9:35am
All packed and ready to go. Janet drove us to Toronto Airport where we were due to fly at 12:00 noon to Calgary.
1:20pm
After a very relaxed check-in - SUCH a difference from Heathrow! - we finally boarded the plane, no rush, no trouble. I was hoping to take a better photo of Toronto from the air, but we obviously sat on the wrong side of the plane. No matter though - I had two more chances of snapping a photo when we come into Toronto on our way back. I bought a sandwich in the airport to eat on the plane but it was SO dry and horrid. The reason? No butter or margarine.
Seriously!!
Does nobody make sandwiches with butter here?! I thought that just happened in American and France. Hmmm. Never mind, we had snacks on the place. Maybe a little unhealthy, but it was food.. For the most part of this holiday I thought we'd be eating fine.
It was cold on the plane - the air
conditioning had been set far too high! We flew over at least two of the Great Lakes, if not three. I couldn't tell, they were far too big for me to see them in their entirety, even from way up in the air. These Great Lakes really are THAT big! On the ground if you stand at the edge of Lake Ontario and look across the water, you cannot see the other side unless you're right on the edge close enough to America. To the British, not being able to see the other side of some water means you are on the coast. No so, here!! Seriously - if you have seen Loch Ness and Windermere and think they are massive, think again!
Looking out of the window now, we have flown over all the lakes already. The in-flight entertainment system wasn't showing us the map so I had no idea where we were. Still, outside there was still a LOT of water, mostly forming much smaller lakes...but there were LOTS of them. I don't know how big they are....perhaps the size of the lakes in the Lake District in England? I had an urge to just stand on the edge of one to see the size of them. The roads are also very straight, or mostly so, like in Ontario. I imagine in such an isolated place its so easy to take a wrong turn. From the plane it seemed like there was just one main road, possibly the only road. I wonder how long it takes to drive from Toronto to Calgary....but I have been told the journey is flat, straight and uneventful. But I have also been told of the Alberta Sky and how huge it is. It is in Prairie land so the flatness of the landscape accentuates the size of the sky. I wonder if I'll be impressed with it....having been on the ground in the Prairies of America I have seen huge sky before. I was wondering if the sky would be bigger or about the same. I probably had bigger expectations of it, as usual.
It was also very hard to believe how far North we were, in relation to the Arctic Circle. What I could see out of the window may have been the very edge of it, I don't know. I just know the Arctic Circle wasn't really that far away, and its odd to realise it.
It was 12 degrees in Calgary when we left...I really hoped it was going to warm up!!
9:20pm
Our flight was fine. A little turbulence, but no worries. Once we got our luggage, we strolled over to the Car Rental place which was signposted from the airport. This part was actually totally straightforward! Out car was a brand new shiny silver Ford Focus. Mathew was a little worried about it, what with it being his first time in an automatic, and driving on the other side of the road. But he took to it like a duck to water. He began feeling less nervous and more confident.
Driving along the highway was fine, Mathew was worried about getting out of Calgary but it was no trouble at all. It was odd in a sense - Prairie land is very flat indeed, and the sky was very big...but as I suspected, it was no bigger than last time I was in Prairie land in the States. The Prairies weren't all flat though, gently rolling for part of it. But they soon turned into mountains.
Seeing mountains approach was very strange. They were there in the distance, but before you knew it, they were right next to you....it happened very quickly! This was when I first realised that distance and perspective doesn't seem quite right here. A long, long road to the Rockies.....didn't take that long to get there at all.
We quickly reached Banff National Park and paid for our annual Park Permit (the other choice was a daily pass), but this covered ALL National Parks in Canada which was pretty handy. We reached our first Bed and Breakfast "Mountain Country B&B" by around 5:00pm. We were welcomed, introduced, and taken to our room.
And what a fantastic room this was!! The house was a log cabin style, possibly actually made of real logs. We stayed in the room at t
he top of the house, and we had the balcony that went with it. The room itself was large with a huge, soft bed, wooden furniture and a soft carpet and lots of storage. Windows ran the width of the room with blinds and curtains on the lower half. Being in the valley of Banff, you can't NOT get a mountain view. But did we get a view..!!! The room was brilliant and we were here for 5 nights. "Boy, this is great!" I thought to myself. It was definitely worth flying all this way, and definitely worth the money.
In the morning we would sit at our own little dining table or outside on the balcony for Breakfast. Which was in the mini-fridge: cereal, milk, orange juice, muffins, bread to toast, jams..everything we needed was there, and would be re-filled every day while we were out, ready for the next morning. This seems to be the way a lot of Bed and Breakfasts seem to work in Canada, I think its a great idea!
This evening, after unpacking, we strolled "downtown" where there were SO many shops. We had dinner in "Wild Bill's Legendary Saloon" where I had a "Wild West Salad" which came in the shape of a mountain of leaves topped with grilled chicken and piles of tomatoes, carrot, egg, onion....you name it, it was there. Mathew enjoyed an Elk burger and had Onion rings....which came on a separate plate, there were so many of them!
We walked home feeling happy and with full stomachs. I wrote in my journal, did some scrap booking and Mathew had a nap in what we called the "Kipping Chair". Evil and soft, you didn't know the meaning of "get up" once you'd sat in it!
All packed and ready to go. Janet drove us to Toronto Airport where we were due to fly at 12:00 noon to Calgary.
1:20pm
After a very relaxed check-in - SUCH a difference from Heathrow! - we finally boarded the plane, no rush, no trouble. I was hoping to take a better photo of Toronto from the air, but we obviously sat on the wrong side of the plane. No matter though - I had two more chances of snapping a photo when we come into Toronto on our way back. I bought a sandwich in the airport to eat on the plane but it was SO dry and horrid. The reason? No butter or margarine.
Seriously!!
Does nobody make sandwiches with butter here?! I thought that just happened in American and France. Hmmm. Never mind, we had snacks on the place. Maybe a little unhealthy, but it was food.. For the most part of this holiday I thought we'd be eating fine.
It was cold on the plane - the air
conditioning had been set far too high! We flew over at least two of the Great Lakes, if not three. I couldn't tell, they were far too big for me to see them in their entirety, even from way up in the air. These Great Lakes really are THAT big! On the ground if you stand at the edge of Lake Ontario and look across the water, you cannot see the other side unless you're right on the edge close enough to America. To the British, not being able to see the other side of some water means you are on the coast. No so, here!! Seriously - if you have seen Loch Ness and Windermere and think they are massive, think again!Looking out of the window now, we have flown over all the lakes already. The in-flight entertainment system wasn't showing us the map so I had no idea where we were. Still, outside there was still a LOT of water, mostly forming much smaller lakes...but there were LOTS of them. I don't know how big they are....perhaps the size of the lakes in the Lake District in England? I had an urge to just stand on the edge of one to see the size of them. The roads are also very straight, or mostly so, like in Ontario. I imagine in such an isolated place its so easy to take a wrong turn. From the plane it seemed like there was just one main road, possibly the only road. I wonder how long it takes to drive from Toronto to Calgary....but I have been told the journey is flat, straight and uneventful. But I have also been told of the Alberta Sky and how huge it is. It is in Prairie land so the flatness of the landscape accentuates the size of the sky. I wonder if I'll be impressed with it....having been on the ground in the Prairies of America I have seen huge sky before. I was wondering if the sky would be bigger or about the same. I probably had bigger expectations of it, as usual.
It was also very hard to believe how far North we were, in relation to the Arctic Circle. What I could see out of the window may have been the very edge of it, I don't know. I just know the Arctic Circle wasn't really that far away, and its odd to realise it.
It was 12 degrees in Calgary when we left...I really hoped it was going to warm up!!
9:20pm
Our flight was fine. A little turbulence, but no worries. Once we got our luggage, we strolled over to the Car Rental place which was signposted from the airport. This part was actually totally straightforward! Out car was a brand new shiny silver Ford Focus. Mathew was a little worried about it, what with it being his first time in an automatic, and driving on the other side of the road. But he took to it like a duck to water. He began feeling less nervous and more confident.
Driving along the highway was fine, Mathew was worried about getting out of Calgary but it was no trouble at all. It was odd in a sense - Prairie land is very flat indeed, and the sky was very big...but as I suspected, it was no bigger than last time I was in Prairie land in the States. The Prairies weren't all flat though, gently rolling for part of it. But they soon turned into mountains.
Seeing mountains approach was very strange. They were there in the distance, but before you knew it, they were right next to you....it happened very quickly! This was when I first realised that distance and perspective doesn't seem quite right here. A long, long road to the Rockies.....didn't take that long to get there at all.
We quickly reached Banff National Park and paid for our annual Park Permit (the other choice was a daily pass), but this covered ALL National Parks in Canada which was pretty handy. We reached our first Bed and Breakfast "Mountain Country B&B" by around 5:00pm. We were welcomed, introduced, and taken to our room.
And what a fantastic room this was!! The house was a log cabin style, possibly actually made of real logs. We stayed in the room at t
he top of the house, and we had the balcony that went with it. The room itself was large with a huge, soft bed, wooden furniture and a soft carpet and lots of storage. Windows ran the width of the room with blinds and curtains on the lower half. Being in the valley of Banff, you can't NOT get a mountain view. But did we get a view..!!! The room was brilliant and we were here for 5 nights. "Boy, this is great!" I thought to myself. It was definitely worth flying all this way, and definitely worth the money.In the morning we would sit at our own little dining table or outside on the balcony for Breakfast. Which was in the mini-fridge: cereal, milk, orange juice, muffins, bread to toast, jams..everything we needed was there, and would be re-filled every day while we were out, ready for the next morning. This seems to be the way a lot of Bed and Breakfasts seem to work in Canada, I think its a great idea!
This evening, after unpacking, we strolled "downtown" where there were SO many shops. We had dinner in "Wild Bill's Legendary Saloon" where I had a "Wild West Salad" which came in the shape of a mountain of leaves topped with grilled chicken and piles of tomatoes, carrot, egg, onion....you name it, it was there. Mathew enjoyed an Elk burger and had Onion rings....which came on a separate plate, there were so many of them!
We walked home feeling happy and with full stomachs. I wrote in my journal, did some scrap booking and Mathew had a nap in what we called the "Kipping Chair". Evil and soft, you didn't know the meaning of "get up" once you'd sat in it!
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