Banff and the Castle

We arrived in Banff, Tim and I were so unsure as to the weather. The train pulled to a halt in front of this grand mountain with an amazing amount of snow on it and the sun shining, so we weren't sure which was going to win out temperature wise, snow or sun, but sun it was, jumpers off. It was actually quite hot. I was so excited as this was the part of our trip I was most looking forward to...the castle.

Now unfortunately Banff is a small town and they do not have accessible coaches or taxi's but they do have accessible buses. So we did not have a transfer from the train to the hotel due to accessibility or the lack there of, so we had to walk to the bus stop and take the bus to the hotel. Now normally this bus stop is only up the street from the train station, yet they had a bike ride on so some of the streets were blocked off (we thought of you Ray) so we had to walk further and consequently we missed the bus and the next one wasn't for an hour. So we decided to walk the whole way as it wasn't that far and it gave me a chance to stretch my legs after spending the whole day in the train. It also gave us a chance to check out Banff.

I was in awe at first glance, so much so, I was not watching where I was pushing Tim as I was busy looking around that I nearly pushed him into someones garden. The town looked like a little Swiss village with big cedar trees and apex style homes.

As we walked toward the Fairmont Springs we rounded a corner and there it was, standing very tall at the foot of the white capped mountain. There was no doubt that it was pretty outstanding. We past the golf course where I had to wipe the drool slipping out of Tim's mouth. Roxy spotted a little common friend of Banff, a marmot. Roxy tried to run off to play with this little creature but I fear the Marmot was not a fan of Roxy.

We entered the castle and the Lobby was exactly like the picture, very antique and Robin of Locksley like. We went to check in and I started getting a bad feeling, perhaps it was the fact that she could not find our reservation, then she went out the back and came back to tell us they were not sure which room we had as there had been two on hold and they had been trying to contact Tim to discuss access options. This was an obvious lie as most people who know Tim know his phone is not far from his ear most of the time, never the less a good excuse by hotel staff to cover up their mistake. We finally got a room which had no view. This was not the room we paid for but we were told that none of the accessible rooms had views. Now some of you might ask, what so important about a view, well this is no ordinary view and you pay extremely well for it. I was furious that one, we did not get what we paid for, two, that they did not discuss this with us, just gave us a room expecting us to be happy, but most of all that they had no disabled rooms with a view...talk about lack of equality. So I went on my big rant about how people who live with disabilities are disadvantaged enough why do hotels like these feel they need to disadvantage them further. Unfortunately we still didn't get a room with a view but we did get 50% of our room rate back and complimentary drinks, bottle of wine and chocolate coloured strawberries. It was well worth the rant.

So we got to our room and it was lovely just filled with a lot of antique things that it was quite hard to maneuver the wheelchair in and around the room. The bed also was so high that it came up to Tim's shoulders nearly, it was going to be interesting to try and get Tim into bed without a hoist. Hope his carer that was coming was strong! I laid down on the bed and it was so comfy, I just sank into the bed and never wanted to get out.

The carer came and wouldn't you know her name was Dee (the same name as the nurse that cared for Tim after his accident in Perth) but this Dee was 68 years old English and cheeky. She was fighting fit for a pensioner and had a lot of spirit but I was a tad worried about the hike into the bed. So as I feared, Dee as fit as she was, needed a little hand getting Tim into bed. I should never have doubted Dee as it turned out it was I that pulled a muscle in my back attempting to get Tim into the Mount Everest of a bed.

The next day even though I was walking like the hunch back of Notre Dame due my pulled muscle I was determined to go and explore Banff as we were only there for two days. As we were heading into town, we heard someone call out Tim. This a strange concept when you are way across the world. It was Murry and his wife, Murry does all the sailability down the Geelong waterfront and he recently helped us get Tim into the boat when we went fishing with my Uncle George. We ended up catching up with them for a drink later that evening.

So headed into the town and this was a place that was used to dogs, so Rox did not receive the attention she has been used to and sooked about this for some time.

Found the chocolate shop that Claire told me about and bought up big. The chocolate over here is pretty bad, I am having withdrawals from my Cadbury Fry's Turkish Delight. They do have Cadbury's over here but it tastes nothing like Australia's. They also had the biggest wall of pezz which Tim stared at for ages thinking back to Noni's addiction of Pezz. Tried to get a photo for you None's but couldn't fit the whole wall into one photo.

Most of the shops in Banff are tourist souvenier shops and most of the workers in these shops were Australian waiting for the ski season to start again as they all work in the resorts. As beautiful as Banff was it was very inaccessible so it limited us somewhat. Most of the restaurants, and good shops are in heritage buildings with 8 or more steps. We later found out that Tim would have been the highest level of disability that Banff could possibly have ever had or has had for some time.



We went up to the mountain on a Gondola, we weren't sure how Roxy was going to go on it but she was busy looking at all the things down below as if she was just another tourist. We had a great view of our hotel from the Gondola. We got to the mountain and it was absolutely stunning. I hope the pictures do it justice. Met a lovely older couple who were English celebrating their 42nd wedding anniversary. The older gentlemen picked I was dutch just by looking at me, he reckons I have a typical dutch looking face. Not sure whether he was complimenting or insulting me. We were so close to the mountains up here that it was quite cold. Poor Timmy couldn't stand to be up there too long!



We headed back down where Tim saw his next car/truck he wants to modify, he made me take a picture of it...I hope it comes with a driver!


We went back to the hotel and checked out the place as it is so big. there were a few conferences and weddings. We were told that on a weekend they would have at least 7 weddings a day there. We went to the little bowling alley it was so cute, 3 lanes each with 5 pins. Harder to bowl when there is only 5 pins instead of 10. Then we checked out the spa...super expensive, and the pool which I was devastated to not give it a good work out due to my back. Instead we window shopped. Now this is the part where Tim and I pretend we are wealthy youngsters who can afford the $7ooo mink fur coat in the window. Tim re-enacts the Pretty Woman scene where Richard Gere tells the shop assistants to look after his girl while Julia Roberts tries on the expensive clothes and parades around in them. The only difference being Tim did not hand over any credit cards.

The next day we packed up and decided to have brekky before we go. We went down to the buffet and were blown away by the spread. There were 7 buffets to choose from, everything from my beloved fruit loops to the usual cooked stuff to mushroom soup to make your own smoothies. It was amazing and naturally we ate as much as we could. The bacon here isn't that good and the eggs here taste quite powdery but they make amazing waffles or pancakes and the maple syrup is the best!

As we were heading out we ran into a Mountie so Tim wanted to get a photo. The Mountie was happy to oblige but very concerned that Roxy's hospitality might end up all over his pants (meaning her hair).

Our overall experience of Banff was disappointing only because of the inaccessibility of the town when it was so beautiful. The Castle although was stunning, the service was terrible and put a damper on the experience as a whole. Yet we have done it now and happy we did!