Sunday 31st - Calgary

Hmmm back to the Scottish weather we’re used to - rain, rain and more rain oh well guess what that means shopping centre time! The only problem was getting to the shops as the C train was shut in the downtown area for maintenance so we had to find the shuttle bus to get us to the first operating station and then get the train to Chinook where the shopping we’d chosen to go to was. There must be about 20 different out of town centres we could have chosen but the larger ones you need a car to get to or to know the buses really well.

We had to check out this morning as we are moving to the Palliser tonight to join up with Princess. We left our bags at the hotel and headed off. The centre was deceivingly big on one side but the shops are just like at home. The food court area though had so much choice it was unbelievable everything from Sushi to Taco’s. Overwelmed by all the choice we ended up at the burger joint I went semi healthy and had a baked potato whilst Chris had a burger swimming in cheese sauce. Price was it was really cheap I think it was only about $8 for everything. Back to the shopping I was very restrained and only bought a $20 pair of shoes to replace the ones I had with me that were disintegrating! Chris found a Northface jacket the kind he’s been after for ages but the shop was useless and couldn’t price it up so wouldn’t sell it and the manager was due in again until Tuesday! - most strange. With a mega disappointed Chris we headed by to the Hyatt to pick our bags up.

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The Fairmont Palliser has a very grand lobby area but is much smaller than the other hotels as it one of the original town buildings. I think it is only 10 storeys max as oppose to the 20+ at the Hyatt. Room wise it was ok not as modern or as grand as the Hyatt we had 2 double beds instead of a super king for some reason and there was no view at all, unless you count the office blocks next door. The bar menu looked good but rather than stay in the hotel all night we decided to go for some drinks first. We had to be back for 8.30 for the welcome meeting so it was early doors when we headed out. Luckily by this point it had stopped raining but it was blimmin cold! First stop was one of the outdoor clothing shops to see if we could find Chris’s jacket and stop him moaning. Oh course sods law they didn’t have it in yet but I found a gorgeous grey furry fleece - Catherine you will be soooo jealous I feel the need to keep stroking myself! After spending lots of money on my new jumper we went for cocktails at Milestones accompanied by some sweet potato fries hmmmm. I should add the intention was to go back to the hotel for a light tea hence the snacks while drinking however as we never stick to plan we ended up a place called Earls further down the road and had a huge tea. The starter was well scrummy it was a spinach, artichoke and cheese dip served with toasted pita bread, we could have quite happily had this as a main meal but we didn’t we had pizza (Chris) and pasta (me) and ended up totally stuffed. Oh forgot to mention the numerous martinis to wash the meal down with think I was a bit tipsy by the end!

Back at the hotel we found the welcome meeting had been moved so we’d missed the first one the rep was supposed to be back around 10 for another one but never showed so we gave up and went to bed.

Saturday 30th - Calgary

Wow well we’ve had an energetic day! Rather than heading for the Calgary Highland games we headed for a walk along the elbow river and onto a place called Heritage Park. The Elbow River walkway is very much like the nicer bits of the Water of Leith and then some. The initial parts are very much walking through residential areas until you get further out into the suburbs where the river path is lined by some really nice houses all with private river access. A lot of the houses are very Colonial in style all large plots averaging 3 floors most with at least 2 doubles garages and heated paths and driveways. Price wise we think they were starting at around $600,000 Canadian Dollars for a 5 bed all ensuite, it’ll be interesting to compare this with Vancouver as it’s supposed to be a lot more cosmopolitin and more pricey. After walking about 12km we got to Heritage Park which is like a larger Canadian version of Beamish. As well as all the shop front replicas they were a few rides and attractions we ended up on the steam train, paddle boat steamer and the horse and carriage. It was well worth the money and a popular place for local families.

Needless to say our feet were aching by this point so it was a bus and train back to the hotel as we couldn’t face the 12km walk back! We’d also booked tea for 8 at Milestones where we were on Thursday so we had to watch our time.

Once rested, showered and changed we headed across the pathway for tea, it had started raining by this point so it was just as well we didn’t have far to go. We were slightly more restrained with the cocktails and rather than get a pitcher I had a few raspberry mojitos (which as it turns out would have been cheaper to buy a pitcher) and Chris had a couple of tropical concoctions. My tea was lovely - butternut squash ravioli, and Chris had meatloaf but something spicy in or on it made it slightly inedible for him.

Friday 29th - Calgary

Slight mix-up with the free breakie today, we thought it was on until 9:30 turns out it was only until 9 as we turned up at 9:05! Chris managed to persuade them to leave the bread and toaster out though so we got something. Luckily being the weekend tomorrow it’ll be on until 10 so not so much of a rush. Anyway after sorting ourselves out it was off for another wander around the city.

What we didn’t realise yesterday on our travels was that Calgary has a system of covered walkways called the +15. Basically they are enclosed walkways above the street level to avoid the traffic and noise of the roads. Anyway today we decided to try and get onto it and I can’t say we were particularly successful! We did however find the maze of shopping centres that are hidden between the walkways and various shop fronts. One of the centres has an indoor garden at the top of it called Devonia Gardens, with a variety of tropical plants and water features and some humongous fish!

After finding our way out of the shops (more difficult than it sounds!) we headed back towards Prince’s Island via the information centre which turned out to be an unmanned desk with a few local papers and leaflets, although we did find the free wifi spots and some frozen yoghurt ice creams like you get in NZ yum! Ice creams in hand we went to the park and sat in the sun for a bit and blogged away.

Forcing ourselves to get up we headed for Calgary Fort and definitely found the wrong side of town (and the salvation army) so there were down and outs everywhere but they didn’t bother you just freaked my out a little. Can’t say there was much to see at the Fort but there were lots of signs to read so that kept Chris amused for a while. The heat was really kicking in by this point and some liquid refreshment was required so we wandered back into town in the direction of the hotel. On the way we passed the Olympic Plaza, a park area with big water feature to commemorate the winter Olympics of 1988. It would have been a nice place for snacks but the café/bar faculties were limited so we found the Irish bar instead, can’t say it was what our idea of what an Irish bar is but they had Strongbow on tap so I was happy.

After being fed and watered we head back to the hotel and utilised the pool facilities - and yeah I know food and alcohol directly before swimming aren’t the best idea but hey ho. The evening canapés on offer tonight were rather scrummy they were kind of like mini puff pastry pizza rounds without cheese, so we polished off a few of them. We headed towards the trendy bars to see what they had to offer for tea but one menu wasn’t very inspiring and the other was blasting out the dance music and only had seats outside. We had a couple of drinks before we gave up and headed elsewhere. We ended up at a fancy Italian where I didn’t have much luck as first the wine I wanted they didn’t have any of and then the main course I wanted was off as well. I picked an alternative but the waiter chose to ignore me and brought something completely different! Still Chris’s was fine and what I ended up with was ok but I think it was a bit pricey for what it was.

Thursday 28th - Calgary

We ended up getting up fairly early today, the air-conditioning units are fairly noisy and can be heard through adjacent walls. We headed down for breakie which was very nice albeit a wee bit pricey, only to discover (after eating and getting it charged to our room) that the breakfast included in our room rate was not served in the restaurant but in the regency suite upstairs. As a result of this we found out well should have access to that floor and our cards got updated to access it. Other benefits of the suite are free tea, coffee, soft drinks and snacks, as well as canapés at teatime and a private bar.


Anyway after feeling decidedly bloated from the super huge breakfast we went for a wander around the Calgary armed with a map from reception which Chris took charge of as in his own words “my sense of direction is useless”! The city has a central pedestrianised street where most of the bars, shops and restaurants are, so we headed this way towards Prince’s Island Park which is a manmade island created by a chap called Peter Prince burrowing a channel through the city to aid his business however many years ago. It’s now part of a big wetlands project to help clean up storm water before it hit’s the river. There’s also a large picnic area a walks around the river banks. A lot of the river bank areas have been renovated so there’s walkways everywhere and various sculptures and monuments. It’s definitely the place to go jogging and cycling and even quite a few roller bladers and skateboarders. - Doh knew I should have bought my roller boots! On the wildlife front there’s lots of black squirrels which look quite eerie so we have a few photos just to prove we aren’t making it up. We also took a Ryan for a swim for the benefit of any BT bods reading this - he says he is enjoying his holiday very much and has lots of photo’s to show everyone.

From Prince’s Island we headed along the river path in the direction of the zoo. There was a minor scary moment as we passed by some druggies lighting up but the female joggers didn’t seem to bat an eyelid so we carried on. I have to say on the approach to the zoo and from the display maps it didn’t look huge, however, 4 hours later we took this though back. There was quite a lot of work going on in the zoo and various bits being refurbed, all the kids seem to get pushed/pulled around on go-cart trike things which were kind of groovy. We did quite a bit of walking around the zoo as the attractions were quite spaced out and there was a large botanics area with greenhouses - one of them with butterflies in but trying to photograph them was slightly tricky!

By the end of our treck which was probably a good 6km we were slightly knackered so we caught the C-Train back which are like the metro’s in Newcastle but a lot cheaper and the fare stages in the central downtown strip were free. Oh and they are kind of like trams in that downtown they run along tracks on the road which they share with buses.

Once safely reinstalled at the hotel (after some map reading once departing the train only to turn around and see the hotel right behind us!) we checked out the pool and hot tub which we had to ourselves. The pool was a tad cold to say the least so we spent most of the time in the hot tub!

As our cards were now fixed to get into the regency suite we thought it would be rude not to go and sample the canapés - oh and the cocktails of course!

………………some time later………

Hmm well the regency club was a bit of a let down, no complementary drinks (except tea, coffee and softies) and the savoury canapés were a bit limited, but there was a lot of yummy sweet things so I took upon myself to sample a scrummy dark chocolate mouse with a raspberry centre. Hmmmmmmmm. The other benefit of the suite is free internet access so we set up the techy side of this blog, and did email etc.

Back tracking to earlier we ended up having tea in a bar grill place called Milestones as it looked fairly popular and did posh pub grub as oppose to most of the other places that we a bit too fancy for what we wanted. The service here reminds of that in NZ where everyone is always asking you how you’re doing and what you’ve been up to and just generally a lot friendlier than the UK. After learning from last night we went for a main course only that turned out to be just the right size and was absolutely scrummy. They’re drinks list is called a ‘wish list’ and the cocktails on it are out of this world. We opted for a champagne cocktail each to start and shared a jug of Sangria for the meal. My cocktail tasted like a raspberry slush puppy and didn’t last very long! Chris being his usual self opted for a tropical mixture quite yucky to me but he seemed to enjoy it! After the drinks we were expecting quite a large bill but were pleasantly surprised and even got a 25% off voucher for the next visit which we both agreed we’ll use before we leave Calgary.

Wednesday 27th - Calgary

We arrived into Calgary around 6pm local time, the flight was about 8 and half hours which given our usual flight times to NZ that we‘ve under taken in the last couple of years it felt relatively short. As far as Fly globespan go the flight was fine and there was plenty of food to keep you going. Drinks were a little bit sparce but you get what you pay for. There was a baby seating in the seats next to us but it was very well behaved and either slept or breastfeed so peace and quiet all around.

Calgary airport is very similar to Edinburgh airport only slightly bigger, we sailed through immigration, and after picking our bags up which came off relatively quickly we walked through what I supposed was customs where a guy took our immigration forms from us and we were free to go. We ended up in a taxi from the airport as there didn’t seem to be a shuttle service to our hotel. Initial thoughts as we drove in were that Calgary was very industrial and quite sprawling, it didn’t fill us with confidence for it being a very nice city. We were also a bit sceptical as to whether the taxi driver was taking the long route round but in the end it cost what we’d been told to expect from the hotel website.

Once safely installed at the hotel we found our room on the 15th floor. It has floor to ceiling windows and a bathroom nearly double the size of ours at home!

Taking into account of the time difference which we figure to be about 7 hours we were feeling kind of knackered by this stage, however it was still a wee bit early local time so we headed down to the hotel bar for nacho’s and spring rolls. It was at the point that they brought them out we remembered portion sizes are somewhat larger this side of the world! Needless to say we didn’t make much of a dint in the nacho’s but polished off most of the spring rolls. It was also the first time I’d had to sign my ’new’ name and I can honestly say not something I’d practised so I ended up just printing it - I’ll have to practise some signatures later!

We had a wee look around the pool area before going to bed but couldn’t get into the regency suit to check it out but as I can’t remember what the room rate included we’ll have to check it out tomorrow. We also ended up having a few unplanned trips in the lift as you need to use your room key to operate the lift and if you’re not quick enough it whisks you away to where ever it has been called to! Any way by this point it’s now 9.30 and we can’t keep our keys open anymore so off to sleep in the super huge bed we have!

Welcome to Us

Welcome to our blog we thought it was about time we got round to setting one up and now we have a fairly reasonable reason for setting it up, here we are.

After the wedding festivities of the weekend we have to get used to the whole husband and wife thing and especially for me remembering to say Mrs Jennifer Griffiths when someone asks my name! I signed my 'new' name for the first time on Wednesday and unlike me I hadn't sat down and practised it, so I ended up just printing my name, I'm sure I'll come up with a suitable scrawl. You'll probably find it's me writing most of the blog as with most of these things the typical Christopher line is.. "but you're so much better at these things"..... so enough of my ramblings and on with the blog!