The city has a lot of sculptures some of which are surprising in where they are placed. There's a huge iron horse made from out of tractor parts which is on a street corner and takes up that much room on the pavement that one has to manoeuvre around it, there's a stone statue of two businessmen greeting each other apropos of nothing else within its own vicinity. The streets at that time of year were teeming with flower baskets.
As it was a Sunday, most places were reasonably quiet. One thing that fascinated me about Calgary were these bridges. They are called Plus 15s. There are around 60 of these bridges covering 10 miles around the city. They are called "+15"' as they are mostly around 15 feet above street level although some are actually +30 and +45. What they are, is the world's most extensive pedestrian walkway system which enables safe passage between buildings and streets without the need to negotiate the traffic, or the weather. They connect hotels, shopping arcades, offices, and they even have their own by-laws to stop such things as people sleeping in them during the winter. Fascinating!
The tower, ("Calgary Tower" renamed from "Husky Tower"), at over 600 feet is visible from all over the city and from up there you can see all over the city. It was built in 1968 and once construction had started, they couldn't stop it as the concrete had to be built up to each level just at the right moment before the lower one had set. Until it was completed, it was always at least partially like a very large blancmange! During the winter Olympics in 1988 they installed a gas burner on the very top and the tower served as the official Olympic Flame. The torch has burned on sevaral occasions since then during public celebrations and the local ice hockey team is named after it, The Calgary Flames.
Up in the deck there is an 11m glass observation platform which stands high up above 9th Street. The angel on your left shoulder tells you that it's perfectly safe and that of course they wouldn't encourage you to stand on it and walk on it if it wasn't so. However... the demon on your right shoulder tells you that you are about to die, the glass will crack and/or fall out, you will plummet to the ground and squash into the tarmac like a jelly and it therefore makes you quite dizzy and it turns your stomach over and over when you first step on to it with much much trepidation, holding onto the sides for dear life itself and almost not daring to look down, just in case you fall!!
This sign didn't help much....
So Eamonn and I decided that we ought to test it out, so we both got on the platform at the same time. I wasn't scared.... honest! What you can't tell from the photograph is that Eam has just composed himself after a mad frenzy of Burpees whilst pointing at me and laughing like a rabid hyena, and that Janet and Linda are having to hold me up, 'cos I actually... I'd just passed out.
We had another day out which would prove to be nothing less, than FASCINATING! Janet and Eamonn took us out..... to The Badlands! No sign of Bruce tho... What you see below is a Sod House. A 'Soddy'.... a small house, or rather a dwelling, made out of turf. These were built out of cuts of grassy turf by the early pioneers as cheap, temporary homes as they built railways and villages. We stumbled upon this example in a somewhat off-beat little village called Beisecker on our trip to Drumheller in the Badlands.
As small as it is, Beiseker has a museum. Dedicated to the CPR railway it is located in the old CPR Train Station at the west end of main street and gives one some idea of the lives of the early settlers of that area. Local volunteers built the Soddy and look after the museum. We were a bit mean really, as one enthusiastic young curator tried to get us to visit the museum, but after helping ourselves to his sod house and the caboose, we carried on to our target for the day...
The Royal Tyrrell Museum.
Now I know that I can be prone to over-enthuse about something that floats my boat, but..., I sincerely mean what I'm about to say in my next sentence...
The Royal Tyrrell Museum, is...., THE BEST EXHIBITION OF ANYTHING... IN THE WORLD!!!
Set right in the heart of the badlands just a little northwest of Drumheller, this museum is unbelievable!
You drive in through Drumheller and it is SO cheezy with its dinosaur themed everything on every corner, that you can be forgiven for being filled with dread. BUT... As you walk through the amazing displays and incredible exhibits, you realise that you are actually privileged to be among a snapshot of millions of years of our Earth's history. So many actual bones and skeletons, captured and restored, preserved and displayed for our education. Below for example is an ACTUAL jaw bone from a Tyrannosaurus Rex and believe me, it is HUGE!
As well a being a superb exhibition facility, this is a working laboratory and throughout you are treated to displays and demonstrations of how they dig up these fragile pieces of our past, and how they preserve and present them. We were there for hours... I could have stayed in there for days!
As well as the internal exhibitions there is a wonderful walk outside through the very places in which the bones are found, still to this day. You can't help but stop and wonder at how so many millions of years ago, these ridiculously massive creatures used to go about their business just like we do now. I urge you , if you are ever lucky enough to have time in Alberta. to visit this place!
After our Jurassic experience we called in at Rosedale to see the suspension bridge over the Red Deer River. Located just outside Drumheller, the 177m bridge was originally built to enable miners from the community of Rosedale to get to work at the Star Mine.
Now it serves as a tourist attraction and there are strict guidelines about using it. No more than 8 people at a time to cross it and absolutely NO BOUNCING on the bridge. Now it's not often that I feel like a big wuss.. but when I saw these two purposefully bouncing towards me... I nearly soiled myself...
Our last visit on this superb historical day out was to see the Hoodoos.
These eerie formations are formed by wind and water. The sedimentary rocks are eroded over thousands of years and the layers that are left exposed form mushroom like statues in the barren landscape. The First Nation people believe that they have spiritual powers and they worry that eventually, when the time and weather takes its toll that there will be nothing left.
It is a fascinating place to be, as near as one can imagine to being on the surface of the moon.
Katie, Eamonn and I climbed up to the top and left the others about half way up as their legs were too short to fit in between the narrow passages.
What a fantastic day out we had in the Badlands.. It summed up for me what the absolute pleasure, and absolute privilege of travelling is and I'm so grateful to have been given this opportunity by our thoughtful and insightful hosts! I think we all learned something!
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