain...



We made it home fairly quickly and I was asleep by 8pm while Anne perused the Weather Channel re the days ahead...

I awoke at 3am (it seems I’m sleeping an hour longer each night) and snoozed with music till the morning, hearing the sound of train horns through the night as they passed through the town...



Highlight of the Day : Sitting by the lake...