Afternoon Tea at Banff

Patrick Food, Travel, UK Life

A couple of weekends ago, Eileen and KP graciously took Reshmi and myself up to Banff for afternoon tea at The Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. Looking very much like a castle nestled amongst the pine trees, the hotel has a weird mix of old and new to please everyone. Much like the Fairmont Lake Louise, shopping is very much upmarket (who buys artwork in the $1000s when they’re on holidays in the mountains?) with a number of restaurants and bars to suit all tastes.

Fairmont Banff Springs

Although they stuffed up our booking, with the result being the four of us crammed on a small table perched a little bit away from the amazing views provided through the window, the company and food helped make it an enjoyable experience.

On their website, their menu lists afternoon tea as:

Seasonal Fruit Salad
Dainty Finger Sandwiches, English Cucumber, Egg Salad, Smoked Salmon & Cream Cheese and Carrot Ginger
Victorian Scones, Devonshire Cream and Strawberry Jam
Fresh Delectable Pastries and Sweets
Banff Spring’s Special Blend of Tea

Our waiter, much like many of the staff around town, was an Australian guy (from Melbourne) and served plenty of tea to make up for the tiny little table. Considering how busy the rest of the dining area was, he did a pretty good job of keeping up glasses of water full, our cups of tea hot and made it a pretty pleasing experience.

Afternoon Tea

Although afternoon tea is relatively expensive at $32 and unlikely to be up to par to many of the London based ones, the dining atmosphere and (potential) views are worth going at least once. Book ahead, and given our experience, it’s definitely worth confirming the details of your booking closer to your visit.

Air Canada Flying Backwards

Patrick Annoyances, Canada, Travel

I’ve now flown Air Canada both domestically and overseas. For some reason, their domestic planes have an on demand entertainment system yet their international planes which actually really need them, lack them. Instead, their screens literally carpeted over with seat material instead. Bizarre? Yes, not to mention what a taunt.

Back from… Vancouver

Patrick Canada, Travel

Vancouver InletsWow! After only spending two days in Vancouver, I think it must be one of the most liveable cities I’ve been to so far. It beats Brisbane by having a real down town. It beats London by having the crowds and density without actually feeling like it. It beats Calgary by apparently only being 40 minutes from the nearest ski hill. It beats New York by actually being very walkable without feeling like you just completed a marathon. It also has an amazing number of suburban areas, each slightly different and unique. I would place bets that it also rivals the number of coffee stores selling reasonable coffee per capita than Melbourne.

Plank SalmonThere are plenty things that you may not like about it as well. Apparently it’s a very wet city. For me it rained Saturday morning although cleared up with spectacular results and fortunately making everything appear an intense green. Vancouver also has its fair share of dodgy areas, like on Hastings street that runs between the historic gas town and Vancouver’s vast Chinatown.

Mangos JapaneseI’m not sure where all my time went spent between hanging around the awesome Granville Island Public Market, sitting in a number of cafes (including my, now favourite, Cafe Artigiano), walking around Stanley Park, eating superbly fresh seafood and indulging in the lively atmosphere along Robson. To be honest, I’m not sure if it really matters though with the great time I had there.

View the rest of the photos here.

Cafe ArtigianoRestaurants/cafes eaten at:

Other places I wanted to eat at:

Making Sense

Patrick Annoyances, Canada, Travel

Is it me, or does everyone also struggle to find the right coin combination for exact change, with the usual result a quick draw from the wallet to find a note for payment instead?

Canadian Coins

Strangely I don’t have any problems with money from the US, yet when I find myself in front of a cashier, the hunt for Canadian quarters, nickels, dimes and pennies is a stressful event. Like the US, it also doesn’t help that tax is also added at the cashier, making any prior preparation a fruitless endeavour.

I’m sure that by the time I leave, I’ll have worked out the system. Until then, it’ll be a handful of change and a cheeky smile to tide me over.

Where in the world is… TheKua?

Patrick Canada, Travel, UK Life

It’s been a bit of whirlwind trip, and despite the posts around Calgary, I did, indeed, spend just over a week in the UK for a conference. I had registered for this specific conference late last year thinking it would be a breeze to get to from London, ironically ending up in another part of the world. I had plenty of fun (see the conference report here if you want) and they even made time for a networking trip where we indulged in the small bit of sunny weather.

King Arthurs Grave

I went along to Glastonbury and then Wells where we had a brilliant time walking around town, taking in the unique atmosphere of both towns. Having the sun out for the entire day definitely made up for the rest of the classically dreary overcast skies for the rest of the trip. I found it surprisingly cold as well for London, having left Calgary at a comfortable 20 degrees celcius.

Unfortunately I had little time to really do that much in London other than pack, unpack, catch up for a quick meal with my flatmates and my sister, and head out to the conference and back again. It really was a fleeting visit and before I knew it, I was on the plane back “home”.

More Sunshine Skiing

Patrick Canada, Travel

I fit in another day’s skiing before heading back to the UK, returning to Sunshine Village and this time accompanied by a work colleague, Tory. I hadn’t realised this and apparently unlike it’s name, Sunshine isn’t usually known for its clear bright skies, often covered instead in a bank of clouds. We were therefore fortunate that it had plenty of sun and wasn’t as cold as it had been last week.

They hadn’t had much snow since the previous weekend though it was still perfectly enjoyable. Troy had his board with him and we did the sneaky thing of simply getting to the top of the gondola and hire the ski equipment at the top instead of waiting in line at the bottom. It’s almost the same sort of equipment although only offering intermediate and advanced ski equipment – something I didn’t mind paying a few extra dollars for.

I’m extremely thankful that I’ve been fortunate to fit in three visits to the slopes in the three weeks that I’ve been here. I’m a little skeptical about the apparent snow that lasts until the end of may and I’m tempted to bring all my stuff back with me when I briefly return to the UK for a quick conference visit. Either way, it’s been a great time.