Days 40 & 41 Banff, Canada

Banff is a gorgeous place, maybe a little commercialised, but nonetheless it is definitely a place that the tourists flock too.  The two tours that we have chosen for Banff were the 25 minute helicopter flight over the three sisters mountain range and "how to become a hockey player".  First up was the flight.  I was a little hesitant as I had not been in a chopper since my 40th birthday 15 years ago but I need not have worried. Four of us boarded our waiting helicopter after we were given a safety briefing and after being harnessed in we were up in the air.

The views from above give you a much greater perspective of how incredibly beautiful the Rocky Mountains really are.  There is still a little snow at the very top that really stands out agains the rocky dark grey. We are surprised that high up in the mountains there are hidden lakes that almost all iced over.  There are vast ravines that have been etched out through wind and rain that no man has ever stepped foot on.  It really is awesome.

The landing was very smooth and after we thanked our pilot for the safe journey we were back on the APT bus that took us the short distance to the Canmore Eagles Ice Hockey Rink. There are four of us on this tour.  The other two are friends from our cruise who have become really good friends. We were greeted by Andrew who was the head coach for one of the junior teams and taken to a lecture room where Andrew talked about the history of ice hockey in Canada.  His talk was interspersed with a video presentation.  It was a really great and interesting lecture.  After the talk we were taken to the rink that was super cold, and I was actually quite surprised at how large this is. 

From here we are shown the way to the dressing room where we are invited to dress in the full hockey outfit.  I have to tell you this is no mean feat taking around 30 minutes to become fully dressed.  There are so many protective layers and it is so hot in these outfits.  It was a whole lotta fun dressing up and mucking around with our friends and we all throughly enjoyed the experience.  We all declined heading to the ice rink as none of us felt very confident on the skates!

After this we were once again collected by our tour guide and taken back into Banff where we were dropped off for lunch.  We were handed bus passes to take us back to the hotel via the local shuttle but after a light salad lunch we decided to walk the few kilometres back to the Fairmont Hotel.  It was a glorious day with the sun shining brightly so we stopped at several spots on the way back to take a few photos.  Every where you look is a photo opportunity.

Before we departed Banff this morning we were taken to the conference room at the hotel for an opportunity to meet a Mountie.  He was a retired Mountie and he spoke for almost an hour about the origin of the Canadian Mounted Police and it was quite interesting.  The mounted police these days never dress in the outfit that our Mountie wore so we were very fortunate to have the chance to see a full uniformed Canadian Mountie.

As we drove out of Banff this afternoon on our way to Mount Louise, the magnificent Castle Mountain was on our right hand side.  It really is quite magnificent.

I also wanted to share with you a photo of the main lobby area of the Fairmont at Banff.  You can imagine people at the turn of the century entering this magnificent area that has probably not changed very much from what it is today.