Calgary Stampede

Naturally, we also wanted to visit a rodeo on our way through the "Wild West". What could be closer than considering the largest rodeo in the world, the Calgary Stampede? The whole city celebrates for 2 weeks, and you can already celebrate in western outfits in the city's bars before the competitions begin.

Anyone from Calgary wears western attire. A hat is mandatory, whether it's the one that comes with the 36-pack of beer cans or an expensive, genuine Stetson. The bus drivers wear hats, the vendors wear hats, the city is in cowboy fever 🤠.

We had chosen a bed and breakfast on the outskirts of the city for our overnight stay, but it was superbly connected to the venue by bus. The B&B was a hit. Pearl, the English hostess, was super nice and had many great stories to share (for example, about a meeting with Gorbachev when he was still responsible for agriculture and visited her husband's farm in Canada, including photos and the label of the cognac bottle that was handed over at that time, not Vodka!). The room was great, and we could also sit in the garden. On the first day, there was a football match between England and Sweden before the Stampede. We wanted to watch it, as no one in Canada is otherwise interested. So Pearl found a sports channel on her TV 📺 and served us breakfast in front of the TV. Just awesome. A great start to the day. Then she even drove us to the tram.

When we arrived at the site, we had to orient ourselves first because it is all very large. We were there for a total of 11 hours and didn't feel like we had seen everything 5 times. Everything was there, from the Indian area to what felt like 100 lottery stalls.

We had tickets for the rodeo and the chariot race in the evening.

The rodeo consisted of: bareback riding, calf roping, bull wrestling, bronco riding, saddle bronc riding, and bull riding. There were a few smaller competitions for children as well. Overall, it was non-stop action, with hardly any breaks. The Canadians seemed to be very knowledgeable. We didn't see many differences in the rides, except of course when someone was thrown off before the required 8 seconds. But the Canadians knew exactly who would score high points.

It is the highest paid rodeo, with riders winning around $5000 per day. But for that, they are surely also frequent guests at the hospital and physical wrecks at the age of 30.

The chariot race in the evening was spectacular, but it always took a long time for everyone to get into position. Then it was exciting. But overall, we liked the rodeo better.

I will upload a bunch of photos, I hope you get an impression. We sat at the very top under the roof in the cheapest category. For that, the photos from my small camera are not that bad 😄🏇🐂🐎

The next morning, we had a real English breakfast with eggs, bacon, tomatoes, baked beans, toast, and jam. Then it was time to say goodbye to Calgary and move on to Waterton National Park.