Prince Edward Island

Word for the day: infundibuliform.

Anyway. Prince Edward Island is known mainly as being the home of Anne of Green Gables - or so it would seem from all the advertising. It's also known for its beaches, though, as the island is so small that much of it is coastland. We drove much of the way round the scenic routes the island has to offer.

The dirt here is reddish, tinting the sea.

 Your new desktop background. You're welcome.

As a good Anne of Green Gables fan, I also made sure we visited Green Gables House! We visited the barn, the house itself, and wandered down into the "Haunted Wood", with its cheerful birds, wide gravel path and bright sunlight. Unfortunately Lover's Lane was closed!

My skin blends in well with the white walls!

Yes, I am an Anne of Green Gables fan, but not of the rabid variety, so we restrained ourselves from also (paying for) a visit to L.M. Montgomery's birthplace, the house where she grew up, and "Avonlea Village" within Cavendish.

We weren't there at the right time for two musicals they perform in Charlottetown, either: "Anne of Green Gables" and "Anne and Gilbert". Nor did we visit the Anne of Green Gables museum, or the Shining Waters family fun park, or buy any Anne of Green Gables chocolates.

We also didn't feel the need to stay at one of the many Anne-themed accommodation options:

• Anne Shirley motel and cottages
• Anne's windy poplar cottage
• Shining Waters country inn and cottages
• Kindred Spirits country inn and cottages
  and, my personal favourite, because Kindred Spirits had evidently already been taken:
• Bosom Buddies cottages and suites

Okay, I take it back. I'm obviously not a good fan at all.

We made sure to visit Charlottetown, the island's capital, and saw some cool buildings. On our way there, we also stopped at a cool, quaint place called Skipper's Cafe for lunch, and in keeping with the harbour theme shared a fish burger and a lobster panini between us. Mmmmm!

Charlottetown city hall

 

  A certain building in Charlottetown.

Charlottetown was preparing to party like it's 1864 when we were there, less than a week out from Canada Day on 1 July. Apparently, in 1864 or thereabouts, the good people of Prince Edward Island invited representatives of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton (and perhaps some others) to talk about their future as colonies, and whether they should confederate. The other Canadian colonies crashed the party, as you do, and they had a big week-long party of leisurely luncheons leading on to sumptuous suppers, where the delegates would engage in a bit of dancing, after which they all retired to a lavishly appointed drawing room (or perhaps a library) where the nitty gritty of the confederation proposals were discussed into the wee hours. Prince Edward Island didn't join the confederation until much later (perhaps out of spite for their party being crashed, the plaques didn't specify why), when they had incurred a rather large debt for the construction of a railway.

 

 Outside the art gallery - human for scale.

A cool-looking hotel.

We also saw some statues here. Can anyone tell us what the bottom two languages are on this plaque?

John with the figure in question.

You'll just have to take our word for it (or google it), but Prince Edward Island truly is a land of vivid green plants, sparkling blue water and red dirt. As L.M. Montgomery described it: an island of ruby, emerald and sapphire!

 

We surmised that the island must get a lot of rain for the countryside to maintain its verdant hue. Unfortunately, we didn't take any photos depicting these bright colours in the first two days there, and on our last day and a half in the province, we were blessed with steadily pouring rain. Therefore the closest shot we got is more stormy in nature:

 

We still persisted in our last scenic drive, though, and were rewarded with a reminder of our homeland.

 It's a sign!!

The biting insects found it pretty exciting too!

Then it was the loooong drive back over the bridge connecting Prince Edward Island to the mainland - 10-12 minutes long, in fact!

And end of the blog post is here.

Le Québec

Le Québec est une province francophone du Canada. We didn't realise just how francophonic it would be until we got there!

Did you know? it is a legal requirement throughout Canada to have bilingual signs, both in French and English, but in Quebec the French translation must be a bigger size than the English. We could see this in the ads and the signs we saw there!

Our flight to Montreal was marred by a pilot who was overzealous about 'turbulence' on the way. Consequently, we had the seatbelt sign on for over half the flight and were advised not to use the facilities, while the refreshments were quite delayed. I speak as an ignorant commoner, but the light turbulence we experienced did not seem to justify the degree of caution!

Therefore, we were glad to arrive in Montreal, and after waiting for a full half hour to pick up our baggage, we set off to our Airbnb.

Climbing up the steep, narrow steps to the apartment door, I knocked and an old woman came up to the door after a short wait. I introduced myself, and she said, peering through the thick glass of the door, "I don't know you! I'm sorry, I'm not opening the door! I don't know who you are!"

I went back down to John, and we pondered our next step. We called the host's number on a payphone at the nearby metro station, and he answered! Thankfully, most people speak English as a second language here. I conveyed the reception we'd got at his place, and he apologised profusely, and came right over from the place he was house sitting - turns out he'd been expecting us in July! Thankfully, again, his previous guest had just moved out that day, so we were still able to stay there!

What of the woman who had (not) answered the door, you ask? She was our fellow house guest during our stay there, a fellow Airbnb traveller.

Following this - the most drama we've experienced so far! - we REALLY started to enjoy Montreal.

We had brunch (at 2.30pm) at Chez Cora, a Canadian version of IHOP:

 A dinner plate-sized waffle! But all that fruit makes it a healthy meal, right??

We visited the Visitor's Centre, and it was the most helpful one I've ever been to! We felt like paying customers, they were so organised and efficient, and eager to provide us with anything we needed!

We checked out Old Montreal, upon their recommendation. We saw some impressive buildings.

Notre Dame. It was impressive.

We also saw some odd statues:

The explanatory plaque for the following statues

Woman/dog with horse-drawn carriage behind them!

Woman/dog with amphi-tour vehicle behind them!

The man and dog to complete the pair.

We adventurously went up a clock tower at the Old Port, and discovered that the space at the top was very limited, and many others had gone up before us and were there too. We didn't stay very long.

As it happened, a couple of cool events were on when we were in town: Cirque du Soleil (expensive) and a French music festival (FrancoFolies - free)!

I asked a friend for advice on whether to attend the circus, and she advised us unequivocally, emphatically and in no uncertain terms that we MUST go. She would brook no opposition, so we did as directed! And it was quite marvellous! The theme was Kurios, and the costumes were pretty amazing. As for the acrobatic feats, most of the time I wanted them to do fantastic and daring deeds, but then when they were doing them, felt like saying, "You don't need to do that! Really, there's no need for you to be up there - it serves no practical purpose! Please - you'll hurt yourself!" I'm not cut out for a circus life.

We also hung out at the Francofolies for a couple of nights to enjoy some of the free entertainment. It was interesting listening to songs in a language you don't understand (as my French comprehension is not good enough to understand songs)! It really focuses your mind purely on the musical component (obviously). Here are a couple of samples for your viewing pleasure:

Mix4

Even in another language, we were really struck by the depths of the lyrics. If you can't get the sound, this is the chorus of the song, and it goes something like this: "Ba, ba ba ba ba baaaa, ba ba baaaaa, ba ba baa baaaaa..."

And a less teeny-bopperish one:

Catherine Leduc

We also went shopping in the underground shopping mall - don't worry, it's legal! It's like, LITERALLY an underground mall. It stretches for several blocks, and is large enough to get lost in.

On our final day we also went for a stroll for a couple of hours around the Parc du Mont-Royal, Montreal's central and biggest park, with wide gravel paths and tons of fit exercisers! We didn't feel out of place at all.

Our next stop in Quebec Province was Quebec City. Again, we visited a really helpful Visitor's Centre, and checked out Old Quebec. I loved it! It's easy to distinguish the region of Old Quebec, as the city still has much of its original enceinte. The fortifications were grand indeed, and made you feel like you were in a true olden city - complete with all the modern touristy bits too, of course. Narrow, cobbled streets and impressive buildings! Behold a couple of them:

A bank building, or perhaps it was a treasury building

Parliament Building

the animated statues in the alcoves of Parliament Building

pointing and everything!!

Obviously need more photos of Parliament Building, so here is John in front of a cool fountain in front of it!

There were many cannons - many many cannons!

Women's suffrage workers, very tall ones.

Quebec was very late to give women the vote: they did not get the provincial vote until 1940!

Finally, we beheld the majestic Montmorency Falls:

Click to enlarge!

Thus ended our stay in Quebec, and we began the long trip across to the maritime islands in the east. Almost as long as this blog post, in fact!

Banff... to the future

When last we met our intrepid heroes, we were unsure whether they would make it to the end of the treacherous... Icefields Parkway!! Keep reading to find out!

So there we were, driving the 'Icefields Parkway'. In many ways, it was like NZ. There are views like this:

But there are the inevitable biting insects to go along with such views.

In many ways, it's not at all like NZ. These things for instance:

(One of those bears is pale coloured for some reason. We're not sure why.)

By this point, we're in Banff National Park. I found Banff to be more touristy, especially Lake Louise, but you can see why:

Lake Louise has a large hotel building on one end, and a couple of hiking trails nearby. That's ice on the lake by the way.

Speaking of the ice, it made a tinkling sound as the waves pushed it against the shore. Hopefully this video will be viewable:

We also saw some other animals, which we suspect to be caribou.

Anna demonstrates the correct way to take a selfie with the wildlives animals

Another caribou(?), so close to the road!

The next day we decided to do a walk near Lake Louise, up to another Lake called Agnes (poor thing).

The trail was somewhat icy, and we were not ideally equipped with our sneakers. Honestly, though, we should have expected snow in June! Silly us. Happily though, our sneakers stayed dry - the snow was mostly dry and the melted patches mostly avoidable.

We had lunch at yet another lake, Mirror Lake, with a nice view.

(See if you can spot the chipmunk. It's definitely there.)

There are these signs everywhere that say you shouldn't feed the wildlife, but I think this little guy has gotten the idea somewhere that humans mean food:

This is the view once you get to the top:

Needless to say, it was rather cold up there.

Following that 7km round trip, half of it steadily inclining, we felt like some some shorter walks for the rest of the day.

Johnston Canyon fit the bill, and we're glad we did it; both the upper and lower falls are rather something. First, there's a trail that goes down into the canyon itself, and winds along the edge; then there's a boardwalk suspended over the river, and you can see the way that the water has cut through the rocks.

Behold the lower falls:

Notice, if you will, the cave on the right hand side of the picture? It's got quite a low ceiling, but it leads to this:

Right at the face of the falls. It was cold as though, with a complimentary faceful of spray!

A little further on were the upper falls. Behold the upper falls:

view from the bottom

Not nearly enough photos of waterfalls, so - one from the top too!!

Thus endeth our foray into the Banff and Jasper National Parks.

Oh, but since we're here, I might as well talk about our time in Calgary to finish off Alberta. My advice, having seen a tiny bit of the city while we were driving through it, is don't bother. Unless you're using it as a staging area to visit the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, a museum devoted to dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures! It was very interesting - especially the skeletons throughout.

Such as this one! (me with a T-Rex)

Guest insert from Anna: the Royal Tyrrell museum also had these GINORMOUS tropical cockroaches!! Eeeerrgghhhh!!!!

Bleeeooouuuurrrggghhhhh

thumb for scale

The toys in the gift shop at the end were also awesome.

Anna with the World's Largest Dinosaur. This was not one of the toys.

After this, we flew to Montreal, anticipating more civilised delights than the rugged world we'd been in... but which we had survived!! </cliffhanger_end>

Jasper and Banff and Bears - oh my!

One thing that I can recommend: if you get the chance, visit Jasper and Banff National Parks during the summer. I can't vouch for the winter, but the scenery should still be there, even if the animals are in hibernation.

We had been warned before leaving Edmonton that we should expect to see wildlife. Mountain goats perhaps. Maybe elk. Perhaps a bear or two, if we're lucky. Internally, I scoffed at this. Bears aren't the types of things you just see, unless you're really lucky, and even then surely it'd just be a glimpse. It turns out that luck (or providence, if you prefer) was on our side.

Jasper and Banff are National Parks (as I've already stated) that lie on the Alberta side of the Rockies. Jasper is the less famous/touristed park, and is the better of the two because of this.

As you approach Jasper, there are all these signs with pictures of moose and elk, stating that we should be careful while driving, and so I was all hyped up about seeing some wildlives wildlifes animals, so we didn't take any photos of the drive in, even though it was spectacular, with mountains and cliffs and the like.

As you do, we went to the information centre, to look up some walks, maybe get a map of the area. There was a large display of information regarding the tracks which were closed because of: A grizzly bear that frequents the area and is aggressive. Also there were another bunch of tracks that were closed because it's the season for elk to give birth.

We decided to do the 'Valley of the five lakes' trail. Let's count 'em down.

(One) Such a nice colour.

(Two) I found the panorama function on the camera. Another nice colour.

(Three) Sometimes the panorama function is a bit finicky. It really didn't want to take one of this lake, so here's this one.

(Four) For some reason this one's a different colour. Not quite so nice either.

(Five) So majestic. Such an awe inspiring sight. What's the appropriate reaction to such a display of God's creation?

Take a selfie of course.

Of course, during that whole hike, we were looking out for bears, just in case. We saw a mouse type thing, some birds, and another hiker who had this bell attached to his pack, which presumably lets bears know that you're there, so they don't get startled.

After lunch we climbed a hill (Old Fort Point), and tried to escape the rain, which had started lightly and then more heavily spattering while we were walking. Thank goodness for rain jackets.

You can sort of see the rain clouds on the left there. This is the view from the top of the hill.

We saw evidence of animals, but thankfully no aggressive grizzlies.

We presume this is some sort of burrowing animal.

Since the weather had closed in, and since we were tired from all that walking (you'd think all the walking around Disneyland/Vancouver/Vancouver Island would have prepared us, but not really) and since we wanted to see some bears, we decided to take a drive around some of the roads that the aggressive grizzly allegedly frequents.

You'll see by our lack of photographic evidence that he was too aggressive and too grizzly to be caught on camera. We drove around a lake for half an hour, and didn't even take the camera out.

We then went on one more walk that was safe from bears. I didn't even know I wanted to see a bear until we were told they were in the area.

Some of the trails had concrete footpaths, and steel tube railings, so I guess these are the more popular walks.

Water from a rock in the wilderness.

There was also some snow. Yes, snow. It's summer here, but apparently that's how they do things in Alberta.

Yes, that's snow there. We knew you'd be incredulous. We were.

Since it's getting later by this point, and since we've done most of the trails that were safe to do, we decided to go on another drive, this time on Maligne Lake road, which was sort of on the way home.

We saw some bears.

The thing about these scenic roads in National Parks is that they're slow. We're crawling along at 50, and we see a car stopped by the side of the road. Obviously they've seen something.

Exhibit A:

I'm pretty sure there's a bear behind that tree there. No, the other tree.

Exhibit B:

Indisputable evidence.

There are all these signs and notices in the towns about not getting out of your car if there's a bear or an elk, because they're dangerous.

I suppose it's understandable when you see a little guy like Exhibit C:

Cliff for scale. The technical term for his gait is: "scampering"!

But of course, where there's an Exhibit C, there's always an Exhibit D:

I'm reminded of Proverbs 17:12
"Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs than a fool bent on folly," and I wonder who would come out worse off, the grieving bear, or the fool getting out of his car to take a photo of said bear.

Exhibit E: (because who doesn't want another picture of Mum and baby?)

(Anna apologises for the poor photography skills. She was eating a donut at the time - vitally important - so was unable to zoom out to capture both bears properly!)

I have to be impressed with these bears, they're all so chill, and don't let their fame get to them. Just another day in bear land, doing bear things. Exhibit F:

We saw what I think must have been a Canadian Lynx, but it ran away too quickly for us to get it on camera. If you ever go to Jasper, do one of these drives as the sun goes down. That's when the animals are all moving around doing their animal things.

The next day we drove to Banff via a road called the Icefields Parkway.

We saw mountain goats:

You can see another car parked looking at the goats. The dude inside has a curiously appropriate crop of facial hair, but that's besides the point.

When you're doing this drive, there are all these things that you can stop at along the way, quite apart from the wildlives animals.

Waterfall! Athabasca, to be precise.

Because there are so many people in the country who only speak French (I assume it's a long story) all the signs are bilingual. Anna really liked (LOVED) the drama of the signs at Athabasca Falls, and could totally see herself writing similar pieces!

To be read in a melodramatic style:

EPIC!!

Some sort of mountain sheep:

Here's why it's called 'Icefields Parkway':

I'm actually going to leave it there, since this feels like a really long post. Tune in next week as we follow our heroes along their perilous journey. Will they make it out alive?!