Day 14

To the Rockies!!

It was still very windy in the morning, although the weather was fine and, we hoped, the storms past or behind us, or wherever they were! The park looked beautiful in the sunshine and we firstly took a ride around the Buffalo Paddock, where several buffalo were sitting around, with their young. "Stay in your car!"

We then headed off towards Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo-Jump. For some reason, I had woken up with the hump and this was not improving. I was really crotchety by the time we reached HSIBJ. I guess that all the travelling had caught up with me and I was tired - but that was no excuse for being such a sour-puss! We took the little bus up to the visitor center. We didn't stay all that long - just long enough for a quick look around and to buy T-shirts (though not for me).

Then we walked back to the car and continued on towards Calgary.

The Calgary Stampede had started only the day before (I certainly hadn't planned it that way!) - and, as we had to drive right through the centre of Calgary, before turning off for Banff, we expected a lot of traffic. The traffic wasn't that bad though - but we still managed to lose our way a bit! We didn't mind too much being lost though, as the sunshine was glorious and we were making decent time anyway. We parked down by the river for a little while, but the area appeared to be a little bit dodgy, so we didn't linger!

Finally, out of Calgary, we headed towards Banff National Park. It was so beautiful!

Our hotel, the Juniper, was easy enough to find and our room was lovely. It was a pity that there was no lift and we had to drag all the bags up the stairs - but other than that (oh and that the air-conditioning took a bit of working out and our room was boiling!), all was quite perfect! Our room contained one queen bed and two singles - all with fine linens and those faux suede covers. We had a balcony which looked out over the town of Banff, the mountains and a small lake (and the highway!) and there was free internet. What more could you ask?

We decided to drive down into the town, as it looked a fair walk. It was a pity that, before we went out, we hadn't used our mozzy spray. We were going to suffer for that!! We had no problems with parking (just along the high street!), but we had problems finding an ATM machine which would accept a Visa card. Finally, we realised that Canada didn't like Visa cards! No problem - we had plenty of others!! So, we had money and now we could go shopping!! We shopped until the shops shut at 10! I dunno what we bought - all sorts! Salmon and maple syrup and a fleece (this time, for me!) and moose and cd's and postcards and ice-creams and stuff! Oh an inukshuk! (Really just a bunch of stones, glued together!).

By the time we got back to the hotel, we were tired out! (And we each, apart from Paul, who never gets bitten, it seems, had more mozzy bites, but we wouldn't notice those until morning ....)

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[ Introduction ] [ Day 1 ] [ Day 2 ] [ Day 3 ] [ Day 4 ] [ Day 5 ] [ Day 6 ] [ Day 7 ] [ Day 8 ] [ Day 9 ]
[ Day 10 ] [ Day 11 ] [ Day 12 ] [ Day 13 ] [ Day 14 ] [ Day 15 ] [ Day 16 ] [ Day 17 ]
[ Day 18 ] [ Day 19 ] [ Day 20 ] [ Day 21 ]

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