From Calgary to Banff, Alberta

Calgary to Banff, Alberta – Wednesday morning we had a substantial breakfast and decided to press on into the mountains rather than spend an additional day in Calgary.  Not that there’s anything wrong with Calgary but it’s just another big city.  When we approached it from a distance the high-rise buildings stood out on the flat prairie – sort of like Dallas.  We wanted to see the Canadian Rockies.

Over breakfast I suggested we at least take a drive into the center of Calgary – a suggestion Rita frowned on as chief navigator.  But we survived the experience.  The downtown district was much larger than I expected with a substantive China Town.  There was much construction creating a traffic problem with streets narrowed or closed off.  The population of the metropolitan area is only about one million but I suspect most of the business and shopping is concentrated in the downtown and not spread around like in Houston.  We did notice much ethnic diversity for a city as remote as Calgary seems to be.

We left about mid-morning and headed west on the Trans-Canadian highway or highway 1.  Soon we were in beautiful mountainous countryside but again with low clouds and the occasional sprinkles.  We entered the Banff National Park and were in Banff by noon.  We checked into the Banff Caribou Lodge and Spa, another very nice but modern rustic hotel.  The amenities were very good.

We started out with a walk into town and over the bridge across the Bow River, which was also up to its banks and flowing rapidly.  We also split a sandwich for lunch.  Banff is one of those ritzy resort areas (mainly for winter skiing) like Vail, Palm Springs, Cancun, etc.  Shops are upscale and the town is clean and nearly flawless.  We returned to our lodge and took the car to the Fairmont Banff Springs hotel that was constructed by the railroad in the 1890s and today is the premier hotel in Banff.  We walked through the hotel which is impressive with the best of everything.  We also visited the falls or rapids on the Bow River a short distance from the hotel.  And we saw elk on the streets of Banff.

Back at our lodge Rita suggested that I go down to the Red Earth Spa and get a massage to relax all the pent- up tension in my shoulders and neck from driving.  It didn’t take a lot of arm-twisting for me to agree with her and I enjoyed my full body massage to the max.

We had a nice dinner at our lodge restaurant, The Keg, as we didn’t feel like going out.   It is primarily a nice steak house but we didn’t feel like we could eat a big meal so we ordered four starters which turned out to be as large as two big meals.  But we ended up with some vegetables in our very nice starter meal.  We also had a nice Canadian Sumac Ridge sauvignon blanc wine.  After dinner we walked back into town for about an hour to walk off the meal.

This far north the days last long and by 10:00 pm, as we returned to the lodge, it was still daylight outside.  We notice that when we rise early, say 6:00 am (sometimes) it is already light outside as well.  Today (Thursday) we plan to drive to Lake Louise and on to Jasper for two nights.