Sunday October 30th

A musical Sunday. First Choral Matins in The Hague, a service I love but which we now have only three or four times a year. At last we sang the full Te Deum again. The Jubilate was replaced by a Jubilate out of the sixteenth Century anthem book. So in fact we sang two anthems which was great. Of course, celebrating All Saints Day, we also sang the hymn "For all the Saints,..". A few new voices have joined the choir, probably just for Christmas, but they are professional musicians, so we, and especially the men, benefit from that. It was an enjoyable service.

Unfortunately I could not be sociable at all after the service, as I had just time to hurry home and make a sandwich and some coffee, before rushing off to Haarlem for Choral Evensong. It was strange to sit in the congregation instead of joining the choir, whose singers I know so well. There were just three sopranos and three altos, but eight male voices. One of the sopranos had just landed at Schiphol at 6 o'clock this morning, after a two week holiday in Australia. She seemed quite normal and sang as she always does. I bet I wouldn't have been able to keep my eyes open, let alone sing the correct notes.

This was what the choir sang:

Introit:        S. Nicholson, God be in my Head

Prec. Resp.:  Tomkins

Canticles:    Orlando Gibbons

Anthem:      J. Amner, O God, my King

It is a pity that the congregation was very small, and mainly consisted of elderly people – myself included, I must add! -  Is this a dying church? I hope not.

 A recording of the Nunc Dimittis from the short evening service by Orlando Gibbons.

The mist had thickened and changed into a soft drizzle when I drove back home. I had planned to go to another service this evening in the village church of Wassenaar where one of J.S.Bach's cantatas would be sung, but skipping another meal to do that did not really attract me. Also, it was dark and wet by that time. Today we changed from summer time to winter time, which was very nice this morning but makes the evenings dark and the afternoons very short.

Just watched a documentary on TV, an amazing one by David Attenborough, about the Frozen World, the Arctic and Antarctica. It is an absolutely wonderful film, even if I had only seen the ice crystals they showed, greatly enlarged, all different, all perfect jewels, some extremely delicate. It was said each ice crystal differs from any other ice crystal, each and everyone is unique. They are never the same, but always symmetrical, one of the mysteries and beauties of nature. It is one of the episodes of the series The Living Planet, the BBC documentary. If you have missed it, it is worth trying to find the DVD's. On You Tube you find several episodes of the Frozen World.

Thunder Bay, Canadian Thanksgiving

I have been back for almost a week now, and haven't even written about Thanksgiving in Thunder Bay. Not about the beautiful drive, a drive of some 700 kilometres of which 600 went through the Canadian Shield, through rocks, lakes, bogs , creeks and wooded areas. Pines, larches, golden aspen, red shrubs, it was all there and I loved it. 700 kilometres don't seem all that long when the landscape one travels through is fascinating and so attractive, when there is so little traffic and the pace seems leisurely. There are few towns, just two which are worth mentioning: Dryden and Kenora, the latter with a dock for water planes. 

The others are more hamlets than towns, although the terminology here is just town. There are a few places where one can stop and have coffee and something to eat. After all, that is what the Greyhound Bus does as well which is taking the same route to Thunder Bay. The road is winding, the land hilly, so not at all boring. If I did it every week, it probably would be. But having commuted by car on one of the busiest roads in Holland for thirty years, from Leyden to Amsterdam, I think this landscape would never ever bore me. Snow would be difficult, but wonderful. The soft green of new leaves on the trees in spring, the yellow and red hues in autumn, the bright sun on the water of the many lakes and creeks in summer, I think I would always enjoy seeing those things. We were lucky, as nature was at its best, with the trees in autumn colours. On the way back we were less lucky as we drove through fog for about an hour before we could see anything at all. And once in Winnipeg, we had a heavy shower.

Apart from enjoying the hospitality of family of friends, sharing in their Thanksgiving meals – for indeed we had two Thanksgiving meals at two different addresses – I was also driven around and shown the most beautiful spots around Thunder Bay. The Kakabeka Falls, and Mount McRae for instance, which I even climbed although not exactly in record time. But the reward was the most wonderful view of the lake, Thunder Bay and the surrounding hills, a patchwork of blues, reds, yellows and greens. 

Kakabeka Falls

Then Lake Lenore and Pigeon Creek and Falls, along the border of the USA. Pigeon Creek is the actual border there. We also stood on the banks of Whitefish Lake, a rather big lake and very choppy. Canada is vast and varied, and I have only had a foretaste of it. I haven't seen the East nor any of the big cities, except for Winnipeg. But Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, they are still on my wish list and I suppose they represent a totally different aspect of Canada. Vancouver as well, but I only landed there and did not explore the city, which seems beautifully situated on the oceanfront. But this time I had no wish to see big cities, traffic or malls. I wanted to see the country, the mountains, lakes, hills and waterfalls, the prairies, the old churches and the grain elevators. All that I have seen and enjoyed very much indeed, thanks to friends who know a lot about the history of Canada and know some parts of this vast country very well indeed. That is one of the beauties of travelling with friends, among other things. The best part is of course the friendship.

         I also haven't mentioned yet the Kubelek Exhibition in the WAG in Winnipeg. He was a very well-known artist, and for me it was interesting that he grew up on a homestead. He also made illustrations  - in a rather naive style - about life as a child on the prairies. As I had travelled through the prairies, it meant far more to me then it would otherwise have done. This was his most cheerful work. In other works he tries to imitate Jeroen Bosch and Breughel. He suffered from mental illness and that shows in his disturbing works, especially the works he painted before his conversion to Roman Catholicism after a spell in a mental hospital in England.

         I did not mention either the two Evensongs I went to in Winnipeg, one in St. John's College Chapel of the University of Manitoba by All the King's Men, one in a regular Anglican Church, St. George's. They were both wonderful services, but the one at St. George's was quite an ordeal for me as the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis were by Sumsion (in G), music which I love and know by heart so I would have loved to join in. I also knew the Responses by Ayleward. Both are very good choirs, and the church choir has some excellent voices which seem to be well disciplined. A pity they sang up in the organ loft, at the back of the church, so they were heard but not seen. The Service in St. John's Chapel was very special, but I left the liturgy in Winnipeg and so can't give details about the music.

Fall in Winnipeg

In a way it is good to be back in Holland, for jetlag or not, I immediately joined the choir for Evensong in The Hague the Sunday after my arrival in Holland, and I loved it. All those services form a stark contrast with the one we went to in Revelstoke, musically speaking.  But their will to make their community a success and to keep going in spite of their small number, was very moving and perhaps more spiritually inspiring as well, in spite of a lack of aesthetics.

Day 19-21, Thursday Sept. 29th - Saturday Oct. 1st

Medicine Hat-Saskatoon-Canora-Winnipeg

These three days we travel through the prairies of Saskatchewan and Manitoba towards Winnipeg, starting from Medicine Hat which is still in Alberta.

From Medicine Hat we take route 1, the Trans Canada. The road goes through the badlands and grassland prairies. Everything is yellow. In the distance we see coulees, cutting deep into the land. There are many abandoned homesteads and farms, rusted old farm machines are left behind and witnesses of a former hard working life. Next to the homesteads small sheds which were once used for grain storage, now falling apart. Near Swift Current we leave the road and take a gravel road to see more of the land. The road is very dry and clouds of dust trail behind any vehicles which drive on these roads. Soon our car is also coated with dust. We are told that there has not been a drop of rain for over two months, so everything is bone dry. We do not see any "normal" cars, just four wheel drives and jeeps. Here no cattle, but we do see a group of eight or ten antelopes.

We get stuck where big machines are depositing dirt on the road to level it. It hasn't been equalised yet, and the road is covered in deep rutted layers of sand which seem impossible to drive through. Alas, we have no choice but to go on – with nervous trepidation! We are low on the ground and very likely to get stuck here. The only consolation is that there are big trucks which might help us out if we are grounded. On the worst stretch a jeep comes from the other direction and we have to pass it for we can't possibly stop here! Anyway, my friend who is driving makes it, and we are all very relieved.

We continue on route 1 and later route 4. We see more antelopes, but too far away to photograph them.

I never thought there would be so many dirt and gravel roads in Canada. Neither did I know that there was such a variety of prairie land. After leaving the badlands, we drive through lands with golden grain. Some of the fields have already been harvested and ploughed, on others the grain is still standing. As it has been too dry all summer, the grain is a bit low and not very full.

There are many small towns here, more like villages, all built along a railway line near a grain elevator. The grain elevators were built at equal distances from each other so that it would take no longer than a day for any farmer to take his grain to the elevator and return home – with horse and wagon. I thought all grain elevators would be painted oxblood red, but most of them are white or grey. Often the paint is peeling, and most of them are no longer in use. The grain has been bought by large corporations, who have built modern grain elevators, which may be far more efficient, but do not look half as attractive. The small towns around the elevators are also dying, the obligatory hotel near each railway station boarded up, eyes looking blindly across the tracks. I have never seen so many trains in my life as on this trip, but they are all freight trains now and they no longer carry passengers. There are a few exceptions. One is the West-East connection, and another a passenger train to Churchill. The freight trains are amazing in length, sometimes even up to two kilometres.

Then there are the parkland prairies with many creeks, lakes and bogs. We see huge flocks of Canada geese on the fields and the lakes, taking wing unexpectedly, swirling around and pirouetting like an oversized corps de ballet, honking all the time. They feed in water-logged soil and shallow water. Many of the lakes here are in fact swamps, where the water can't escape because of the rocky subsoil. We see lakes with white rims, salt lakes. As the water doesn't flow out but simply evaporates, the lakes contain more and more salt. This is mined and  sold as potash. We see not only Canada geese with their distinctive colours and pattern, but also many snow geese. They will soon be migrating south. The snow geese breed on the arctic tundra's. They are a bit smaller than Canada geese, with shorter necks. I also spot a coyote, rather a big one it seems.

Before we reach Saskatoon, we have a picnic at Saskatchewan Landing, a historic spot in a surrealistic landscape.
Saskatoon is a busy but very pleasant city, and a University town. There are parks along the river banks and people cycle and jog there. Apart from the regular bridges, hikers, joggers and cyclists can also cross the river via special footbridges, even one along the railway tracks. It is weird to walk next to a moving train, so close that one could actually touch it! The city is surprisingly green, something I had not expected at all after crossing through such dry and yellow land, almost devoid of trees.

We stay overnight at the home of friends and enjoy their food and most of all their company.

footbridge next tp the railway line

The next morning, on Friday, we take leave of our hosts after a leisurely breakfast and visit the street where my friends lived when they were newly married, the university where the husband was a lecturer and several other spots which hold special memories for my friends.

We do not hit highway 5 till midday, a very interesting route which goes through an area with many Ukrainian villages. The highway follows the railway line, so we see many grain elevators which are still standing along this route, as well as many Ukrainian churches, Orthodox and Roman Catholic, in villages, but also along the highway or in the fields. I lose count of the numerous lakes and bogs, hundreds of noisy flocks of Canada geese and snow geese on the water and in flight, copses with dwarfed shrubs and trees, autumn colours, vistas, dilapidated homesteads, abandoned and falling apart, boarded up hotels near the railway lines.

Humboldt, a German settlement, is a relatively large town, with a central square, a bandstand, gas stations and shops.

The next town, Muenster, is very interesting. Here we visit a white wooden church, a cathedral in miniature, originally the abbey church, St. Peter's Cathedral, founded in 1903, constructed in 1910, with decorations in the choir and along the walls by Berthold Imhoff.

Those Germans originally came from Minnesota. What is remarkable in this church for me is not so much the painted decorations, but the windows. Recently the windows have been decorated with stained glass. This because too much sun flooded through the clear windows which was damaging to the paintings on the walls.

The windows were given by members of families who have lived and worked here, and still do. They depict their lifestyle, there hobbies and other things. There is a window with the hands of a woman holding a hymnal at the bottom. Above this the farm where she worked, and several other items which were important in her life.

Each window is different, although done in the same style. There is a folder in church explaining the background and meaning of each window. It is humbling to see that so much effort and money has been spent on this church at a time that towns here are slowly dying. It shows confidence and trust in the continuation and the importance of this church and perhaps the church in general. This town isn't dead at all, as on the other side of the highway there is the Benedictine Abbey, st. Peters Abbey , with a college attached to it. It has a beautiful, very modern chapel and is surrounded by wooded park land.

Here is another link for St. Peter's Cathedral.

We leave Muenster and go to Rama. Here too the hotel near the former railway station is boarded up, and there is no café or any place to buy drinks or food. But amazingly there are three churches, which I mentioned before, the most remarkable one St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church with the Maria Grotto. Then there is the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of St. Peter and St Paul, and St. Michaels just across the railway line, an Ukrainian Orthodox church.

We book into the Gateway Motel in Canora, the only choice there is! It is an Ukrainian town, and although the website suggests there is a lot here for tourists, at this time of night all we can do is go to the Main street and have a Chinese meal in one of the two Chinese restaurants, the only places which are open.

Taken from the official website of Canora

The next morning (Saturday October 1^st), we have breakfast in an adjacent family restaurant in a small shopping mall, together with the locals who are eating a very hearty breakfast. I try French toast, something I always want to eat at least once when I am in North America. And it isn't disappointing!

Our first stop is the tiny hamlet – a former town – of Mikado. We wonder why there should be a stop sign in  the middle of a half dead town where we are the only moving car. Except for a small child pedalling feverishly on a tricycle, there is no traffic whatsoever. The white clapboard church with its sharply pointed spire, looks well preserved. We wonder if it is still in use and where people who attend would come from. Certainly not just from this villages with the few scattered houses.

Verigin

A more interesting town is Verigin, the first settlement of the Doukhobors before they left for British Columbia. It is a museum now, and although closed, we can peer through windows, and see the various buildings, The main building has a prayer hall on the ground floor, and living quarters on the top floor. There is a statue of Tolstoy in the grounds, who inspired the Doukhobors and visited them. One grain elevator is still there.

Verigin

In the fields around this museum we hear the honking of many noisy geese.

We follow the road to Kamsack which has several grain elevators and go on to Duck Mountain Provincial Park. The autumn colours are gorgeous.

Duck Mountain Provincial Park

Golden yellow aspen, dark pines, small lakes with dead wood and many beaver dams, it is all there. We even see a beaver actively swimming from one side of the lake to the other side.

We stop at Madge Lake somewhere in the middle of the park, where a lonely snow goose is grazing along the banks of the lake, lined with orange coloured reeds. This area used to be a haunt for trappers.

snow goose

When we leave the park we are still in Ukrainian territory and see many of their churches. Along the road near Roblin in Zelena we come across St. Michaels Ukrainian Catholic Church, on a hill, painted dark red, and walk around it and the cemetery.

In Roblin we find an Austrian restaurant in the former station. We feast on homemade goulash soup and a coffee with "apfelstrudel". A young couple owns the restaurant. The wife is the cook. She comes from Salzburg and has lived here since 1998, and has run this restaurant for the past 8 years. In winter it is closed. I suppose not many people will voluntarily visit Roblin in winter. Her husband, who is helping out today as it is weekend, works in the oil business. We are entertained with Austrian and German "schlagers" and on the wall behind us the Austrian flag is pinned. The freight train passing by is so close, we could touch it!

We continue on route 5 till Gilbert Plains, where we leave the road and turn into gravel roads to be nearer the escarpment of the Riding Mountains. Here we see another empty house, which looks quite modern. There is still a TV aerial on the roof. At Keld, in the middle of nowhere, we see another church, St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church (from 1903).

We join highway 5 again just South of Dauphin, and take highway 19 towards Neepawa, where we enjoy a meal at the house of family of my companions on this journey, before setting off for Winnipeg in the dark, for my friends' home where all three of us will enjoy a period of rest before setting off to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving in Thunder Bay on the banks of Lake Superior.

Day 18 Wednesday September 28th

From Pincher Creek to Medicine Hat

A last chance to see the Rockies. We are glad to leave the motel which became very cold during the night when a strong wind almost blew the roof off and the draught through the doors and windows cooled down the temperature considerably. There were no extra blankets, so I had to live with it.

Stardust Motel

Breakfast in an Inn next door warmed us a bit and we set off facing the Rockies. The skies are very big. It is hard to capture the open space and the liberating vastness of it all in photos. The land here is cowboy land, with free roaming cattle and horses. Grass is all there is, and the undulating, yellow hills form a beautiful contrast against the backdrop of the blue mountains in the distance. Old wooden sheds, sagging and often in bad repair, give some idea of distance and perspective. Cows in the fields look minute, like children’s toys.

Views from Pincher Creek towards Waterton

We are heading for our last National Park in this area, Waterton Lakes on the border of the USA and Canada. In fact it is one with Glacier National Park in the USA, but we don't cross the border and stay on the Canadian side. The lakes are hidden deep down in the valley. On top of a hill, a Victorian type of hotel is looking out over the lakes. It is in a fantastic position, but I would prefer to stay in one of the more cozy cabins down on the shores of the lake.

Waterton

Deer walk through the village, grazing in gardens and on stretches of grass. It is very quiet and serene, probably because we are in between seasons. There are some very attractive shops, souvenirs shops with coffee corners and restaurants. One shop sells the most beautiful and unusual Christmas figures, blue and gold. They are expensive, but worth it. I can’t take them home though, so regretfully have to leave them behind.

We go to see Cameron Falls at the end of the village, which is not very spectacular except for the view from the top. We turn around and drive up to Cameron Lake, high up in the mountains. The drive is interesting as the road is winding and offers different views round each bend. We pass a historic landmark, the spot where the first oil well in Western Canada was drilled. No oil is found here now. It was a short lived adventure. But Alberta is full of oil and we see many pumps ("jaknikkers" as they are called in Dutch) along our route.The lake itself is very clear and the snow topped mountains reflect in the water. It is bear country again, but not for us this time. On the way back we get spectacular views of the lower lakes and the Disneyland motel.

A road near the exit of the park leads us up into the mountains again, at first through rolling hills, golden in colour, dotted with dark spruces.  At the end of the road we reach what we have come to see, the Red Canyon. Not very deep or very high, but the stone here is a very distinct red, with white layers. We have seen red rocks on our way to the canyon, but they were just outcrops and here in the canyon the rocks are bare and so show themselves in all their glory. We take the obligatory hike around the canyon, which is no hardship.

Red Canyon

When we leave the Park we head for Cardston. We are dying for a coffee, but it s a Mormon town and so no coffee shop in sight! Mormons don’t drink coffee. The big Mormon Temple is here. But the town looks dreadfully unattractive, most shops are closed, so we buy some provisions in a supermarket and have a picnic in a small park along the river: bread, cheese, salami, apples and some juice. This whole area is Mormon country. It is amazing that towns in Western Canada, and perhaps all over Canada, are still so dominated by ethnic groups or religious groups.

Waterton area map

We are not sorry to leave Cardston, and follow highway 5, via Raymond and Stirling south of Lethbridge, then the 24 and the 33 to Taber and via de 114 on to Medicine Hat. En route we see many dilapidated homesteads, old grain elevators and new ones along railway tracks. Traveling east the grasslands become flatter and grass is replaced by grain. No more cowboy country with corals and horses and cows. This is an area where many Dutch farmers have settled, as well as the Mormons. As we have taken a back road, we miss the hotel strip west of Medicine Hat and have difficulty finding a place to stay. In the end, after some wrong moves, we are directed to the business strip on the East side and a Super 8 which offers a nice hotel unit, next to a delicious fish restaurant. It couldn’t be better, except for the fact that the hot tub is not in the bathroom, but in the living room opposite the TV and next to the settee which is my bed for the night. Peculiar arrangement! But the fish is super!

Waterton

Day 17, Tuesday September 27th

Banff-Pincher Creek

Bow River Banff

It is still raining, the mountains are invisible and the weather forecast is for more rain and cold weather the coming week. We had planned to drive along the Icefield Parkway towards Jasper, the most spectacular route in the Rockies, but it is not to be and pointless to waste our time driving along invisible glaciers. We enjoy a breakfast in a beautiful hotel and conference center which belongs to the same owners as our modest motel. The view is beautiful, but would be much better if we could see the mountains.

We leave Banff driving East along highway 1. Once we come down on the other side of the Rockies, the weather improves greatly and it is dry and sometimes even sunny. In Canmore we buy provisions for our picnic

We turn unto the 1A towards Kananaskis, where we follow highway 40 going south, east of the Rockies and along its ridge. We stop at Canoe Meadows for our picnic lunch, basking in the sun with a view of the golden aspen. Rafters are enjoying the river and it is fun watching them coming down the rapids. It is bear country, but we don’t see any.

Highway 40 is a beautiful and quiet road, once an unpaved logging road. There is hardly any traffic so we stop frequently to take pictures of the beautiful scenery: the yellow aspen and dark green pines,, and the Rockies which are on our right hand side.

At Highwood Pass we have a splendid view of snowy mountain tops, so we are quite happy. At 2.206 meters it is the highest navigable pass in Canada and the summit is just about at the tree line. If we had come here earlier in the year, the alpine meadows would have been in full bloom.

At Highwood House – hardly a village but actually just one building – we take route 541 east towards Longview, away from the Rockies.

Longview is what the name says it is, a very tiny speck on the map, rather high on a plain with open skies and fantastic views in all directions, also towards the blue mountainrange in the distance. This is ranch country with grasslands and hayfields, horses, cowboys.

Except for a very unpromising hotel along the highway, everything else seems closed for the season, so we have no choice. However, the coffee and the cakes are rather good. There are two elderly couples at another table. When one of the men hears us speaking Dutch, he addresses me. He is originally Dutch, born in Andijk, and emigrated to these parts of Canada in the fifties with his parents when he was 8 . He lives in Alberta and is touring around with another couple. It is amazing that in the most unexpected places we meet people who are of Dutch origin. We leave Longview which has some 300 inhabitants, spread over a large rural area.

We take route 22 south and approach the Rockies again. At Lundbreck we turn east towards Pincher Creek, a very small town. The Ramada Inn is fully booked. On the other side of town we find several rather seedy motels, but strike lucky with the Stardust motel, not very upmarket, but clean and run by a friendly young couple. Apparently this is an oil town, and the cheaper motels are for workers in the oil industry. We rent two interconnecting motel rooms. Surprisingly there is a nice restaurant, bistro Denise, within a stone’s throw of the motel, where we enjoy a very nice meal of salmon, pilaf rice and very fresh and crisply cooked vegetables.

During the night we wake up because of a freak storm , which causes a lot of rattling and a terrible draught.

Day 16; Monday September 26th

Golden-Field-Yoho-Lake Louise-Banff

The view from our window this morning is disappointing as there is a thick fog. We have a very luxurious breakfast in the busy Ramada Inn and take our time over it. My next experience is a visit to a walk-in clinic, a first for me in this country. Just as well, as it is still foggy and it would not do to start our drive right away because we wouldn’t be able to see anything on one of the most spectacular stretches of our trip. I meet two receptionists, a nurse, and a doctor. The longest wait is at the pharmacy, as if pills are still hand-made and all the ingredients weighed out carefully and double checked. But I get the help and medication I need in a relatively short time, which is great.

We have a coffee in historic downtown, frequented by locals, and only at noon do we leave Golden. At least the fog has lifted and the mountains are clearly visible.

Along Highway 1

We take route 1, initially along Kicking Horse River. It is indeed a spectacular drive. We turn into a road leading to a creek just to be able to take some pictures of the amazing autumn colours and the white mountain tops. The highway goes through Yoho National Park. Once in Fields, we turn left towards the Natural Bridge and Emerald Lake, a lake which is of an astonishingly deep emerald colour. The “natural bridge” – a rock formation which forms a bridge over a waterfall - attracts many tourists, in cars and RV’s, but is worth seeing.

Natural Bridge

On the banks of Emerald Lake is a holiday village and a conference center with stunningly beautiful views of the lake. People take out canoes, although it isn’t very warm and a fine drizzle has started. We walk partly around the lake, admiring the remaining flowers in an alpine meadow.

Emerald Lake

It is a very restful and quiet place, and I wouldn’t mind at all spending a week in a cottage here.

We return to Fields, noticing the long freight trains in the station and turn off the main road again to go to Tatakkaw Falls. The weather changes and it now rains seriously.  We stop to see the upper spiral train tunnel, and are lucky that one of the trains we saw in Fields is creeping through it. It is a very unusual sight, to see the front and the tail of the train on different levels.

Upper Spiral Train Tunnel

We also stop at the confluence of the Kicking Horse River and the Yoho River, each with a different colour, but we have to huddle together as the temperature has dropped considerably.

Tatakkaw Falls

The waterfalls are reached via hair pin curves in the road. Some vehicles go backwards up one leg of the bends and forwards on the next one, because they can’t easily negotiate the sharp turns. It is something which I have never experienced in Europe on the steep climbs of the Swiss and Austrian mountains.

The waterfalls are awe inspiring, but it is raining hard and it is very cold and we have to hike the last stretch to see the falls well enough. Once we have dutifully done that, we go back to our car as soon as we can, drenched!

Down Kakattaw Falls

We return to highway 1 and are in luck, because in the lower spiral tunnel we see a train simultaneously on three different levels!

On to Lake Louise, through the rain. We can’t find suitable and affordable accommodation, so drive on to Banff, and after a false start on a strip with only expensive and very up-market hotels, we find an adequate motel a few steps from the emerald Bow River within walking distance of the center of town. It is no longer pouring, but still wet and very cold. No view at all of the high mountains which are supposedly the most spectacular of the Rockies. Banff looks attractive as it has no loud neon signs and ads, but instead a manicured high street which reminds me of Aspen, the fronts of the shops in chalet style. The number of Japanese and Chinese surprises me. Shop owners and motel owners, hardly any of them are true Canadians. Most of them are Asian or at least foreign, judging by their difficulties with the language. After a bit of window shopping, we find a nice Italian restaurant and share a pizza, hoping for sun and a view tomorrow.