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Michael and I have just got back from an amazing holiday in Canada. Canada’s always been a place we’ve wanted to visit and when Michael was over there with his work this month, we decided to extend the time and travel around a bit. We had an incredible time and the country is truly stunning!

I’ve put together a slideshow of some of the beautiful scenes we saw above. If you’d like to know more about the images, I’ve written all about our time there below. It gives more of an explanation of what you see in the photos. Otherwise I really hope you enjoy them, and I’d love to know which scenes you liked best  …

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We spent most of our time in the Rockies, and these mountains have been one of the most beautiful and awesome things I’ve ever seen. I don’t remember  seeing anything that compares with their scale and magnificence. The mountains surround you, and go on and on as far off into the distance as you can see. And they are so huge, I can’t even describe it. Apparently the entire length of the Rockies is 4,800km, spanning from the northern most part of British Columbia in Canada, right down to New Mexico in America’s South West.

The highest peak we went to was Sulphur Mountain. The height is 2,281m (7,486 ft). This is insanely high! The views are panoramic and out of this world. Michael and I took the Gondola up. These seat four at the most, but even with the two of us, it seemed pretty full. It takes about 10 minutes to get to the summit, and it’s an amazing ride! The views get more and more breathtaking, and the ground, and then the trees, and then the canopy of the trees, get more and more distant. You’re in this little cabin of a thing, being suspended at this crazy high height! It was pretty exciting up there, and I’m not even afraid of heights!

In the slideshow, you’ll see photos of this ride, the little town where we stayed called Banff with its surrounding mountains, and also the views from the top of Sulphur Mountain. Just to say that it was so hard to capture the sheer scale of these mountains. They are truly immense. I felt that the camera could not really do it justice because it couldn’t really contain them or reflect how utterly minute we are compared with them. But hopefully it gives a sense of it anyway .

There are pictures of a place called Lake Louise. This place was unbelievably beautiful. You trod along this path thick with snow through the trees, and then this scene unfolds before you of this magnificent glacial lake covered over in ice. It was almost dusk when we visited, and the sun shone from behind the glaciers, and Michael came over as I was taking photos of it all and said, ‘It’s like God waking.’ His description was so perfect. He should be the writer ha, ha! Apparently in the summer, the colour of this water is emerald (it’s to do with rock flour carried over into the water from the glaciers above apparently). Can you imagine how beautiful that would be? Wow! The winter created a whole other mood though and it was exquisite – you’ll even see sculptures of ice on the lake that were part of a competition. A whole a palace of ice even!! Afterwards we sat around a campfire and ate hot apple pie with cream – there are photos of these too.

Another highlight of our time in the Rockies was a visit to the Upper Hot Springs. Apparently there are several naturally occurring thermal springs in the area we were staying, and so the opportunity to go to these pools and soak in the steaming water with this stunning alpine backdrop couldn’t be passed up! It was just beautiful. This amazing combination of freezing air, and steaming hot water. I’ve included a couple of photos.

We also visited the cities of Calgary and Vancouver. We stayed downtown in Calgary and spent our couple of days there just walking through the city and taking it all in. It was obviously very urban with its high-rises and city parks covered in snow. In some ways Calgary reminded me of our time in downtown Seattle last year. Similar architecture of the buildings, the mirror glass, even a tower very reminiscent to me of the Seattle Space Needle!

We travelled by Greyhound from Calgary to Vancouver, with a start at the station in Calgary at 6:45am, ending at the station in Vancouver at 10:45pm! It was a long day but worth every minute for the scenery from Alberta through British Columbia, which I had hoped for. Pictures of this Road Trip are included too, as well as these paintings I saw hanging in the Greyhound station in Calgary of scenes which I thought were really quite sweet, both including a Greyhound coach somewhere within.

Vancouver was such a highlight! Not only were we there for the Winter Olympics, but we got to see my cousins, Morgana, who has just moved up from Seattle, and Aubrey, who came up with his girlfriend to watch the very big Canada v America ice hockey game! We spent the day in one of the pavilions (which I think was especially set up for the games) called the Irish House. It was a great atmosphere, especially once the game started. I got to experience firsthand the passion that the Canadians have for their national sport, it was fantastic! Every time they scored, the place completely exploded! My cousins seemed to be pretty much the only Americans in the whole place, this tiny bit of blue in a sea of red! I would have loved to have seen the atmosphere had Canada won that game, but in the end it went to the States, 5:3. It may be that the two teams meet again in the final – that would be a great game to watch, the atmosphere even more charged after this round!!

In general, the feel of Vancouver was really alive and bursting with people. Apparently accommodation has been booked out across the city for months in advance, with cruise ships being brought in and moored in the harbour to house the extra volunteers who have travelled to the city to help with support over the Olympics. It really was such a fantastic atmosphere with so much going on around the city, and so many celebration sites for the games. We tried to see as much as possible – the Olympic Cauldron, travel on the Bombardier Streetcar (the Olympic Line), as well as visits to some great parts of town like the historic Gastown, Yaletown and beautiful Granville Island with its wonderful markets!

It really was an amazing, and very full ten days in this beautiful country! There’s lots to see in the slideshow, and I really hope you enjoy it, and that it gives a good sense of both the dramatic beauty of the scenery, and the wonderful bright atmosphere of the cities .