Crying over you (Vancouver to Sydney)

Something is in the air

This will be the last post (ha, see what I did there?) until the next holiday. To celebrate this fact I will include random photos from the trip to break up the text. Warning: this will be a long post and it will make you cry. Ok, maybe not you, but it made me cry. And Jayne. And Dan. Well something did. Maybe there's something in the air. The title is a no-brainer.

Leaving Edmonton ... a good idea
Another cold, grey morning in Edmonton. We packed and left the hotel efficiently as you would expect after almost three weeks on the road. For the last time, I got behind the wheel of the Barbie mobile. It was about a 40 minute drive to the airport. The traffic was light and the GPS guided us easily to the car rental return area. I'm never keen to drive on the wrong side of the road but it was much easier here than in Europe. The roads are wider, well marked and in Canada at least, the traffic is patient - even if they ignore the speed limits.

The car returned and we made our way to bag drop for Air Canada. They use the same sort of kiosk we have in Australia, except it is much more labour intensive here. We do everything ourselves; here you check and get bag tags and then get checked in again by an attendant. That's if you can walk and talk at the same time. Miss Yves St Laurent, so named because of her name brand luggage found the process all too difficult. She had the attendant check her in, print her boarding pass and bag tag, place the tag on the bag and then help her put the bag on the conveyor. Such a struggle. It was no surprise to see her a few minutes later causing a bouchon (French for  a jam) at security as her Yves make up bag was emptied and checked thoroughly.

We had decided on breakfast at the airport. A brave decision you think dear reader, well perhaps. While waiting to be security checked, I noticed an ad for a European Cafe. Surely they would understand coffee and croissant. Sadly, we were unable to locate said cafe and settled for the one next to our boarding gate. The coffee was, as expected, from a machine that does not require barista experience and the food was passable.

Sydney in Vancouver

Back in Van

The plane was a few minutes late landing in Edmonton but we arrived close to time in Van. I had a rush of blood to the head and thought we should catch the sky train. Unlike Sydney, the Canadian system is quick, efficient and cheap. $9.20 from the airport to the city centre and the airport is the terminus, so there was plenty of room for luggage - again unlike Sydney.

Once returned to daylight from the underground we needed to work out which direction to walk. I looked one way, Jayne the other. She quipped we should choose the opposite direction to what she selected. No, I said, you have the map, we'll go the way you choose. Yes, my amused reader, Jayne was wrong. Her sense of direction unerringly fails, every time.

We checked back in to the Westin and were upgraded to a corner suite with an excellent view of the mountains. The sky was a beautiful blue and crystal clear, unlike our smokey arrival a few weeks earlier. We dumped the bags, changed and walked up the street to book dinner at Zefferelli's. Some street hawker asked if I was interested in the services of a personal trainer. I must have put on more weight than I thought. Oh well, exercise and change in diet commences on Monday. I pondered this as we sat in the hotel bar drinking and eating and waiting for Dan to arrive. Dan is the real reason we are here, Canada was never on my list of places to visit.

Arrive he did. We did dinner. We did drinks. Tears. Hugs. Talked. Tears. Sometimes all at once. But it had to end at some point. Bed. Then we got up and did the talk, tears and hugs all over again.

Found a great place for breakfast. Awesome coffee and interesting food. Radically crowded to the extent they have a waiting room for you to cool your heels in while a table becomes available.

It was airport time all too soon.

Farewell Van, farewell Dan

Dan's Whistler on a clear day

So, you've all seen those soppy, tearful goodbyes in the movies. Airport scenes are the biggest tear jerkers. Well it's an hour after we parted company with Dan and both Jayne and I are still crying. Of all the tough things I've done in my life that was, without a doubt, one of the toughest. I'm sure the security people and customs have seen it all before, but I'm not sure what the servers at Vino made of us. We sat down and picked up the menu and began crying. And gin wasn't even on the list. Currently Jayne and I are taking turns at the crying thing. We are a sight. Such emotionally strong adults.

It doesn't matter how I approach this I can't be rational. I just want him to come home. Sorry, have to go. I can't see the keys through my tears.

Bits I forgot to write about previously:
Water - I know some areas have plenty of water, even frozen for later use, but they could learn a lot from Australia about water conservation. All the hotels offer 'green options'. The usual, hang your towels and re-use them, don't have your room serviced for a day and variations in-between. Some of these green choices are based around saving water. And then you step into the shower. Massive shower heads that generally have a pre-set pressure and waste huge amounts of water. Green indeed. And this wasn't just one hotel. It was everywhere we stayed.

Best friends - yes Canadians really are as polite and friendly as the brochures and stereotypes would have you believe. However, there is a limit and the Glacier walk tested it to the max. We had four different drivers in the space of a couple of hours, sometimes including extra 'associates' who provided expert (read rote learned) knowledge of whatever we were going to see. Much like the boy at Earls, don't go off script, but that's another story.

I digress. Each driver and expert wanted us to know their name. It's so tiring pretending that I care who they are. And then there is the fake enthusiasm, the over-top AWESOMENESS. Enough. I know they work for tips, but I didn't care and didn't want to play, I wasn't there to be their friend or participate in their games. Yes, yes, my indulgent reader, but really ... where is their tolerance for people who just wish to listen and enjoy the experience? And then there was the...

Font of knowledge - on one of the aforementioned coach rides, the driver asked did we have any questions. I assume, uncharacteristically, she was met with glacial silence (hahaha, I am too funny). So, she proceeded to tell us that she was a font of knowledge just waiting to share. A question from an American traveller: what is that red plant that we see everywhere? She was referring to a red ground cover plant and it was, literally, everywhere. Silence. Um, I don't know it's name but it's a carpet plant. Really? Who would have thought? As they used to say in the early 2000s, epic fail.

Hotel facilities - generally when we travel we stay in AirBnB style accommodation, not hotels. The hotels we selected were all well appointed and generally belonged to the same chain. However, the Edmonton experience was different. Again, we had a suite. It had a sink, coffee making facilities, and fridge. So, when I went to open a bottle of our fine Okanagan wine I could locate neither glasses, nor cork screw. I know right, corks in wine bottles, what is that? Anyway, after an initial fruitless search, I embarked on a more meticulous one. Still nothing. I phoned reception and had the glasses and cork screw sent up. Jayne asked the question of the person delivering the goods, should they have been in the room. No. It was almost a Pauline Hanson please explain moment. A sink with no washing up requisites and a bar fridge without glass ware. I still don't get it.

Well, dear reader, you can assume the rest of the journey went well because I am posting from Van. The next time we communicate will be in January when we are travelling to the Cook Islands.

Until then ...

Still crying over you.

Food glorious food (Lake Louise to Edmonton via Banff)

Road trip ... yay. As previously mentioned Canada is big. Bigger than Texas. Bigger than Australia. In fact, bigger than the US. (Sorry folks, it's true. Google it.) So it takes a while to drive from one place to another, especially outside the main cities. Today's drive was from Lake Louise to Edmonton. Why? That's a really good question. Inexperience.

It is always difficult to work out where to go and how long to spend there particularly when it's uncharted terrain. Even if you have some inside information, as we did. In retrospect we would have done somethings differently, but that's the nature of travel. I have never done a bush walk once. I always do it a second time to get it right. Travel is like that too.

The road to Edmonton was fairly uneventful although, as previously said in the last post, we took a detour to Banff for breakfast and had a wander around this delightful alpine town.  Very picturesque and in hindsight, we would have been better off staying here and simply doing a day trip tour to Lake Louise and the ice fields.  That way we would have also made Jasper. Banff even has free parking! 

Once we had breakfasted with a couple from Minnesota who shared our table in the very busy artisan cafe called Wild Flour (highly recommend it and its coffee), we drove through the wheat fields and ranches of Alberta across a vastly different terrain to what we left behind in the Rockies. Can't complain about the road system here in Canada.  Dual lane expressways everywhere and NO TOLLS!!! It's just that the drive was dead straight and dead boring, like the Stuart Highway back home. At least it has wedge tail eagles eating road kill. There isn't a lot of road kill in Canada, that we have seen. A couple of porcupines and some small furry thing that had more blood on it than a model wearing fur in a New York fashion parade. It could have been a mink I suppose.

Down the gun barrel straight highway there were a lot of signs purporting animal life. Elk.  Deer. Moose. Whatever. None of it proven. Except for the signs. The rolls of hay swept by. Fields of wheat, corn, lucerne, this time we really could have been in Australia out Bathurst way.

We skirted past Calgary. A drive-by will never do it justice, but it appeared to be a series of brand new dormitory suburbs. The houses all looked very similar, down to the paint. It appeared to be like the suburbs in Australia, massed housing in one area, retail in another and business/industrial somewhere else again. A world designed by car makers and purveyors of gas (as they say here) because you need a car to work and shop and therefore to live.

Finally we reached Edmonton. Glad we have a GPS because there is as much construction/deconstruction here as in Sydney. It was not easy to navigate to the hotel in the heart of Downtown, but we did.

Entrees: octopus and prawns

The usual inner city driving stuff follows: find street, miss street, swear a bit, re-negotiate route, drive around the block twice, at least ... you know the drill. Hotel found. Car parked. Eventually. Bags safely in room. Hmmm ... time to think about dinner.

Tripadvisor. We settled on Sabor a tapas/Spanish/Portuguese influenced restaurant. To say my faith in Canadian food was waning would be an understatement, especially after Whistler and its pub food culture, masquerading as fine dining. Or the Fairmont Chateau at Lake Louise and its 'resort' style food. OMG. Sabor is something else. Food, wine, service ... beyond anything in Canada to date and all at a reasonable price. Hence today's title from the classic 1968 musical Oliver, based on the 1838 novel, Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens. You see my discerning reader, good literature is fashionable forever.

Seafood paella and salad

We spent less tonight than we did on two burgers and a bottle of wine at the Fairmont at Lake Louise. I've said it before and I'll say it again: price gouging. And don't believe spin stories of transport costs. Petrol wasn't hiked up to the same extent as food and wine. They all arrived by truck.

The only down side to dinner was that Sabor is not open tomorrow - it's the Labor Day holiday in Canada. As an Australian who has often lamented the loss of public holidays for the family unit, I'm not about to complain. But, damn, they were good and there was so much else on the menu I could have eaten. Ah, well, first world problems.

Sydney or Edmonton? I'm not certain.

The intention was to post this and to write another blog about Edmonton. A walk around the surrounding area this morning demonstrated that was not such a good idea because there is not much to write about. It is a city. It is the Labour Day holiday and as such there is not a lot going on here. Mind you, in terms of Labour Day I'm not sure what they have to celebrate - low wages, one week annual leave - I can't imagine why people aren't queueing up for a piece of that. Some of the retailers commenced operations at noon in deference to the holiday but many and particularly restaurants are shut for the entire day so the downtown streets are all but deserted. Even finding somewhere for breakfast proved to challenging, but we settled on a cafe associated with the hotel and they served granola and yoghurt and toast. Yum, no sickeningly sugary food or plates piled high with eggs and bacon today.

Then there is the resemblance between Edmonton CBD and Sydney CBD. The photo should sort that out for you. There are no signs as to what they are doing but the disruption goes for blocks and is clearly keeping people away from the city centre. The sign at the entrance of the shopping mall that is attached to our hotel tells people they don't need a hard hat to come inside.  

The remainder of the day will be spent preparing for the flight back to Van tomorrow and finalising some reviews and resting and reading. And thinking about tonight's dinner at The Creperie. A little bit of France, we hope, in the middle of Canada.

The next blog will likely come from Vancouver International Airport on Wednesday if you are in Canada's time zone and Thursday if you are back home in Australia.

Until then ...

Rocky Mountain Way (Lake Louise and the Colombian Icefield)

Well dear reader I'm sure that you recall the conclusion to my last entry where I talked about the hotel. That was before a very average dinner for which we charged very above average prices. There are two choices here, basically you eat burgers or variations thereon or its their version of 'fine dining'.  I didn't really want another burger last night so we opted for the in-house Italian restaurant Lago.

I'm sure my dedicated follower that you are aware that I like to dabble in the kitchen and that Minestrone is one of my favourite winter dishes. I thought that would be a good way to commence dinner after an indifferent day weather-wise. Wrong. Had I been on the second day of a bushwalking trek it may have passed muster. As it was, I thought someone had opened the packet soup mix. It was thin, hardly tasty and I've seen bigger vegetables in rehydrated meals 100km from the nearest shop. Most disappointing at $16 Canadian a bowl. But hey, the warmed olives and bread were great. And the Italian wine, a tad pricey, but very enjoyable.

Then the mains arrived. Oh dear. Yes, of course I ordered pizza. How can you get that wrong? Let's not go there. Disappointing is one description and that would be polite. At $26, WTF, is the best I can do. I didn't even finish it. How embarrassing. Jayne had Osso Bucco. She described it as unItalian. It lacked flavour and warmth and wasn't cooked with love or a decent sauce. No, we didn't complain although we probably should have. In reality we would have been schooled in 'that's how we do it here'. Well, from my perspective, you do it wrong and it's bloody average. And I doubt that you care - see the previous post.

Finally, the weather gods smiled on us and we commenced the day in sunshine. Well, sort of at Lake

It really is spectacular country

Louise. We queued up at the Deli to buy some breakfast 'to go' and circumvent the need to take out a personal loan by eating at one of the restaurants. Just to qualify the level of price gouging here, all sandwiches on sale were $13. The best value for money? The egg sandwich. It comprised of one slice of bread cut in half with egg mushed in between. Seriously. A croissant with ham and cheese was the same price. A bottle of water $3.25. And then they expect a tip. Didn't get one. (Editor comment: we had breakfast in Banff this morning, a muffin, toast, espresso and hot chocolate for $2 more than the sad looking egg sandwich.)

A pity the smoke haze stayed around

The sun became stronger as we drove towards the Columbian Icefields. Despite the sun and the relative early morning (for us), there was no live stock to be seen on the almost 2 hour drive. Safe arrival - nothing to be taken for granted when I'm driving a car on the wrong side of the road. However, I'm not a lunatic, although we saw another one today. It was a family group, in two cars, and we inadvertently ended up between two of the cars after leaving a viewing point. Not that it mattered greatly, we were in slow moving traffic. Nope. Not good enough for the idiot behind me. She decided to pass me on an uphill stretch of road, approaching a corner, across double lines. She made it. Just. The oncoming car moved slightly to allow her time to get back in.

The end result? We followed her car all the way to the Icefields car park and drove in right behind them. Absolute idiots. Had they collided with the car coming the other way, they would have taken themselves out, the oncoming car and probably three or four cars in our line of traffic. As it was, they drove into the carpark between us and their partner car - not sure it was worth the risk.

Makes Kosciuszko look like a bump on the road

Inside was chaos. People everywhere. It was difficult to work out where to go for what. The easy option after a long drive? The washrooms (Canadian expression). While we waited for each other, we were curious to see some one waiting with a very scared pet. Unlike Australia, travelling with your pets is quite common. Generally people travel with dogs. However, this person had brought their cat. A ginger. In a harness. And it was terrified. The man looked as terrified when he was left to wrangle the spooked moggie while his daughter went to the toilet.

After the toilet break, we went in search of the place where we were supposed to gather to go on the

Doesn't look cold, eh?

glacier walk experience as pre-paid ticket holders. Place located, we briefly investigated the ubiquitous gift shop (nothing here not already seen somewhere else) and still with 30 minutes to kill, we headed downstairs for the glacier education display and the award winning interpretative film on the local alpine region.

This proved to be a dialogue-less, retrospective narrative about a young boy who dreams one day of conquering one of the region's signature mountains along with his two childhood friends. As an older man, he looks back on his childhood dream and, with poignant synergy, the child finds a special rock which he loses on the adult trek to achieve the dream and then finds again as the older man to finally return it to the place it was first discovered.  In the telling, we see some spectacular scenery in both summer and winter mode. Esoteric. Anyway, this occupied 15 minutes until we had to be back in the queue to go on the shuttle bus up to the transfer station where we would board the special alpine terrain vehicle to go down onto the glacial ice itself.

There was a double transfer to the glacier. Line up, onto a coach and drive out of the Centre across the road and about 2 kms up the hill to the transfer centre where we alighted the coach and got on board this massive 6 wheeled contraption that would take us across the moraine onto the ice. Then we had 25 minutes to play in what could only be described as wind from the Arctic Circle. After the photos were taken we sought refuge and shelter on the bus thing.

The valley floor 280 m below

The return journey made one slight detour, the coach did not return to the Columbian Icefields Centre. It went to the Glacier Skywalk where allegedly sane people pay good money to walk onto a glass-floored parapet that juts out over the valley floor some 280m below. Did I do it my fascinated reader? Me, with my fear of heights. Absolutely I did. I was sooo cool, until we got to the mid-point and the floor moved. Yes, I understand the physics that makes this necessary but it was incredibly unnerving, so dally I did not, and headed for the safety of the rock shelf on which this tourist attraction was built. So glad I wore my brown corduroys. Jayne was unperturbed through the whole event.

Looking through the glass

From the safety of the rock shelf

Back onto another coach to be transported back to the Ice Centre to be channelled back inside through the ubiquitous gift shop. To the Barbie mobile and the 90 minute drive back to Lake Louise. We speculated that we may get to see Lake Moraine on the way back, but alas, the car park remained full and closed. So it was back to the Chateau where we were once again economic captives and consumed another burger-style meal at the Lakeview. My diet has gone to shit over here, I'm even dreaming of salad.

I am finishing this post in Edmonton. There just doesn't seem to be time to get a post out everyday - my apology, dear reader.

And for the olde rockers out there, today's title is from 1973, a classic from Joe Walsh who later went on to become innocuous by joining some band called the Eagles.

Edmonton, is not promising much except 13º and another downturn in the weather. I will sign as usual,

until tomorrow ...

but who knows when the next post will be? So, to compensate, a few more photos.

Looking up to another glacier from Athabascar

Towards the Skywalk

Mad people

Rocky mountain high (Kelowna and Lake Louise)

I have returned to the keyboard dear reader to provide a compilation of the last two days. We left Kelowna in near perfect weather, the best we have seen so far. The smoke was clearing, the sun was shining and it was heading for a top of 24º. We walked into town to a patisserie to buy some pastries and average coffee. Mission accomplished, it was back to the hotel to pack up and psyche myself up for the 6 hour drive to Lake Louise. 

Although I haven't been able to view my ball-busting butch Jeep Wrangler in the same way since Danaka told me it's the Barbie car. Barbie did not drive the four-door. That's all I'm saying on the matter.

The drive allowed us both time to reflect on things we had discussed but had not made their way into previous posts.

Indicators

Or blinkers as we would say in Australia. They are not orange but red like the rest of the break light and are easily missed. There are some cars that have the orange plastic, but most have had them swapped out for all red light indicator systems. The Australian system is much safer. Then again, the use of indicators in Canada like the speed limit, appears to be optional.

Canadian Food

Surprise fries? No they are chips.

Breakfast is a very strange affair. Granola with muesli is rare, toast non-existent and even regular pastries are few and far between. They have been replaced by breakfast sandwiches, savoury pastries and muffins - bacon and sun-dried tomato muffins - this is not breakfast food people. 

Then there are fries and chips, a term used almost interchangeably at home. Not so here. Chips are crisps and, yes, they can be served with dinner as Jayne discovered one night. Fries are of course french fries. When you read the menu and it describes the dish as a "burger and chips" it is a simple mistake to make ... if you are from out of town.

The other stand out is their love of Caesar Salad. It is on almost every menu and can be customised to your liking. I don't mind a Caesar, but this is love.

The drive itself was long and difficult in parts. The weather was variable, as alpine weather can be, so we had sunshine, we had cloud, we had rain. The temperature got down as low as 10º at one point. Summer? Apparently. It's warmer in an Australian (Sydney) winter. The real problem was the amount of construction, read road works if you are in Australia. It went forever. And then some. 

Most of the roads were dual lane with periodic overtaking lanes. In between there were double unbroken lines, even when you could see quite a distance ahead. The message was clear - don't overtake unless there is a designated lane. There was a consistent line of traffic both ways but it was generally moving close to the speed limit despite the presence of a number of heavy vehicles.

From our point of view there was little point in trying to overtake unless you could get past a number of vehicles using the designated lane method since there were always more vehicles up ahead.  You had to go with the flow. Others however had a different perspective and thought they could make a serious gain by trying to overtake a single vehicle - we saw two suicidal attempts at this from two different vehicles (one an "N" plate driver which in Canada is the equivalent of a P Plate). One had to force his way back into the stream when he ran out of time with oncoming traffic approaching and the other actually held the line until the oncoming car veered to the side of the road to avoid a collision! We held our breath both times.

We kept scanning the sides of the forests for any presence of bear or moose but none were visible. Mind you our wine tour guide in Kelowna told us that in sixteen years of driving around the area, he had only seen one moose. We did however see a deer gingerly crossing the road fairly early on in the trip and a long horn sheep on the road side just out of Golden.

When we finally arrived at the Lake Louise Fairmont Resort, the front desk girl who checked us in inquired about our trip and when we said it had taken longer because of the road construction work, she actually said we were lucky since the road we were travelling is closed regularly due to fatal head on collisions, although she blamed it on truck drivers.  Our experience was that the truck drivers were not at fault at all.

Long trains

We have had the opportunity to observe several trains snaking their way along the rail lines that are also cut into the mountain side. They are incredibly long and yes, I know, we have the very long coal/iron ore trains out in the sticks, but these could be equally long; I've never seen both ends of the one train. On the drive up, we turned off onto a lesser highway and there was a train line next to us. On it was an aforementioned very long train. I'm not sure how far back it stretched. Imagine getting to a level crossing thought I and then noticed the car behind me was travelling unCanadianly close to me. So I increased my speed, we passed the train and about a kilometre down the road we crossed the rail line. Very glad I didn't have to wait and get to see how long the Canadian trains actually are.

Cliches

Aside from that we saw many Canadian cliches. Logs corralled and floating on the river at a saw mill. Logs laid out to dry. Stacks and stacks of logs, piled high. Logging trucks. Mountains that reached into the cloud cover. The snow capped rocky mountains (and thank you to John Denver for his 1972 song. It's really more about self-discovery and references Colorado, but, you know, it worked).

Lake Louise

We arrived at Lake Louise to cloud and light rain. The view from our room is pretty tidy and as I noted on Facebook as I checked in last night, it is a once in a lifetime experience. For a whole host of reasons. Not the least of which is the price of the hotel and everything in it - you are a captive and it is priced accordingly.

The level of advice from the Concierge and other staff appears to be based on an answer the question only scenario, do not offer any further information. Curiously, I thought that was what the Concierge did, not here. For example: we wanted to get into the Lake Louise village and asked about the walk. We were told it was about 4kms, not a pleasant walk and all uphill on the way home. At no point did they mention that there is a complimentary shuttle from the hotel to the Village. We discovered that ourselves.

Then this morning. There are two restaurants where you can eat breakfast. They offer exactly the same menu, probably cooked by the same chef in the same kitchen. The smallest breakfast? $26 Canadian for a Continental breakfast. All I wanted was a coffee and pastry or granola, but no we were told, that is it. Until later in the day we discovered the 24 hour Deli cafe in the hotel that serves coffee and pastries and doesn't force feed you. Not exactly customer friendly.

The view back to the hotel

From my cynical corner of the world this is about maximising profit. That and the 'we are here attitude, there is no-one else so you have to stay with us'. There are six restaurants in the hotel and the prices at their flagship establishments? Around $50 Canadian for a main, in fact, a pork chop was $51. It must have been massive for that money. Despite the fancy French words they use to describe the dishes ... well, it's overpriced for what you receive and let's not discuss fine dining.

And then ... well it is an old hotel and sound travels, from the outside in  through the windows. That is OK. Also from the corridor into your room and we are near the elevator and I have mentioned before that some nationalities (not naming them, but Aussie crocodiles love them) just don't have, or refuse to use an inside voice. That or they just don't care.  It wasn't overly noisy last night but the intrepid explorers who stay here began early, well before 6am (come on, I'm on holiday) and thought nothing of calling down the hallway to Linde or Linda. It doesn't take much to be aware of other people and be considerate.

After no breakfast this morning, we walked around the shoreline of Lake Louise and watched the numbers swell as the day-trippers arrived. It is spectacular scenery, it's just a shame that the weather hasn't been kinder to us. A blue sky would make this place stunning. Despite the weather there were plenty of walkers around the lake's edge and rock climbers on different rock faces, some easy, some very challenging. The lake itself also became home to red canoes being paddled the length and breadth the water.

We also saw some Canadian wildlife on the walk - some very tame chipmunks who have obviously enjoyed the generosity of human food and so were not adverse to posing for camera toting tourists in the hope of receiving some dietary rewards (despite all the signage telling people how harmful it is to feed the wildlife).  We also saw a ground squirrel.

One of our neighbours

In the afternoon we caught the shuttle down to the village mall. It gives you a 2 hour turn around ... about 90 minutes too long. Again, this is not difficult to work out, why a five star hotel would toy with its guests this way is beyond me. The mall is small, think local suburban shopping centre, and there is not a lot to see. The Information Centre was useful because it provided shelter while waiting for the return shuttle.

The trip did however provide us with something to eat and the opportunity to see the massive number of cars that were trying to access the Lake Louise public car park - which, as we passed by, had reached capacity - it may be a very long drive to then see nothing because you cannot park your vehicle.  Herein lies the monopoly enjoyed by the Chateau Fairmont Resort.  It has exclusive rights to the lake front and if you want to be guaranteed access to the lake, you pay accordingly or else you endure a tour company coach experience - not our idea of a good time.

A ground squirrel ... I think

Until tomorrow ...