Calgary.
This must have been boom city after the railway arrived in the
1890s. The centre is full of substantial turn of the century banks
and stores, many of fine design. It was strange to be in a city
after all the quiet and small towns and empty countryside. The blue
hole seemed to have caught up with us, with scorching hot weather for
our stay. Just a few hundred miles north there were major forest
fires, as the spring rains had failed to arrive and temperatures
soared way above normal. It's a prosperous city but with many green
spaces. We walked along the river through a series of linear parks,
and to a 'historic' district of mostly 1910s/20s houses, then past
the stadium of the Calgary stampede.
Gail
joined us for this second leg of the trip. We stayed at the
Fairmont, one of the original Canadian Pacific hotels built along the
line to encourage tourism in the 1890s. It has grand public spaces
and the rooms are recently refurbished but retaining an old school
grand hotel feel. Some good restaurants too, including a modern
Indian restaurant on the main drag, complete with cocktails.
But
we were glad to get off into the wild again, on a great loop through
the Canadian Rockies (we travelled around 2900km in all). Setting
out through Calgary's sprawling modern gated suburbs and then south
through an old mining area Crowsnest Pass. This valley is on such a
huge scale that the ravages of the old mine workings don't make much
of an impact. The towns are dying, although we managed to find an
excellent ice cream shop. So to Fernie for one night.
This
is a nice little town with pleasant tree-lined walks on levees beside
the river – a fast mountain river with churning clear waters.
After walking a while we found a very pleasant pub with a terrace to
enjoy the late afternoon sun – so pleasant we ended up staying to
eat there.
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