h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Right, now that I appear to have got over the worst of my jet-lag, I can actually write something coherent .

We had three nights (2 actual days) in Calgary, and once we got over our jet lag, we really liked the place. We managed to stay awake till 9pm local time (4am UK time)and once we woke up at 6am Calgary time the next day, we were pretty much adjusted .

We just walked around downtown Calgary, visited the Calgary tower, went to a couple of shopping malls, and just explored it. What amazed us was a) how clean and tidy the place was, almost no litter or graffiti, b) how friendly everyone was, and c) how safe it felt for a city which is probably the size of Birmingham.

Then we had our trip on the Rocky Mountaineer, through Banff and then onto Kamloops for an overnight, then onto Vancouver. We only had the lower level of ticket, but it was still utterly brilliant. The scenery was utterly stunning, and you could probably do that journey every day for a year and still not see everything. Also, the service and the food was impeccable (and in the case of the food, extremely plentiful) - although we did feel like we were going to explode when we got to Vancouver!

We had a couple of nights in Vancouver, and again we just walked around the downtown bit and explored. It utterly chucked it down while we were there, but apparently that's nothing unusual for Vancouver. Our hotel had stunning views of the downtown skyline, and in the parking lot opposite, a film crew set up shop (didn't see anyone famous, though, and we have no idea what they were filming!).

We then picked up our hire car, a Chrysler PT Cruiser, and drove up to spend a night at Whistler. Whistler seemed weird, as it's very obviously a resort town, but it was still very friendly and chilled out. We took the gondola up Whistler mountain and there was still enough snow up there for people to be skiing and snowboarding!

From there we set off towards Jasper, breaking our journey at 100 Mile House. Our travel agent obviously only had the one hotel in the area, which turned out to be a health farm . Not that we did much there - we pretty much got there at tea time and left early the next morning!

Jasper is a nice place, a very small town that's easy to walk around with friendly locals and lots of good restaurants. We went up the Jasper tramway and got great views over the Rockies and the town of Jasper with nearby lakes, and even went for a walk up the mountain.

From there we took the Icefields Parkway, and all I can say for that is WOW. It is truly a stunning drive through some astonishing scenery, and I'm so glad we did it. We also stopped off at the Icefields Centre and went for a trip on the Athabasca glacier - well worth taking hiking boots for!

We then called in at Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Lake Louise *is* pretty, but it just didn't seem as pretty as it should have been, if that makes sense. Moraine Lake was pretty, even though it still had patches of ice on it!

We then got to Banff, and just chilled out. Again, Banff is very obviously a resort town, and the prices seem to be higher there to take advantage of the tourists, but it's still a clean and friendly place and easy to explore. We went to see Lake Minnewanka (admittedly, only because I saw it on a map and thought it sounded funny) and Two Jack Lake. By then, it was time to pack up ready for our flight home...

I'll miss Canada. The people all seemed genuinely friendly and easy to talk to, even Vancouver wasn't anywhere near as grubby or graffitied as where I live in Leamington, and I'll miss just how cheap and plentiful the food was out there. In one place we had a three course meal, plus drinks, for $35 (roughly £18)! Also, house prices out there are cheaper than here, and even in Vancouver the prices are equivalent to Leamington.

However, it was nice to get home to our own bed, a proper sofa (it's amazing how much you miss that!), and proper English tea. Canada is very American in that it's mostly strong coffee, and the tea out there is mostly .

Dave's pretty much over his jet lag, and I'm getting there. The worst thing is that the plane food appears to have given me gastro-enteritis, as I've had really bad stomach pains, diarrhoea, fever etc since we got back . I'm getting better, though - and it was still worth it to explore Canada

Oh, and Chris has moved out of our house altogether - but that's a story for another day...

It all sounds completely fab (apart from the dodgy stomach) and I shall let my Mum have a read of it before we set off on Wednesday.

Liz
~

Hiya,

You must be getting excited (or fed up with packing!) by now. There was so much that I haven't mentioned - I could have gone on for ages with every single little detail and probably bored everyone senseless . My parents popped down to see us last week, and even their eyes were glazing over after the 400th picture .

My stomach's improving now - I'm inclined to think it was a combination of bad food and my already dicky digestive system . Even Dave had stomach ache, so the food wasn't all that good! The food on the way out there was fine, though - and I had no problems with my stomach in Calgary.

You and your mum are going to have an absolutely wonderful time out there . If I don't get a chance to chat to you before you go, enjoy yourselves and bon voyage!