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.