They say, "if you don't like the weather in Alberta, wait around 5 minutes and it'll change". In fact, walking back to the hotel today, I heard someone say exactly that.
And it's true.
Today we had glorious sunshine and 30C+ heat, then awesome thunder and lightening, then rain, then back to the 30C+ heat. Then more rain and thunder.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Today was always going to be about the Calgary Tower. It's the one thing that Sandra latched onto when I showed her pictures of Calgary. She really set her heart on it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calgary_Tower
It's 626 feet tall. There's an observation platform around 580 feet up. And I don't like heights. But what can you do? There's no point in flying 4000 miles and not going for it.
We queued for 2 hours and more. Why? Because Sandra wanted to go up it. And because we'd flown 4,000 miles, etc. In the last few yards before the lift, you get to the bit where you have to pay. I'd got it as about $25 for the two of us. No. There was no charge. Why? Because June 30, 2008, is the Tower's 40th anniversary, and admission was free. Well hey, that's gotta be worth it! So two hours of drudgery suddenly didn't seem too bad!
Stepping out of the lift at the top of the tower, for me, was kinda like a thump in the stomach. Looking down on buildings I'd only so far looked up at. But then... you can't travel 4000 miles, wait in a queue for over two hours, and then not stand on the transparent observation platform that reveals a sheer drop to the ground over 500 feet below... can you? (Check out the Flickr site to see whether I did it or not.)
Then we had some free food in the restaurant at the top of the tower, because they were just trying out some items off their new menu. Brilliant! A totally free and amazing experience.
After that we wandered around SE Calgary for a while, then stopped in a bar for a couple of beers (free Coke refills for Sandra, man alive today was a "free" day), before coming back to the hotel, getting changed, and going out for a meal (in the only Chinese restaurant I've ever been where they didn't give you chopsticks).
We're still fighting the jet lag a little (it's a bit mind-boggling to realise that, as we set down for breakfast, people in the UK are starting to think about finishing their working day). Sandra slept 14 hours last night, and still woke up feeling tired (that woman has a disease). She went to bed about an hour ago (about 10pm - or 5am body time), but I'm determined to stay up later to force my body into the new cycle.
Canada Day tomorrow, big parties and concerts on Prince's Island in the Bow River.
http://content.calgary.ca/CCA/City+Hall/Business+Units/Recreation/Events/Canada+Day+Celebrations/Canada+Day+Celebrations.htm
Free, you'll notice. Oh wow I love this country, they know how to have a good time.
Monday, 30 June 2008
Sunday, 29 June 2008
Day 1 - We're here, eh?
Tony picked us up as promised at 7am sharp - cheers, Toe - and we were checked in for our flight by 8:30. Then we tooled away the next two hours, and boarded on time... only to be told that there would be a slight delay while an engineer "fixed a problem with one of the engines". Now why don't they lie about stuff like that? The last thing I want to be thinking of, as we hurtle down the runway, is that half an hour before some grease monkey was doing a codge job on one of the engines. Could they just say he was fixing the windscreen wipers or something?
So we were an hour and a half late setting off. The flight was okay. 2.5 hours of looking down at cloud, then we hit the edge of Greenland (not literally)... mile after mile of jagged mountains sticking up through the snow like broken teeth; an awful yet fascinating land. This then petered out into flat plains of snow, then hour after hour of ice-packed sea. Then finally mainland Canada; the captain said we were flying in over Churchill, Manitoba (where the Polar Bears are), then over Saskatoon, then down to Calgary. The first hour or so of Canada - the Manitoba/Saskatchewan part - was just lake/swamp/lake/swamp (check it out on Google maps), and then we came in over the boreal forests of Alberta. You could almost see a line drawn on the ground where the forests became the prairies; suddenly this patchwork of square (or mostly square) fields appeared... mile after mile of them, as far as the eye could see, a seemingly unending carpet of flatness. And finally, after over 7 hours of flying, a road. Then another road. Then more nothing. Then a few more roads. Then, as we neared the centres of civilisation, you could see the roads criss-crossing like a massive noughts and crosses board. But it wasn't until we were on the last stages of our descent into Calgary that you actually saw any vehicles on those roads. It really brought home how awesomely empty the majority of this vast country is.
So we landed at 2pm local time, 9pm body time. The "White Hatters" at the airport welcomed Sandra with, "she's smiling, she must be a Spain fan" (Spain having just beaten Germany 1-0 in Euro 2008). We got our luggage, caught a taxi to the hotel, and were unpacked for 3:30.
Then we went for a bit of a wander around. Two things struck us straight away: (1) it's very clean and new-looking, and (2) it's very, very quiet. Yes, it's Sunday, and yes places are closed for the Canada Day weekend, but good grief, this is the biggest city in Alberta! We eventually came upon the Bow River, which separates downtown Calgary from... erm... the other part of Calgary, and walked along that a ways in the 30C heat (it's gorgeous weather today). Then we found an authentic Canadian Mexican restaurant (cough), ate half of the biggest plate of nachos I've ever seen, realised our body clocks thought it was now 1am, and decided to return to the room.
So far I've been walking around with a big goofy smile on my face. When we were driving in from the airport and I saw Calgary from a distance, I stupidly thought, "my gosh, it's just like on the internet!". To see something for real that I've only seen pictures of for 12 months is an awesome experience.
Everyone has been telling us that Canadians are a friendly bunch of people, and my experience so far hasn't contradicted that. The White Hatters at the airport, the guy on passport control, the taxi driver, the hotel staff, the girl who served us in the restaurant (I asked her what the city's plans were for Canada Day celebrations, she said, "oh mostly we just party")... they've all been really friendly.
My body is now telling me that it's 2am. I'm trying to stay awake as long as I can to counteract the jet lag, as it's only 6pm here (Sandra just gave up and went to bed... the bed is huge, the room is huge, I love this hotel).
I'm just gonna update the Flickr website with some pics I took today as we were walking around. Click on the link at the bottom of this blog to view them.
So we were an hour and a half late setting off. The flight was okay. 2.5 hours of looking down at cloud, then we hit the edge of Greenland (not literally)... mile after mile of jagged mountains sticking up through the snow like broken teeth; an awful yet fascinating land. This then petered out into flat plains of snow, then hour after hour of ice-packed sea. Then finally mainland Canada; the captain said we were flying in over Churchill, Manitoba (where the Polar Bears are), then over Saskatoon, then down to Calgary. The first hour or so of Canada - the Manitoba/Saskatchewan part - was just lake/swamp/lake/swamp (check it out on Google maps), and then we came in over the boreal forests of Alberta. You could almost see a line drawn on the ground where the forests became the prairies; suddenly this patchwork of square (or mostly square) fields appeared... mile after mile of them, as far as the eye could see, a seemingly unending carpet of flatness. And finally, after over 7 hours of flying, a road. Then another road. Then more nothing. Then a few more roads. Then, as we neared the centres of civilisation, you could see the roads criss-crossing like a massive noughts and crosses board. But it wasn't until we were on the last stages of our descent into Calgary that you actually saw any vehicles on those roads. It really brought home how awesomely empty the majority of this vast country is.
So we landed at 2pm local time, 9pm body time. The "White Hatters" at the airport welcomed Sandra with, "she's smiling, she must be a Spain fan" (Spain having just beaten Germany 1-0 in Euro 2008). We got our luggage, caught a taxi to the hotel, and were unpacked for 3:30.
Then we went for a bit of a wander around. Two things struck us straight away: (1) it's very clean and new-looking, and (2) it's very, very quiet. Yes, it's Sunday, and yes places are closed for the Canada Day weekend, but good grief, this is the biggest city in Alberta! We eventually came upon the Bow River, which separates downtown Calgary from... erm... the other part of Calgary, and walked along that a ways in the 30C heat (it's gorgeous weather today). Then we found an authentic Canadian Mexican restaurant (cough), ate half of the biggest plate of nachos I've ever seen, realised our body clocks thought it was now 1am, and decided to return to the room.
So far I've been walking around with a big goofy smile on my face. When we were driving in from the airport and I saw Calgary from a distance, I stupidly thought, "my gosh, it's just like on the internet!". To see something for real that I've only seen pictures of for 12 months is an awesome experience.
Everyone has been telling us that Canadians are a friendly bunch of people, and my experience so far hasn't contradicted that. The White Hatters at the airport, the guy on passport control, the taxi driver, the hotel staff, the girl who served us in the restaurant (I asked her what the city's plans were for Canada Day celebrations, she said, "oh mostly we just party")... they've all been really friendly.
My body is now telling me that it's 2am. I'm trying to stay awake as long as I can to counteract the jet lag, as it's only 6pm here (Sandra just gave up and went to bed... the bed is huge, the room is huge, I love this hotel).
I'm just gonna update the Flickr website with some pics I took today as we were walking around. Click on the link at the bottom of this blog to view them.
Saturday, 28 June 2008
Ready
Mmmkay, all packed (mostly by Sandra), got all my techno gear, cameras and whatnot packed too. Got all the leads and extensions and USB stuff and chargers and my laptop and all that great stuff sorted out. The "blokey-bloke" stuff.
Haha got the gonk too.
Kinda nervous to be honest. I was reading some old emails today I'd sent to my mate Jeff when we first started talking about holidays in Canada. We were discussing various aspects of the trips we were going to make (this was before he ended up having to cancel his plans). Our flight was booked in August last year. I booked our tickets to the Calgary Stampede, as well as our hotel in Calgary, in September. This whole undertaking has been the best part of a year in the planning, and now here we are, just a few hours away from my mate Tony picking us up and taking us to the airport.
In fact... this time tomorrow, we will be landing at Calgary.
It's an awesome thought, and I'm quite daunted by it. It's unreal. All the places I've read about, all the things I've researched, it's all just 24 hours away.
I hope it all comes together. She'll kill me if it doesn't.
You can track the weather where we are from here:
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/caab0049
And you can track the roads we'll be travelling on from here:
http://www.ama.ab.ca/road_report/camera/camera_station_main.htm
Next update will be from The Great White North!
Haha got the gonk too.
Kinda nervous to be honest. I was reading some old emails today I'd sent to my mate Jeff when we first started talking about holidays in Canada. We were discussing various aspects of the trips we were going to make (this was before he ended up having to cancel his plans). Our flight was booked in August last year. I booked our tickets to the Calgary Stampede, as well as our hotel in Calgary, in September. This whole undertaking has been the best part of a year in the planning, and now here we are, just a few hours away from my mate Tony picking us up and taking us to the airport.
In fact... this time tomorrow, we will be landing at Calgary.
It's an awesome thought, and I'm quite daunted by it. It's unreal. All the places I've read about, all the things I've researched, it's all just 24 hours away.
I hope it all comes together. She'll kill me if it doesn't.
You can track the weather where we are from here:
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/caab0049
And you can track the roads we'll be travelling on from here:
http://www.ama.ab.ca/road_report/camera/camera_station_main.htm
Next update will be from The Great White North!
Monday, 23 June 2008
All falling together
When I started planning this holiday, I realised that there were a lot of festivals going on in Alberta about the time we would be there. So I worked the dates and the itinerary around these festivals, trying to hit as many of them as (a) I could, and (b) was sensible. I'd booked everything over the internet with the exception of tickets to the PeaceFest in Peace River. We were half and half about getting tickets to this, because it's going to be at the end of an extremely long day's driving (our longest day's driving, actually, approx 7.5 hours, not including stops to dig moose out of the front of our vehicle). But it works out at £20 per ticket each, and in the scheme of things that's not so much.
The only way to get the tickets seemed to be to phone up, and I don't like phoning people up. But then I dug around on the PeaceFest www, and found an email address. I dropped them a mail, and bingo, tickets booked! And they're helpfully going to drop the tickets off at our hotel for us, rather than having to post them to England.
So it's all coming together, that's the last thing booked and sorted. This time next week...
The only way to get the tickets seemed to be to phone up, and I don't like phoning people up. But then I dug around on the PeaceFest www, and found an email address. I dropped them a mail, and bingo, tickets booked! And they're helpfully going to drop the tickets off at our hotel for us, rather than having to post them to England.
So it's all coming together, that's the last thing booked and sorted. This time next week...
Sunday, 22 June 2008
Dave and Sandra's "Big Things In Alberta" Tour 2008 - A week to go...
I've been bleating on about this holiday to Canada for almost a year now, and I thought I'd bored everybody witless with it. However, a number of people have asked if I'm going to be putting pictures and whatnot up on the interweb as we travel around, and also asking if I'll be keeping them up to date with our progress. So I thought I'd give it a shot, and set up this blog (ordinarily I hate blogs, but I won't hate this blog cos it's mine, it'll be ace and way better than anyone else's blog).
I've also got a picture site set up, so if you click on this link here:
you will see pictures as and when I load them up (careful because it doesn't open up a new window). I should probably be more joined up in my blog/picture arena, but I'm doing all this last minute so it's a bit pants, sorry.
Anyway, the plan is almost 3 weeks in Alberta, Canada. We fly to Calgary, spend a few days there, with day trips to Drumheller and Vulcan. Then we start our tour in earnest, heading to Medicine Hat, Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, Canmore (where we are going to be based for a few days, taking in Banff, Lake Louise, etc), Jasper, then all the way up to Peace River, back down to Edmonton, and finally back to Calgary. We'll be hitting four different festivals - Canada Day, the Calgary Stampede, Peace River PeaceFest and Edmonton's Capital Ex (formerly known as Klondike Days). Not to mention the "Oh Canada, eh?" show in Canmore. We'll be travelling in excess of 1500 miles, and stopping in 8 different hotels.
I have a list of "big things to see in Alberta" as long as my arm, and I'll be ticking them off as we go (much to Sandra's consternation, I'm sure). These include the T-Rex in Drumheller, the spaceship in Vulcan, a giant boot, a giant pinto bean, a huge bee, the biggest teepee in the world, and Henry "12 foot" Davis.
It's gonna be mint.
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