Day 1- Woke up early as there was excitement and apprehension for the long haul flight!!.
A was reading some very bad reviews about the flight so we were prepared for the worst ie flight delayed by 5-8 hrs or maybe 24 hrs.My brother in law M and his wife R dropped us to the Gatwick Airport.Check in and Security went in smoothly.Did some browsing around and shopped for Magazines and newspapers,cereal bars/ sandwiches and coke to pass time in the flight.
Our Flight was delayed by 1 Hr which was expected and so we were not disappointed and passed time by reading newspaper.Finally the flight took off successfully for Calgary. We had some very low expectations or should say no expectations from the flight so it came as a surprise when the crew turned out to be very helpful and caring.
A watched 27 dresses in the flight and i finished reading my magazine and the book "O Canada " which are short essays on Cities of Canada. I completed reading about Edmonton / Vancouver/Banff( places i were visiting ).The flight recovered its journey time and landed only 20 mts late of its actual arrival time.
We were received by our cousins S and A along with their friend M.We headed towards an Indian Eating Place called as "Namskar".There we ordered Dal Tadka,Malai Kofta, Paneer Makhani and some bread.It was our first Indian Meal in Canada.and instantly we started comparing it with the food which we used to get in Houston which is not so impressive as compared to the Indian Food which we are used to eating in London.
Finally we started our journey towards Edmonton which was a 3 hour drive. I slept most of the way and reached home around 8 in the evening.
Had pleasantries exchanged followed by dinner with again some paneer,Aloo Gobhi and Rotis.Off to bed around 12 pm and could not sleep the whole night and kept tossing and turning to pass the night.
Day 2- Was up early and all ready for the day by 8 in the morning.A and i decided to go for a walk. As expected there is hardly any life on the roads.. very different to what we are used to in London where roads are full of walking people.
Then we headed towards our shopping and started with our very old favourite
Walmart.There i bought my favourite brand of Cereals and
A bought some Jeans.
Then we went to
Winners where
A bought Office shirts and i bought a skirt.
A favourite store is
Tommy Hilfiger where he again shopped for some casuals and i did the same.
Thereafter we browsed
London Drugs for a camera and laptop. I was not sure whether we should be buying a laptop but
A insisted that we need a new one and he was eying for the new Sony Vaio laptop.
In the evening we dined in an Indian Restaurant "Haveli". The food was OK but not great.
Day 3- First half of the day was spent in watching the
Body Worlds Exhibition in the TELUS World of Science. It was an amazing and one of a kind exhibition of 200 authentic human organs, systems and whole body displays.The process is called Plastination,through which bodily fluids and fat have been extracted from the specimens and replaced, through vacuum forced impregnation, with reactive resins and polymers. The result is thus we can see inside the human body, learn how it works and how it can be affected by disease and lifestyle choices.
Second half of the day was spent in
West Edmonton Mall which is World's largest entertainment and shopping centre featuring over 800 stores and services,9 World class attractions and 100 eating establishments.We again shopped from GAP/Tommy Hilfiger and Banana Republic.
The picture below is of the glittering glass dome of Ice Palace- The Ice Rink
Santa Maria - is an exact replica of Columbus'ship.It was built in Vancouver and is hand carved and painted.
This is the World's largest Indoor Wave Pool door with tropical temperature, more than 20different water activities , miles of water slides,bungee jumping etc.
Day 4 -We started for Banff around 11 am. It rained heavily during the journey. Stopped for lunch at Earls where i had wok fried noodles and seared vegetables tossed with spicy ginger soy sauce topped with peanuts.Reached Canmore around 3 pm. Checked in at our apartment and then headed towards Banff National Park.We walked along the High Street and browsed shops for souvenirs.
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We booked our table for dinner at "Masala"and then proceeded towards Sulphur Mountains which can be reached only through Gondola ride.An 8 minute Gondola ride gave us a 360 panoramic view of the Bow Valley and Rocky Mountains. There is a unique complex of gift shops, restaurants and a spectacular roof top observations at the summit.There is a 1 km long elevated board walk that leads to a Cosmic Ray Station and the historic Sanson's Peak Meteorological Station.The views experienced were breathtaking and cannot be captured on a camera.
After the walk we were so famished that we rushed towards Banff Town Center for our dinner at Masala.After a very lavish dinner of Paneer Tikka Sizzler/Daal Makhani/Paneer Butter Masala/ Biryani / Garlic Naan we decided to watch "Get Smart".
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Day 5-The plan of the day was to visit Lake Louise.Unfortunately it started raining halfway to our journey and never stopped.We hardly spent any time in Lake Louise and took only 3-4 pictures and rushed to be in the car.Thereafter we decided that as there is nothing much to do in Lake Louise we should start our journey back home.
We stopped at Calgary to watch "Jaane Tu Jaane Na" as this was one movie i wanted to watch in London and could not due to time constraints.Reached Edmonton in the evening
at 7 pm.
Day 6- Today was the last day in Edmonton and we were frantically trying to finish our last minute shopping and checking baggage weight as i was worried that we have gone overboard with shopping.
A took notes about Vancouver and Victoria for must places to visit.Took driving directions as we were taking a car rental in Vancouver.
Day 7- Reached Vancouver around 12 pm and headed straight to see
Capilano Suspension Bridge.Got stuck in a traffic jam which seemed like ages.As soon as we reached Capilano we had quick bite to eat of sandwiches and chips. Suspension Bridge was beautiful. At first i was a bit skeptical to walk but soon started to enjoy the wobbly bridge.We did a quick walkaround the area and did Treetop walk as well. Soon we both got bored of it and decided to go to Stanley Park.
Stanley park was quite similar to Hyde Park in London. It overlooks Downtown Vancouver, famous for its half a million trees and 200 km of trails and roads in the park.It was so bright and sunny that we had to gobble up two bars of Haigen Daz and a bottle of coke.After the walk in the park we decided to check in at Hotel Vancouver.
Hotel Vancouver took 11 years to build because construction was stopped for five years during the Great Depression.It was started by the Canadian National Railway but was finally completed jointly with the Canadian Pacific Railway.It was opened in 1939 in time for the Royal visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth.
Rested for a while and then decided to explore downtown by foot.We had a Crepe filled with spinach and feta cheese and A had with mushrooms and cheese.We again shopped at Sears / HMV and our old favourite Tommy Hilfiger.The street was so lively and buzzing with activity even at 11 at night that it was hard to imagine that it was actually going to be midnight pretty soon.We had dinner in one of the cafes which is open for 24 hrs. It had a mix of everything from Mediterrean salads to indian samosas to chinese spring rolls and variety of pizzas/pastas and indian curries with rice.
I had a bowl of chickpea salad with mushroom panini. In the end i had to leave the panini sandwich for the next day.We retired to our room around midnight and slept late till 8 the next morning.
Day 8 -Today was the day to visit Victoria for which we took BC Ferries.It was a one and half hour journey which was quite scenic as there were little islands which came by as we were approaching Victoria.
As soon as we landed in Victoria we drove towards Butchart Gardens.These gardens are 55 acres of amazing floral display which change according to the seasons.We throughly enjoyed the walk and took a lot of pics but i think digital pictures cannot do justice as to what your eyes have seen.
After that we parked our car in the downtown of Victoria and walked along the sea. There we decided to do a Sea Plane ride which will be for 30 mts and would take us around the city. It was a good experience except that the ride was a bit bumpy in the landing but rest was great.
After this we had a quick bite in one of the shopping malls and rushed to catch our ferry to Vancouver which we missed and had to wait an hour to catch the next one.
Day 9 -The day finally came to head back to London.We had to return to Calgary and from there had to fly to London.As suspected our flight was late by 2 hrs so we killed our time by watching "Dev" starring Amitabh Bachaan, Kareena Kapoor and Fardeen Khan on our brand new laptop.
Landed at London Gatwick by 2 pm and reached our sweet home by 6 pm and that brings to an end to our very interesting and nice vacation to an end.
