Day out to Calgary, Alberta, Canada

4th July 2012 - Downtown Calgary, Alberta.

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We took a drive into Downtown Calgary before the throngs descended on it for the 100th Calgary Stampede Parade. There are lovely belts of greenery surrounding the city area.

It was a lovely sunny day, around 20deg. C - Calgary reminds me very much of Melbourne.

This covered walkway connects the Scotia Centre to The Core, a swanky shopping centre. On the 4th floor of The Core is a food court like no other - its called Devonian Garden, beautifully appointed with a glass (maybe perspex, I'm no architect) roof. The Stephen Ave Walk is where you'll find these 2 shopping centres.

 

Calgary is 3,438ft above sea level and has a population of around 1.2million. There is an air of purpose and vibrancy in this city...the global financial crisis appears to have a lesser impact on Canada.

A view of a another outstanding architecture....sorry about the dirty windscreen!

 

With a mix of ultra modern buildings and old (as seen in photo below), we love Calgary.

Calgary Chamber of Commerce building.

Many of the shop windows had these cute decals to celebrate the Calgary Stampede.

Another lovely old building in the background.

The Core...the top level is the Devonair Garden Food Court.

This is a housing estate on the City Limits...there are just hundreds of these double storey homes-all seem to be identically boring. They do however sit on high grounds which gave these ones views of the Canadian Rockies.

4th July 2012 - Cochrane

We love Cochrane!  Elevation: 3,891ft.  Lots of ranches that stretch for miles with cattle and horses.

We were also pleasantly surprised when we came across this Alpaca Ranch.

These alpacas had been recently shorn and they looked like full sized poodles.

Check out the different colours - we saw dark chocolate, golden brown, grey, beige and white ones.

Beautiful houses sit on the rolling hills of Cochrane. Think James Herriot in "All Creatures Big and Small" and you could almost be in the English countryside, just much nicer weather.

Approaching downtown Cochrane.  Cochrane sits at the base of Big Hill in the Bow River Valley. It is 18kms west of Calgary city limits.

The Home Quarter Mercantile & Pie Shoppe, downtown Cochrane. You can sit and play at this piano, the music sheet is provided!

Charming buildings dot the streets of Cochrane.  It is a fairly large town with about 17,500 people.

Canyon Rose Steakhouse ,there are quite a few eateries in this town.

Mackay's Home Made Ice Cream shop...the queue was long.

This iconic establishment has been around since 1948 and is still run by Jimmy MacKay's grand daughter, Meghan.