Calgary

Canada

September 2006
4 days

Thursday 14th to Sunday 17th September 2006.

Jon Wrote:

The drive to Calgary in snow, sleet and rain was treacherous, and Sarah did well to concentrate all the way there whilst I snored on the back seat (OK, okay just kidding, it was the front seat!).

In our typical style by now we shot straight to the tourist info only to be told that all the hotels in the city were fully booked due to some business convention! All of them!

The lady recommended a guest house and when we called they'd had a cancellation so we took it. Now I don't believe in fate but going there expecting a dump we could not have been more wrong. It was a superb modern townhouse, once again with full use of the kitchen, veranda and hot tub with awesome views over the city skyline. What luck!

We booked in for four nights as it was cheap as chips. We didn't do much except watch TV and read books to try and save money.

The only things worth mentioning were that we visited a great museum showing ancient Greek/Egyptian exhibits and another floor totally dedicated to geology and some amazing looking rocks!

On the Sunday we headed to the Saddledome, the home of the Calgary Flames hockey team to watch a pre-season game against Florida. Its a seriously fast game but you can't help but get in to it what with the family atmosphere they smother you with, forcing couples to kiss on the big screen and firing free goodies in to the crowd. Not to mention the free sun tan! They had huge Flame throwers (being the Calgary Flames) and each time they scored these burners roared in to life backed by a very loud klaxon! Even though these torches where over the centre on the stadium you felt your face glow each time and just hoped you had at least one eye brow left to take home.

We were even lucky enough to see two fights in the game which is what people really come for. Seems crazy but player are simply allowed to take lumps out of each other for up to 20 seconds until they are pulled apart. Imagine that in the Premiership! David Beckhams insurance company would be wincing each time he made a fixture.

Anyhow, back to the hockey. The home team won ! The End.