Oh Canada
I am sat at the airport in Bermuda for the start of a 10-day work trip and I have a long day ahead of me. I’m flying to Calgary, which is not simple from here. The journey will send me to New York, where I have to switch airports, although I will make good use of the long stopover by meeting a couple of friends for lunch in midtown.
Then later from Newark I take a WestJet flight to Calgary, which doesn’t get me there until later tonight.
I have never been to Calgary, and I’m not expecting much from this oil-moneyed, rodeo-riding and slightly characterless city and I won’t actually have much time to examine it as tomorrow around about midday I drive with a couple of colleagues to Banff for a conference.
Banff meanwhile and it’s surrounding beauty excites me a lot more. While I am here sipping on my coffee I will do a little research on what I can expect in Banff and report back tomorrow.
Can recommend the Heritage Centre at Calgary and don’t forget to stand on the glass floor on the top of Calgary Tower. If you can stretch your visit to Lake Louise you won’t be disappointed.
Thanks Graham, the Calgary Tower certainly cut a fine figure but I won’t get the time to go up it unfortunately.
Hey Graham, how are you? I spent a bit of time with your bro’ when in London last Easter.
CA, Calgary is still cleaning up after a horrendous flood that devastated the down-town area, so you are probably not catching it at the best of times. Characterless it may be to some, but the Economist Intelligence Unit stated it is tied with Adelaide as the fifth best place in the world in which to live. The nearby foothills and mountains, which are less than an hour’s drive, has to be included in the appeal of living in this wealthy, clean and safe city. Both Banff and Lake Louise, as beautiful as they are, are usually somewhat overrun by tourists. I assume your conference is in the Banff Springs Hotel, so you can definitely do the Lake Louise attractions, but there is much outside the two in the various national parks such as Mt. Robson and Jasper, as well as Johnston Canyon, Lake Minnewanka and much more, My sister has lived in the southwest of Calgary for over thirty years and would not live anywhere else. The Calgary Stampede is definitely a big deal. My niece rode for two years with the Stampede Show Riders and had a ball! Yes folks, Canada had “the old west” as well!
Bob, I knew I could rely on you for some good insight. It certainly was a pleasant, clean and modern place to walk around last night. There were no obvious signs, at least downtown, of those horrendous floods, and I believe the downtown area was evacuated at the time. I think the stampede (on my bucket list) grounds were also severely affected.
CA – Banff, a metaphorical stone’s throw from my home town……http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banff,_Aberdeenshire.
Dave, does it have it’s own micro-climate??
CA – you know it does and I think I recognise the photo in your “onto Banff” post.