DAY-06 Up, Down & Around Banff By Van, Helo & Gondola

Day-06: Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Starting Location: Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, Banff, AB

Interim Location: Touring in and out of Banff National Park, AB

Ending Location: Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel, Banff, AB

We straggled down to the breakfast buffet this morning, a great buffet I might add. The menu included American, European and Canadian style offerings including plenty of bacon. Not sure if the syrup for the French Toast was Canadian but pretty sure it was some type of pure maple syrup, sticky and sweet as expected.

By 8:45 AM we were together in a side lobby of the hotel and soon saw a van pull up. Assuming it to be our travel home for the day we proceeded to meet the driver/guide Ronni; she is a hugger, a talker and what turned out to be a well traveled and experienced guide for the area having worked for the park service and various tour and travel companies throughout western Canada. Currently she guides in the Canadian Rockies during the warm months and travels to the middle east, specifically Israel for guide work in the colder months. Ronni will be our driver, guide and host until we board the train at Jasper, on Saturday.

Our van is plenty large, a 20+ person van for just the eight of us so spreading out was no issue.

 We began the morning with a short drive to an overlook for a look-back at the Banff Springs Hotel. Other overlooks provided views of the Bow River Falls, the Banff Golf Course and other scenic vistas of the area.

Around 10 AM we headed east toward Canmore and out of the park for the HeloTour. Turns out the helicopter facility is back where Sheila and I stayed when we arrived last week near Kananaskis.

The Helo tour was nice but not worth the time. The ride was a 12-minute flight and only made a short loop of the area north of Kananaskis over an area of not more than 28 square miles or so (3 mile radius squared times Pi). We could see the mountains in the distance and had a good view of the Bow River but the event was not worth our time and a 1.5 hour round trip to the Heliport.

To be clear the Helo Tour folks were professional, personable and did exactly what they were being paid to do. They provided the ride that Rocky Mountaineer had arranged. We should feedback our thoughts to Rocky Mountaineer about the value of the ride.

We returned to Banff around noon and picked up Greg who had stayed behind for the morning to complete some work that he had begun before the trip. Now all together we drove up the mountain behind the Banff Springs Hotel and passed the Rimrock Hotel arriving at the Banff Gondola lift station for a ride up the mountain.

After clearing a voucher issue we boarded two gondolas for the ride to the top. Like mountain gondolas it was a steep ride with beautiful views laid out before and behind us as we ascended. At the top, well almost the top we off-loaded into a cold foggy mist, precipitation that had not so long ago been in the form of snow. Some of us chose to walk the boardwalk to a higher elevation "weather" station. The views of Banff below us were fantastic with the town, the hotel and the golf course laid out before us almost like a model. Others chose to stay warm, drink coffee and hot chocolate while waiting the return of the walkers.

With that our tour day came to a close, it was now about 2 PM and we went  into the hotel's Rundle Lounge for a light lunch where we had a "Where's the beef?" experience. Being that we were a little chilled, the beef barley soup sounded good, a hearty stew to warm the soul. What we received were cups and bowls of what I would call beef barley broth; I think I had the only chunk of beef a 1/4 inch square of beef; and as for the barley I'm guessing that the kettle had about 40 grains of barley that were meted out to us allowing for 5-10 grains in each bowl. The taste was great but hearty it was not. Sheila had a grilled cheese. I tried that as well; it was my first grilled cheese sandwich to be laced with slices of apple. In any case our appetites were sated and soon we were off to our next adventure.

Real Beef Barley Soup

For some the afternoon adventure was a tour of the hotel to view the architecture, the variety of stores and shops and adsorb the history of the magnificent building. For me the afternoon was more relaxed and included a brief nap in preparation for a night of Greek dining and entertainment.

For a pre-dinner afternoon drink we settled into a hotel bar. There was nothing spectacular going on until Diane spied a "Mountie" yes as real live member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in his traditional uniform of a red blazer with a park ranger hat. After a quick photo op, the picture was posted to Face Book and it took only minutes to raise the remembrance of Dudley Do-Right of the RCMP. In the end the girls had "found their mountie", life is good.

Around 6:30 we headed down to the bus stop for a ride into Banff. Tonight we had reservations at Balkan The Greek Restaurant. We started with a pitcher of Sangria, it's a drink of our early days back in the 70's when Sangria was a top-rate beverage. To add to the excitement Pat & Jack ordered flaming cheese a dish of pita bread with a platter of goat cheese soaked in a flammable liquid and ignited before our eyes. We all tried it and we all liked it. Dinners for the night were generally Greek in nature with most of us having some form of lamb.

So our reason for going to the Greek Restaurant wasn't so much about food as it was about the attraction of belly dancing and the "breaking of plates". Though we had basically finished dinner we hung around for the entertainment. Around 8:30 the music started and Maysa the belly dance appeared and entertained the patrons dancing amongst the crowd, on top of chairs and moving amongst all the tables (Try the link: Maysa). After the first round of belly dancing about ten birthday celebrating girls formed a dance line and to the sounds of Zorba the Greek danced amongst the tables until at the end, they all were able to smash plates to the crowd's roar of "OPA"! Actually one of our eight was invited to belly dance with Maysa but there does not appear to be video evidence.

By 9:30 we were done; we had found a cab and were back at the hotel, the big party crowd was bedded down for the night.