I wake about six thirty and with bleary eyes I walk to and open the curtains. I shout out to my fellow traveller to wake up and take a look. We get the cameras for a quick picture, and dress quickly to go down to the lakeside.
The sight of the lake with the early morning sun shining is truly awesome. Even at this hour we can spot the small red canoes paddling away in the distance toward the glacier.
As we are standing outside many other people have strolled out, there are people walking their dogs here too. We return to the room to get ready for breakfast. The queue waiting to be seated at the breakfast room is stretching a long way towards the lobby. The majority of the people have identification badges, so it is likely they are on a guided trip. I walk past the Lakeview lounge, where we did not have the cocktails last night, and take a picture through the arched window.
Go to breakfast now. Very good spread. Our server introduced herself, and whilst leaning over pouring the coffee apologised for her voice, “I am not feeling very well” with a cough. She tries to engage us in conversation whilst we have a mouth full of breakfast. “Where are you from” she enquires, “Wales” we respond. “Oh, I have never heard of that” she replies and then asks us where we are headed today. We reply Canmore. She tries to describe Canmore to us, using Michigan as a baseline reference to try and give us an indication of the town’s size. She tries Detroit as the first point of reference. I reply that I have not been to Detroit or anywhere near it. The comparison seems to come to an end now. She tries another line of conversation, and my travelling companion, becoming increasingly frustrated at her breakfast getting colder asks her politely to sling her hook, not quite those words I must add.
We return to the room. On the way we notice that there is rubbish in the corridors, used tissues, cotton buds, bits of paper and wrappers and the cleaning staff have their carts in the corridor and are walking past the mess. There is a general air of couldn’t care less I am afraid to say. We pack and go to check out. The lady at the desk asks with a smile “Did you enjoy your stay with us”. Bad mistake. I let her know my feelings, whilst trying to remain calm. I made comparison to another of the hotels we stayed at in their group and said that maybe they should let the staff go over to London to see how a quality hotel should be run. We leave telling her that we did not really expect to pay a phenomenal amount of money to have what we were so looking forward fall so short of expectations. We would have lingered a bit at the lake, but we are in a hurry to leave and move on now.
Driving to Moraine Lake, we keep our own counsel for a while, but then go over the events of the past day again. We feel sad and let down. Not for long though as we have another lake to look at. It is now before half past nine, and though it is busy we have no trouble parking. To see the lake there is a steep climb up the rock loop trail to a view point above. Now, as awesome has been used to describe Lake Louise earlier in the day I am not quite sure what adjective to use now. The view that greets us at the top takes our breath away.
The surface of the lake, undisturbed in any way, appears to be made of mirror glass. The reflections of the mountains behind and the colour of the lake waters combine to make this very special. We have time for a period of quiet contemplation here, before returning down the trail. As we are about to leave there is a group of far eastern ladies walking up to meet us. As they glimpse the view for the first time they make a most unusual noise. The only way to describe it is like something you would hear in a pigeon loft. The ladies all coo, and respond to each other in a similar fashion. On the way down I assume the role of botanist, taking many pictures of the wild flowers that cling to the rocky terrain.
We move on to Banff now, and decide to make tracks for the Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum. We pass along Banff Avenue and cannot spot a place to park. Most of the bays seem to be for five minute stays only, or for loading and unloading. We continue to the museum, and as luck would have it there are places here, and in the shade of a tree, free for three hours. We go around the museum. Lots of original artefacts, clothes and decorations more in fact than the first nations museum in Whistler, all housed in a magnificent building made of huge cedar logs. There is also a collection of stuffed animals and birds.
Moving on now to Banff town, we browse through some of the shops. The mercury is hitting 30°C here and no wind so we pop into Starbucks for a cold drink. After we browse through a western outfitters, with my companion and I both trying on hats. We have in mind our trip to the Stampede coming up on Saturday. We return toward the car but turn left instead of right, on purpose I would add, to take a walk along the river to the Bow River Falls. There is some shade provided by the trees alongside the trail, but there are some steep steps to climb, both up and down, to get to the falls. I leave my companion behind for the last short descent and I stand taking pictures of the falls, with the spray blowing in the wind cooling me down. We return to the car on a path on the river bank, with a breeze blowing off Bow River.
Onward now to Canmore, our base for the final leg of our journey in Canada.
As we are ahead of time we decide to take a look at the town. It has a relaxed old town feel, with many bars and eateries evident. We park in a side road and walk to main street. Seeing a Brazilian restaurant we book a table for dinner, barbeque style. We walk on and spot a farmer’s market. We buy some fresh fruit, cherries, apricots and plums from British Columbia.
We arrive at the Best Western, and breath a sigh of relief. Nice welcome from the staff, with cold drinks and pastries available free of charge if required. We get to the room; large bed, balcony overlooking the mountains with table and chairs, working television, large bathroom, fridge, microwave, sofa all for a fraction of the cost of a night at The Chateau. We have a swim in the pool, and clean up then head out to dinner.