Banff National Park

After all, the alarm clock only went off at 6:15 a.m. today. After a hearty breakfast, we wrapped up warmly and were driven to the airport to pick up our rental car. Everything went smoothly and when we got to the car there were big eyes. A small SUV was booked, we got a Jeep Grand Cherokee L. You can do that🤷🏼‍♀️ We drove straight towards Banff National Park. Just the drive here, wow. This landscape, the mountains,... Almost like being at home in the Black Forest 🥰 Our first port of call was the Cave and Basin National Historic Site of Canada. Some thermal springs in a cave. We would have been really interested, but the first tour would have been at 1:30 p.m., but we were there at 10:45 a.m. No problem, we looked at everything we could see, then went to Bow Falls. A small, very wide waterfall on the Bow River😅 There were no huge masses of water to be seen, everything was iced over. I like that though. This snowy, frozen winter landscape, wonderful 🥰 Afterwards we went straight to Lake Louise. We had to take a short break shortly before the destination when we accidentally ran a stop sign and were immediately followed by a car with flashing lights🙈 Officer Christopher, however, had an understanding with us and, after repeatedly informing us, that there are stop signs in Germany too There are things that you have to take into account and that we would actually have had to pay a fine of $405 and let us continue driving with a warning😅

Lake Louise is a turquoise blue glacial lake, also called Ho-run-num-nay (Lake of the Small Fishes) by the indigenous people. We didn't see any turquoise water. The lake is completely frozen over. There is a small ice hockey rink and a regular ice skating rink. Really cool. A small tractor with a round brush served as a zamboni. Very funny. It didn't actually do anything except stir up ice dust. We looked at the ice sculptures on site and walked around Lake Louise for a bit. So we wanted to make our way back to the car to an ice cream bar. Finally mulled wine 🥰 Well, the bill almost hit us hard. 66,-!!! Canadian dollars for 3 mulled wine, but you don't treat yourself to anything else. However, if you consider that a shot here starts at $7 and there were 3 different types of liquor in the thing besides wine, we did a good deal after all🤣 Our next destination was the Canmore Engine Bridge. On the way there, a WhatsApp from Jürgen with pictures of a waterfall. Well, exactly my thing. Jürgen provided us with all the information and so we stopped at Johnston Canyon. There we even met Jürgen and his Banff driver team at the parking lot. Short conversation, they moved on and we went through the canyon to the Lower Fall. It was a nice walk partly on wooden boardwalks along Johnston Creek. We briefly considered going to the Upper Fall, but since everything was icy and there was probably nothing to see anyway, we ran back to the car to get to the bridge in Canmore while it was light. When we arrived in Canmore, we were denied the direct route to the bridge due to private property. Or according to Google we would have had to go through it, but yes. Parked the car a little further down the road and walked along the edge of the forest for a bit. After about 250m a path crosses the forest directly to the bridge. Running. The Canmore Engine Bridge was built specifically to transport coal from the local mines. In 1919, Queen Victoria paid $200,000 for it, which at the time was what is now millions. In 1975 the last mine was closed and the bridge was no longer used for ice rink traffic *smart shit mode off*. Once over the bridge, we suddenly found ourselves in a herd of moose cows. First there was one on the way ahead of us, then more and more came along. In the end there were over 15 animals around us. Really a special experience. Back in the car we headed back to Calgary without any further detours. Dinner at Wendys and on to Scotman's Hill. At this point I would like to thank Ingo for recommending this viewing point to me. From up there you have a great view of the Galgary skyline. The next destination, car return at the airport. With a heavy heart, I returned our jeep and took a taxi back to the hotel. 2 minutes of putting our feet up, then Andi and I moved on to the Last Best. A cozy brewery with a restaurant 200m from the hotel. Small beer tasting before I stopped at the Fortunella Citrus Iced Tea. An iced tea refined with the 2021 World Gin Awards gold medal winning gin. Just so you know that now😉 So we ended the day comfortably.