Marita goes Walkabout

From Lake Louise I travelled with Brewster Express to Calgary via Banff. Banff is like Jasper, a tourist town, but even more so. It is bigger and full of hotels and guesthouses. I had an hour long wait here at the bus station, which was modern, clean and had a nice café. Soon after Banff we left the Rockies behind and were out on the Prairie, where it is pretty flat.... all the way to Toronto. Calgary is a nice city, clean and with a lovely walkway along the river. This sculpture is called "Conversation". This is part of a group that includes a woman holding a Journal from 18 October 1929, saying: "Women are persons...." I have seen this in several places now, a large shallow splash pool where children play with the water when it is hot. There is lawn on the side and mothers sit there with their kids, babies in strollers, having picnics etc. It was right near here where a young man in a wheelchair didn't quite manage to get onto the pave...

Apologies.... I have been so busy, there has just been no time to blog... :( On Monday morning, this is Monday the 11th of June, I got up and found the sun shining through the clouds and the mountains visible. AND there was snow on the mountains, a dusting of new, fresh snow! Beautiful. Same town but so different from the day before. See the little black nob on the mountain? That is where the "sky train" goes. (we would call it a cable car) I was planning on going up there the day before but because of the low cloud and as I now know, the fact that it was snowing, it would not have been worth it as I would not have seeing anything. Yeah.... sadly these were the only type of bear I saw in the Rockies. The Brewster bus picked me up at 1:35pm and off we went to Lake Louise. It was a lovely drive with amazing views.  Columbia Icefield. We stopped here for a bathroom break and a bit of a look-...

Rain, rain and more rain. It's been raining all day. One of those grey blankets that just never stop piddling. You cannot see anything of the mountains. Wanted to go up the mountain by Sky Tram but that would just be a waste. Wanted to go for a walk but having grown up in the desert, I may rust if I get too wet. :) So I went for a walk through town and then settled down in the restaurant with a cup of coffee and my kindle. Some pictures from my walk through town: The Athabasca where I am staying That is actually a big mountain there in the background.

I have always wanted to cross Canada from west to east by train. I looked into the Rocky Mountaineer, which is a luxury travel option that takes about a week. Travel on the train by day and sleep in hotels at night. Weeeelll… do I want to do this for a week or do I want to see the world? When all I have is a shoestring... So, Via Rail Canada it is. And bad it really isn't. The station in Vancouver (where I also arrived on Wednesday) is pretty and clean and well managed. The train is clean and comfortable. The windows are big and clean so you can see the views and take pictures. There is even a viewing car. And best of all, the train was not very full so everyone could spread out. The toilet was kept clean and was 2x the size of a plane toilet. The only drawback was that there was a family with a 4-year old and a baby. The baby was crying a lot the first 2 hours but then it went to sleep and slept right through the night. Only started fussing again lunchtime the next day. All in a...