A chaotic journey to.Banff

 A very early (6am) start to get an 8.55am flight to Calgary today meant we were pretty tired when we arrived at the magnificent town of Banff. 

There was chaos at Toronto airport as the check in system had gone down just prior to us checking in. There were about 1000 people with trolleys laden with suitcases not knowing which queue to join, which was very wearing.  But as always, things work out and our flight left on time.  But we weren't impressed with what was obviously an old and tired aircraft which rattled quite a lot, the movies were limited and slow to load. Pam's earphone socket was broken, and they didn't offer us any food on the 4 hour flight!!

On arrival at Calgary we should have been met by a tourguide, but she was nowhere to be seen. After 30 minutes, we eventually bumped into her, but were asked to wait another 90 minutes for the rest of the party to arrive on a separate flight before setting off on our coach transfer to Banff.

Things got farcically worse, when the rest of the party only arrived in dribs and drabs, so search parties were sent out to look for the stragglers. But they themselves had to be chased, to let them know the stragglers had arrived. Which ended up with the farce of two search parties looking for each other in the arrivals hall.  Very funny, and lots of laughs.

And so we set off for the 90 minute transfer 

The mountain scenery slowly revealed itself, as the excitement of getting near to the Rockies built.  

Our hotel room overlooks the high street of Banff:

We ate in a nearby restaurant with a great vibe. We had a wood fired ribeye steak as a treat, which was delicious.  A really attractive place, which had its own gin and vodka distillery around the back.

We were served by an English guy, who'd just started a 2 year working stay here in Canada.

We ended the day by meeting up with one of my old college mates, who happened to be in town at the same time. 

We shared a few drinks and shared our travel experiences - he was just on his way back after a trip to Japan and a voyage across the Pacific on the Queen Elizabeth.

Very tired, and with the time difference,  we were in bed by 9pm local time.