Tuesday, September 14, 2004
big Banff blow-out!
P reports on our 'summer holidays' (also known as a weekend in Banff)...
Okay - its a bit out of date by now and we have no excuse (except laziness) for not updating you on this year's summer hols. We didn't get away to our little Greek oasis this year, and although I didn't work for 6 weeks after we got to Canada, I think that both of us have really felt the lack of a 'get away from it all' holiday in 2004. We got here on 21st June, and we then spent the two weeks before J started work in getting furniture, miscellaneous house contents, house insurance, a car (and all the associated official paperwork), social insurance numbers etc etc. Anyone who's been in the house expresses surprise at the fact that it is reasonably complete and comfortable - but believe me, it took a lot of very hard work in a very short period of time. So, for the September 'long weekend', I decided that we would go somewhere, stay in a hotel, eat in good restaurants, and in general, have a lovely time. Given that this was our first real excursion to 'stay' somewhere, we thought we'd head to Banff. Distance wise, its a bit like choosing to take a holiday from Belfast to Derry, but scenery wise, its a little more spectacular than Dungiven and the Glenshane Pass.
As you know, the Friday we headed off was a bit of a disaster, as a stupid woman managed to reverse her 'van' into the front of our Honda Civic (busted bonnet, busted radiator grill, busted bumper, busted air conditioning condenser etc) and, as we weren't sure at that stage whether the car was fit to drive, we thought we should hire a car. Handily enough, there's a hire place just five minutes drive from here - we ended up with a Toyota Echo for the weekend. It was cheap (£12 per day), drove reasonably well, but was a little basic compared to the Civic...
Here is a pic of the Toyota with some very spectacular mountains...(more about those later)
Anyway, we eventually got off to Banff at about 4.30pm on Friday - having loaded up the car with clothing ranging from swimming costumes, hiking boots, fleeces, waterproofs, jumpers, hats, gloves etc etc. The weather has been a little unpredictable (much to the consternation of Calgarians who are very perturbed about the fact that the grass is still green), so we thought we'd play safe with the wardrobe choices. As Mr White had been on call the night before, I drove to Banff while he snoozed a bit in the passenger seat. Thankfully, the drive was uneventful but pretty scenic...
This is a view of some of the mountains just outside Canmore, which is on the way to Banff. They're called 'The Three Sisters' and are pretty spectacular...
and this is the view along the TransCanada Highway, going towards Banff - can you see the fresh snow on the mountains??
Anyway, a drive of about 90 minutes took us to our destination - the Ptarmigan Hotel on Banff Avenue. Banff Avenue is the main drag in town, and as you drive into Banff, you start off with a strip of hotels which eventually turns into a street of shops and restaurants. Sounds pretty tacky, but if I tell you that each end of the street is bordered by a reasonably large mountain, it starts to sound a little better. The Ptarmigan was reasonable - the main attraction being that it was just about the closest hotel to the street of shops and restaurants...
This is the outside of the hotel...
The inside was okay, but not much to write home about. The rooms weren't terribly big (but perhaps we're spoiled by the monster bedroom that we inhabit in Tuscarora Way!), and the bed was a little like a hammock. The funniest bit was the bathroom - which I think might be the darkest bathroom I've ever been in. It had some light bulbs (approx 40 watt I think) above the sink but there was no overhead light. This was okay until you got in the shower and closed the curtain, and plunged into complete darkness - a bit strange to say the least. Anyway, we had paid for location, and you couldn't really have asked for better on that score. Once we had dragged the monster bag (full of fleeces, coats, boots, hats etc) in, we wandered out in search of something to eat. Banff certainly spoils you for choice - its such a big tourist destination that there are restaurants of all shapes, sizes and culinary persuasions. After a bit of deliberation, we ended up in the Grizzly House - a fondue restaurant!
We ended up sharing a bagna cauda (anchovies, garlic in hot olive oil on a pot on the table) with a big selection of fresh vegetables which you then cook in the pot on the table, followed by a classic hot oil fondue. I got a plate of raw beef and assorted sauces, while Mr White opted for the plate of raw wild boar, caribou and elk. The idea is that you cook each piece of meat in the little cauldron of hot oil on your table, and once its cooked to your liking, you take it out, put it on your side plate till it cools, and then dip it in the sauces that came with the meat. It was great fun, and as the restaurant was buzzing, the atmosphere was great. Mr White then finished off with icecream and melted toblerone (I helped!).
Next day saw us having a very lazy late breakfast/lunch in a tapas bar - strange, but true!
This was followed by a big adventure on the Banff Gondola. The Banff Gondola is a cable car that runs up Sulphur Mountain just on the edge of town. When you get up to the top, there are great views, but the Gondola is not to be recommended if you have even the slightest fear of heights...
The following pictures will give you some idea why I say that...
And yes, in the last picture, I probably do look a little tense as we've probably just bumped over a cable carrying tower...
Well, the views from the top of the mountain were definitely worth the clenched teeth on the way up. There was fresh snow on the tops of the surrounding mountains, and a little snow on the top of Sulphur Mountain itself (thank goodness we had had the foresight to pack the fleeces and hats in the rucksack!)
Having mooched around the top of the mountain and gazed at Banff from above...
we then took the mad notion of walking down the mountain! This was easier said than done as the top path was very muddy owing to the melted snow, but it firmed up as we got further down. We didn't encounter too many other people walking down, but we did come across a little creature sitting in a rock...
He wasn't too worried about having his picture taken - I suspect that he just wanted us to get out of his way so that he could go about his business of finding more food stores for the winter (very sensible!). Anyway, it took about an hour and a half to get all the way down the mountain, and when we finally got down, we encountered a sign that said we had come down a path that was 3 and half miles, with a drop in elevation of 2500 feet...
I don't know if you can make this out, but the yellow line is the cable car line, while the red dotted zig zag line is where we walked...
The big attraction at the bottom of the mountain is the hot springs - which I'm told are a great hit in the winter. You can sit in the pool in water heated to 38 degrees C, and because the air temperature is minus something, the steam makes your eyelashes frost up - can't wait!
Dinner on Saturday evening was the big blow-out. Ruth, who works in my office, had recommended a restaurant called Le Beaujolais - at the top end of the town... Its a very nice place, which manages to pull off fantastic service in lovely surroundings, without being snooty. We decided to push the boat out (combination of it being our hols, with J's birthday) and we ordered the six course surprise menu with wine (not cheap at CAD$140 each - but definitely worth every cent). The nice thing about a surprise menu is that it takes all responsibility out of your hands. They bring you 6 courses, and a glass of wine with every course. The wines are chosen to complement each course, and while I was a little sceptical, I have to admit that it worked extremely well. So, what did we have? Well, here goes...
carpaccio of salmon and seabass with a dill and orange dressing (with a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc)
tuna consomme with a halibut cheek (with a Canadian Chardonnay)
breast of quail with apple and wild rice (with a Pinot Noir)
sorbet (no wine)
fillet steak with steamed vegetables (with a french red)
cheese selection (with 80 year old port)
peach tarte tatin (with a white dessert wine)
petits fours (with coffee)
(apparently the sorbet and petits fours don't count as courses).
The portions were judged just right - so we didn't have to be rolled back to the hotel, but equally, we knew we'd had a pretty good dinner. The food was excellent, the waiter was lovely (from New Zealand and worried about the cold of the forthcoming winter), and we both reckoned that it was the best meal that we had ever eaten in a restaurant... (plus the most wine that we'd ever drunk in a restaurant!!).
Surprisingly enough, the next morning dawned bright and clear, and we headed up the road towards Jasper on the Icefields Parkway. We didn't get as far as Jasper, but we did take in some amazing sights...
For example, this is Moraine Lake and surrounding mountains (near Lake Louise)...
This is another lake.... called Peyto Lake (don't know who the people are - there was a bus tour there at the same time as we were)
By the way, we haven't done anything to enhance the colour of these pictures - the lakes are actually a really weird turquoise colour, which is caused by glacier meltwater.
The glaciers are fantastic - here's one that you can see from the Icefields Parkway...
So that's about it... apart from a mention of the photographer for the trip...
and yes- he did travel with a variety of hats!!
We made it home on Sunday evening, and then had Monday to kick around the house before venturing back to work on Tuesday.
Tuesday saw the car going in for its assessment, and as you know, the body shop guys reckoned that it would cost approx CAD$4000 to fix, but the other news was that it was driveable. When we heard that, the Echo went back to its hire place, and the Civic was back on the road...
Its now Tuesday 14th September, and the Civic has been in the body shop for 48 hours. We're now on our next hire car, which is an 8 seater van (yes, you did read correctly - an 8 seater...). It would do very well as a shuttle bus.... We think that its the longest vehicle we've ever driven, and while its fine if you go forwards, its a complete bugger to reverse. The other issue is that it just about fits in the garage...pictures to follow very soon!
More later
P
Okay - its a bit out of date by now and we have no excuse (except laziness) for not updating you on this year's summer hols. We didn't get away to our little Greek oasis this year, and although I didn't work for 6 weeks after we got to Canada, I think that both of us have really felt the lack of a 'get away from it all' holiday in 2004. We got here on 21st June, and we then spent the two weeks before J started work in getting furniture, miscellaneous house contents, house insurance, a car (and all the associated official paperwork), social insurance numbers etc etc. Anyone who's been in the house expresses surprise at the fact that it is reasonably complete and comfortable - but believe me, it took a lot of very hard work in a very short period of time. So, for the September 'long weekend', I decided that we would go somewhere, stay in a hotel, eat in good restaurants, and in general, have a lovely time. Given that this was our first real excursion to 'stay' somewhere, we thought we'd head to Banff. Distance wise, its a bit like choosing to take a holiday from Belfast to Derry, but scenery wise, its a little more spectacular than Dungiven and the Glenshane Pass.
As you know, the Friday we headed off was a bit of a disaster, as a stupid woman managed to reverse her 'van' into the front of our Honda Civic (busted bonnet, busted radiator grill, busted bumper, busted air conditioning condenser etc) and, as we weren't sure at that stage whether the car was fit to drive, we thought we should hire a car. Handily enough, there's a hire place just five minutes drive from here - we ended up with a Toyota Echo for the weekend. It was cheap (£12 per day), drove reasonably well, but was a little basic compared to the Civic...
Here is a pic of the Toyota with some very spectacular mountains...(more about those later)
Anyway, we eventually got off to Banff at about 4.30pm on Friday - having loaded up the car with clothing ranging from swimming costumes, hiking boots, fleeces, waterproofs, jumpers, hats, gloves etc etc. The weather has been a little unpredictable (much to the consternation of Calgarians who are very perturbed about the fact that the grass is still green), so we thought we'd play safe with the wardrobe choices. As Mr White had been on call the night before, I drove to Banff while he snoozed a bit in the passenger seat. Thankfully, the drive was uneventful but pretty scenic...
This is a view of some of the mountains just outside Canmore, which is on the way to Banff. They're called 'The Three Sisters' and are pretty spectacular...
and this is the view along the TransCanada Highway, going towards Banff - can you see the fresh snow on the mountains??
Anyway, a drive of about 90 minutes took us to our destination - the Ptarmigan Hotel on Banff Avenue. Banff Avenue is the main drag in town, and as you drive into Banff, you start off with a strip of hotels which eventually turns into a street of shops and restaurants. Sounds pretty tacky, but if I tell you that each end of the street is bordered by a reasonably large mountain, it starts to sound a little better. The Ptarmigan was reasonable - the main attraction being that it was just about the closest hotel to the street of shops and restaurants...
This is the outside of the hotel...
The inside was okay, but not much to write home about. The rooms weren't terribly big (but perhaps we're spoiled by the monster bedroom that we inhabit in Tuscarora Way!), and the bed was a little like a hammock. The funniest bit was the bathroom - which I think might be the darkest bathroom I've ever been in. It had some light bulbs (approx 40 watt I think) above the sink but there was no overhead light. This was okay until you got in the shower and closed the curtain, and plunged into complete darkness - a bit strange to say the least. Anyway, we had paid for location, and you couldn't really have asked for better on that score. Once we had dragged the monster bag (full of fleeces, coats, boots, hats etc) in, we wandered out in search of something to eat. Banff certainly spoils you for choice - its such a big tourist destination that there are restaurants of all shapes, sizes and culinary persuasions. After a bit of deliberation, we ended up in the Grizzly House - a fondue restaurant!
We ended up sharing a bagna cauda (anchovies, garlic in hot olive oil on a pot on the table) with a big selection of fresh vegetables which you then cook in the pot on the table, followed by a classic hot oil fondue. I got a plate of raw beef and assorted sauces, while Mr White opted for the plate of raw wild boar, caribou and elk. The idea is that you cook each piece of meat in the little cauldron of hot oil on your table, and once its cooked to your liking, you take it out, put it on your side plate till it cools, and then dip it in the sauces that came with the meat. It was great fun, and as the restaurant was buzzing, the atmosphere was great. Mr White then finished off with icecream and melted toblerone (I helped!).
Next day saw us having a very lazy late breakfast/lunch in a tapas bar - strange, but true!
This was followed by a big adventure on the Banff Gondola. The Banff Gondola is a cable car that runs up Sulphur Mountain just on the edge of town. When you get up to the top, there are great views, but the Gondola is not to be recommended if you have even the slightest fear of heights...
The following pictures will give you some idea why I say that...
And yes, in the last picture, I probably do look a little tense as we've probably just bumped over a cable carrying tower...
Well, the views from the top of the mountain were definitely worth the clenched teeth on the way up. There was fresh snow on the tops of the surrounding mountains, and a little snow on the top of Sulphur Mountain itself (thank goodness we had had the foresight to pack the fleeces and hats in the rucksack!)
Having mooched around the top of the mountain and gazed at Banff from above...
we then took the mad notion of walking down the mountain! This was easier said than done as the top path was very muddy owing to the melted snow, but it firmed up as we got further down. We didn't encounter too many other people walking down, but we did come across a little creature sitting in a rock...
He wasn't too worried about having his picture taken - I suspect that he just wanted us to get out of his way so that he could go about his business of finding more food stores for the winter (very sensible!). Anyway, it took about an hour and a half to get all the way down the mountain, and when we finally got down, we encountered a sign that said we had come down a path that was 3 and half miles, with a drop in elevation of 2500 feet...
I don't know if you can make this out, but the yellow line is the cable car line, while the red dotted zig zag line is where we walked...
The big attraction at the bottom of the mountain is the hot springs - which I'm told are a great hit in the winter. You can sit in the pool in water heated to 38 degrees C, and because the air temperature is minus something, the steam makes your eyelashes frost up - can't wait!
Dinner on Saturday evening was the big blow-out. Ruth, who works in my office, had recommended a restaurant called Le Beaujolais - at the top end of the town... Its a very nice place, which manages to pull off fantastic service in lovely surroundings, without being snooty. We decided to push the boat out (combination of it being our hols, with J's birthday) and we ordered the six course surprise menu with wine (not cheap at CAD$140 each - but definitely worth every cent). The nice thing about a surprise menu is that it takes all responsibility out of your hands. They bring you 6 courses, and a glass of wine with every course. The wines are chosen to complement each course, and while I was a little sceptical, I have to admit that it worked extremely well. So, what did we have? Well, here goes...
carpaccio of salmon and seabass with a dill and orange dressing (with a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc)
tuna consomme with a halibut cheek (with a Canadian Chardonnay)
breast of quail with apple and wild rice (with a Pinot Noir)
sorbet (no wine)
fillet steak with steamed vegetables (with a french red)
cheese selection (with 80 year old port)
peach tarte tatin (with a white dessert wine)
petits fours (with coffee)
(apparently the sorbet and petits fours don't count as courses).
The portions were judged just right - so we didn't have to be rolled back to the hotel, but equally, we knew we'd had a pretty good dinner. The food was excellent, the waiter was lovely (from New Zealand and worried about the cold of the forthcoming winter), and we both reckoned that it was the best meal that we had ever eaten in a restaurant... (plus the most wine that we'd ever drunk in a restaurant!!).
Surprisingly enough, the next morning dawned bright and clear, and we headed up the road towards Jasper on the Icefields Parkway. We didn't get as far as Jasper, but we did take in some amazing sights...
For example, this is Moraine Lake and surrounding mountains (near Lake Louise)...
This is another lake.... called Peyto Lake (don't know who the people are - there was a bus tour there at the same time as we were)
By the way, we haven't done anything to enhance the colour of these pictures - the lakes are actually a really weird turquoise colour, which is caused by glacier meltwater.
The glaciers are fantastic - here's one that you can see from the Icefields Parkway...
So that's about it... apart from a mention of the photographer for the trip...
and yes- he did travel with a variety of hats!!
We made it home on Sunday evening, and then had Monday to kick around the house before venturing back to work on Tuesday.
Tuesday saw the car going in for its assessment, and as you know, the body shop guys reckoned that it would cost approx CAD$4000 to fix, but the other news was that it was driveable. When we heard that, the Echo went back to its hire place, and the Civic was back on the road...
Its now Tuesday 14th September, and the Civic has been in the body shop for 48 hours. We're now on our next hire car, which is an 8 seater van (yes, you did read correctly - an 8 seater...). It would do very well as a shuttle bus.... We think that its the longest vehicle we've ever driven, and while its fine if you go forwards, its a complete bugger to reverse. The other issue is that it just about fits in the garage...pictures to follow very soon!
More later
P
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