Day 21, three weeks into the holiday. Leamington Spa seems so far away now and things like driving on the right side of the road and asking for eggs 'sunny side up' have become second nature. We were back on the road just after 9am with the intention of stopping at either Lake Louise or Banff for the night (from there it would just be a short hop to Calgary the following day).
Ros and my mum were heading straight to Calgary so Amy and I headed off alone, stopping at a place called Eagle Pass Landing for breakfast. A 3 egg omelette stuffed with all manner of meat and veg, with a side of toast - 4 slices each. Needless to say, neither of us managed to eat it all.
We were so stuffed that we completely skipped lunch, just stopping at a few places along the highway to admire the scenery. The Trans-Canada Highway takes you right through the middle of the rockies, peaking at 1382m above sea level in a place called Rogers Pass. One of the more interesting sights are the spiral tunnels blasted out of the mountains for the railway to reduce the incline of the track (there isn't any slope gentle enough that a train can safely climb or descend otherwise). Apparently you can often see the front of a train coming out of the tunnel directly above the rear end going in, but after waiting 5 minutes and no trains appearing we got bored and carried on.
The highway also takes you through Glacier National Park but as far as we could tell it requires a fair bit of hiking to actually see any glaciers so by 3pm (after crossing a time zone boundary and losing an hour) we were at Lake Louse Village. From there we went up to both Lake Louise and the nearby Lake Morraine. Both were a brilliant blue-green colour and look stunning nestled in the mountains (Lake Louise used to be at the end of a glacier but over the years the glacier has receded, which is a shame as it must have made the view all the more impressive).
We had thought we might stay in Lake Louise overnight but to be honest, it doesn't take that long to look at a lake, say 'ooh pretty', take the photos and move on. Plus the mosquitos were out in force again. As the saying goes - once (or in Amy's case 11 times) bitten, twice shy.
Henceforth in the early evening we arrived in Banff to locate a room for the night. The Best Western seemed like an obvious bet so that's where we tried first. Luck was on our side - they only had suites left but agreed to give us one at the same price as a normal room. Each suite has a jacuzzi in the room, sweet.
For dinner we tracking down a fondue restaurant that Amy had read about in a guidebook - the Grizzly House. Here we were in for a treat (normally I'd leave the food for Amy to describe but this was something special), the starter was a cheese and wine fondue, into which you dip hunks of bread. Then came the main course, meat. We were given a mix of beef, buffalo, elk and venison (with a selection of 5 sauces) to cook in hot oil, which meant with a bit of practice we could cook it just as rare or well done as we liked. Finally, the dessert was a chocolate fondue with a selection of fruit and wafers - again it was delicious, although melon in chocolate doesn't quite work somehow.
Completely stuffed, but somehow still able to walk, we waddled back to the hotel and watched Ugly Betty while lazing in the Jacuzzi. I could definitely get used to this decadent lifestyle.
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