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 13ยบ 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 |
No comments:
Post a Comment