Banff (& Calgary)

It was an easy 1 hr drive from Lake Louise to Banff. We initially headed towards the Bow Valley Parkway, being the more picturesque route. In reality it ran on one side of the Bow River with Highway 1 running the other side of the river. We only went a couple of hundred metres on the Parkway and decided it was possibly not the wisest choice. The road had not been ploughed at all, and we just didnt want to have any problems. The snow was about 6" thick, and we had read it was snowing more, closer to Banff. Another decider was that on the previous day, we had seen a car completely stuck as the whole front wheel arch was bogged with snow. We didnt need that! So we headed back to the main Highway.

Banff is such a great town. A decent size and it felt like a move set. We strolled the streets, did a little shopping and found a decent coffee... always a winner :-)

We also loved how close the mountains were to the town.

Again we booked to stay at the Fairmont Hotel. This time the Banff Springs. This was as we were arriving. It certainly makes a statement.

The lobby was like a James Bond movie of the past...

The view from our room.... this time overlooking the Bow River Valley. Incredible huh!

We didnt let the -8C temp stop us from walking down to the Bow River Falls, below the hotel.

Bow River Falls.

A 'lil panorama

Guess who forgot their gloves?

Looking back up to the main building ofthe hotel.

The hotel is a large complex of incredible buildings. It was the 4 month stay, summer break, for the wealthy in the '20's & 30's. When they arrived they apparently had to provide a credit note for no less that $30,000. Alot of dosh for those days!

Posers!

After a drink in the bar to 'warm up' it was then out to the other side of the main building for some window shopping. On the right in this pic is an octagonal white building. We at dinner here. It is called Costello and my initial impression as we arrived was that it looked like a white costello cheese. Nice dinner but kept forgetting to take foodie pics till we had eaten :-)

The view not long before dark. It just seemed to glow a deep blue....

We left early the next morning to allow enough time for hold ups on the road. We were facing a 130km drive they said takes about 1.5 hrs in summer. We were unsure what the roads would be like. Check out the temp check I did on my phone before we headed out!!!

As it turned out, the highway was pretty good. This photo is close to Calgary where both lanes were clear and dry. In the early sections it was cleared one lane though still icy. We were disappointed when we finally left the mountains and the land flattened out towards Calgary. We made it to the airport with a couple of hrs to spare but we did have to do USA immigration here. Unfortunately once the plane pushed out from the gate, they announced delays in San Fran and that they were going to park for 20 mins or so. Well that ended up become 1.5 hrs of delay with people getting tetchy about missing connecting flights. Apparently San Fran was having weather problems and had stopped all planes in and out. We arrived in SF safely and thats all that matters in the end. We were just glad we werent trying to connect immediately to our flight home. We have 24 hrs in SF before that flight.