Pics from the Candian road trip

On the road from Toronto to Jasper

On the first day of our road trip through Canada we drove unitl Salt Saint Marie, a typical small Canadian town. The trip on the first day was very nice, as we passed many hills and lakes. Some of the lakes were still frozen. On this evening I had the best food of the week – self-made spaghetti bolognese! In the morning we left quite early as we planned a long drive for the second day of our trip. In the afternoon we made a short stop in Thunder Bay. Very nice to see but not so good for our progressing was the fact that it was snowing several times on this day. Therefore we reached Winnipeg not until midnight. Winnipeg is a fascinating city, as it is the largest one in a radius of more than 1′500km. The next big city north is Moscow! Winnipeg: 700′000 people living in a city in the middle of the Canadian prairie. The guy at the reception of our hostel was very proud to tell us that Winnipeg has the most beautiful parliament building of Canada and once Brad Pitt was there to shoot a movie. As he also mentioned some other things worth visiting (the Forks and the Exchange District), we spend the next morning in Winnipeg and left in the afternoon towards Saskatoon. Before leaving Winnipeg, we also visited the statue of Lieutenant Harry Colebourn and Winnie the Bear. Winnie the Bear was brought from Winnipeg to the London Zoo and there he inspired the author of the books of Winnie-the-Pooh.

In Saskatoon it was very difficult to find a room for the night what was little stressful at 11p.m. But finally we got a nice room in an Accor hotel. The receptionist told us the next morning that they found oil in the north of the city two years ago. Since then the city should be crazy with many people and companies wanting to come there and housing prices having doubled. This explained that all the hotels were fully booked even in the off-season.

Today we spent the afternoon in Edmonton; mainly in the West Edmonton Mall, the largest Mall on the globe. Little Amber, our Chinese friend, enjoyed to do some shopping while Ben and I just walked through the impressing mall that included a indoor fun park, an aqua park, an ice rink,…!

In the evening we reached Jasper. After driving through the prairie for more than two days, it was very nice to see the Rocky Mountains during the last hour of our drive today! Now I’m looking forward to enjoy two days in the Jasper and Banff national parks. Tomorrow we just have a two hour drive to Lake Louise – that means much time a short hike and sightseeing.

Driving, driving, driving

The first two days we drived a lot – yesterday 16hours! Finally we arrived in Winnipeg at midnight. As my the battery of my laptop is empty, this is a very short update. Next one maybe from Edmonton or Calgary, depending on the route we take.

Godbye Toronto

Currently I’m sitting in the lounge of my hostel in Toronto and having a Canadian breakfast offered by the hostel: pancakes with maple leaf syrup! Toronto is a nice, trendy city with a rich, manifold nightlife! Yesterday, together with some of the people from the tour to the Niagara Falls, we enjoyed Toronto. We have also seen Toronto from above from the CN tower – a great view!

The trip to the Niagara Falls started with a wine tasting at the Reiff cellars. I did not really like their white and read wines but their ice wine was very good! It has already won several gold medals at international contests! This event was a good thing to break the ice between the people of the group that was very international with people from Australia, UK, the US, Germany, Korea, China, Russia, … and Switzerland! It was a good group and we had a lot of fun on that tour! After some more stops we finally arrived at the falls and they were really impressing. To wait until the illumination of the falls at night, we spent some hours in the city.

Yesterday evening I met Charlotte and René, her boyfriend. That was really cool, as we had a very good time studying and working together at the University of Basel and she has now been studying in London, Ontario for nine months.

In the evening I also decided to join a road trip to Vancouver. Together with Ben, an Australian guy who works as a civil engineer for the Olympics in Vancouver, and Amber (her real name is to difficult to pronounce), a Chinese international student in Vancouver, we will drive five day through the country. Ben came to Toronto on his own by car and was happy to find some company for the return trip. As he already lives four years in Canada, he will be able to show as a lot of Canada’s impressing nature. I’m looking forward to an exciting trip…

Now I will go packing as we will leave in half an hour. Canada, I’m ready to discover your beauty!

Pictures from the Niagara Falls