We’ve been wined and dined to within an inch of our existence. The Rocky Mountainer was truly outstanding and certainly a vast improvement on the Spirit of Washington.

We have picked up our car, and are at the Crossing Motel tonight, halfway through the Rockies. It has been a beautiful day (upto 17, most blue skies with some clodes) niether words nor photos can do justice to the natural beauty in the Jasper and Banff national parks. We will try an upload some shortly from the Bowmanville Internet Cafe.

Of to Banff tomorrow, via a Helicopter tour. Hopefully the weather is a good as it is today.

Gotta go, running out of time on this machine.

Elk: 2. One was on the corner of a road on our way out of Jasper. Thankfully we didn’t have to give way to him, as he was not indicating. These are very large creatures and apparently it is “rut” season and people should not go near them! :)

Moose: 3. One was sitting in someone’s backyard – we saw this from the train. The other two were eating – also from our view from the train. Sorry no photo.

Bald Eagle: 1. Again this was viewed from the train. Pretty impressive take-off!

Mountain goats: 2. On the road from Jasper to the Icefield Parkway (we actually managed to take a photo of these – but given the limitations placed on patrons in the Banff Public Library it is unlikely that you will be able to see them for a couple of days).

Squirrels: lots more! They are too fast for me to get a photo.

Ravens: lots.

So far so good… will collect a total towards the end.

Very cute library. Situated below the senior citizens centre.

The opening hours are great (take a look!) for the public.

As you come in there is a wide foyer (including booksale stand) and then the circulation desk. They also like you to turn off your mobile phones (okay hands up who would like to see that in SA) The library is fairly busy with tourists checking their e-mail. They do change you $1 for 15 minutes if you are checking e-mail (think of the money raising potential!), which is pretty good. They don’t charge you if you are not. I think this is fair given the amount of people they would get through here.

The noise level is pretty quite – no phones (ah), just people typing.

Large signs are everywhere indicating the collections and number areas. What is really cute is, while they may use the Dynix system (you can see behind the desk from where the 1st computer is located) they still stamp books in the from with a due date stamp – its very cute. The public have flat screens to use with the opacs. The music is colour coded (so simple to use!), and the children’s section is cosy.

A great local library! The staff are friendly too.

Although it doesn’t look like they have a library bag though.. , can’t have everything.

What I enjoy most about the Canadian Rockies is the sense of massive change. Visiting glaciers and appreciating how much they change over the years, and even in one season, to sculpt the landscape. The 93, icefields parkway, is as the brochure describes it, the most beautiful road in the world, at least that I have seen. While we have photos it is impossible to do justice to what was before us.

This morning we flew through the Rockies in a helicopter. If you think they look amazing from the ground, a helicopter adds a completely different perspective to it. We had a short stop off, which was in the middle of nowhere and a short walk. It was a great pleasure to be on our own, only with the helicopter pilot.

It is certainly an improvement over the “popular spots” even if the off-season they ar crowded with noisy tour buses. I can understand the desire to hike for days to get away from it. Some how the helicopter just seems easier!

We visited Lake Louise, and while the lake is beautiful, I am not convinced the hotel was a particularly good idea. Not to worry, there are plenty of other lakes without hotels on.

We have an easy drive into Calgary tomorrow.

Banff is a pretty town – well it has to be given it is surrounded by a few mountains. All the street signs are animals (bear street, cougar… I think you get the picture), and all the buildings aren’t too high. Although I will tell you it is a very touristy town.

There must bee a large number of tourists in Banff who spend their money in the shops. All I bought was a couple of postcards and chocolate fudge – ah.

In Banff we went up the Gondola and swam in the Banff Springs.

At the time we went up it was 7 degrees at the top.

However, while staying in Banff we did lash out and stayed at the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel. Our most expensive place on the trip – but it was delightful. However the reason I mention this was that on the map they give you it says “a short walk/hike to the Banff Springs and Gondola.” I am sorry to inform these people – but it is in no way a short walk. A hike, yes. To me a walk is a covered footpath with SIGNS. The signs on this path were few and few between – okay the signs were coloured tape attached to trees. Ah a yellow piece of tape we must be going the right way. Of course we didn’t take the umbrellas and it was about 10 degrees out, and the path was slightly muddy, and it was a horse trail. I’ll leave the rest of the walk up to your imaginations. All I will say is that we made up it, and back down again.

The springs themselves were a hot 41 degrees – and there was light rain fall. We had the pool to ourselves for 15 minutes – given the cold weather this turned a few people off. The cost was cheap $7.50 (trust me this is cheap). A holiday highlight.

One of the first things we did in Calgary was visit the main branch of the Calgary Public Library .

The building was 6 floors high and the public space is on the first five floors. The main entrance includes the checkout/checkin desk the information desk and open shelves full of staff recommendations from all the different genres in fiction and non-fiction.

Each of the different floors has a different theme and colour – good way finding! Lots of shelving for the collections.

After a short but interesting visit to Calgary we went to Toronto with Westjet Thankfully we escaped before the 10 cm fall in snow!

We were lucky enough to get two seats at the back of the plane (no I don’t really want to discuss plane flights). The service was good. The flight attendants were amusing, and given once we landed the journey to the terminal took 10 minutes which was taken up with jokes. The service is simple and much like Virgin but includes a drink and light snack.

Once met by my cousin we had a leisurely drive down the 401 to Bowmanville. For those people who are uneducated about the 401 knows that this ain’t the truth.

 

I know that it has looked like that Helen had left me somewhere without a computer… But it is not true, she is just very keen to let you know about libraries and all that stuff and I can’t get on the computer.

The last time I wrote we were in Banff, from there we drove into Calgary. It was a cold and rainy day. It is interesting how the weather can alter your general impression of the place. I found that on the first day I didn’t like Calgary too much. But the very next day we had some sunshine, and I liked it much more.

Our B&B had a great view of the City and the rockies in the background. Overnight they had become completely covered in snow. The day after we left Calgary received 10cm of snow. So far, we’ve been lucky with the weather.

In Calgary nearly all the public and private buildings are connected with the +15 (+15 feet in the air), a series of corridors and over-street walkways so you can stay warm by never setting foot on street.

We are now enjoying our stay with Canadian Kwakas. It is certainly a pleasure to stay with family as part of our holiday. We’ve enjoyed fall colour in and around Bowmanville. To keep the gunzel experience going we visited the York – Durham Railway – run earnestly by volunteers and had a ball! For those with a polish influence, the local Oshawa Polish Club has great perogies and cabbage roles, highly recommended.

As I write, I am watching the weather forecast, there appears to be a lot of snow…. But not here yet!!!!

Helen has been busy. Look down over the old posts Helen has been adding some photos. We will probably add some more over the next day or so.