We only have Friday off here in Canada, so we had rented a car already Thursday evening to be able to go to the mountains early on Friday. We put on the ski kit and packed the bags and went straight to the Nordic Centre of Canmore. http://www.albertaparks.ca/canmore-nordic-centre.aspx The weather was fantastic – sunshine and +8 degrees, but there was thick snow on the ground and the trails were nicely groomed. It was a bit slippery because of the sun. I had put on too many clothes, so I started taking them off one by one after the 1st km already. We had started on the Banff trail – the easy trail on the map. It was very nice and easy for me – no hills to speak of. My husband managed to talk me into taking the more difficult trail for coming back, but after having gone uphill only for a km already in the beginning, I decided that this is enough for me and went back the easy way instead. Coming down the more difficult hill I managed to fall as well, so this was proof enough for me, that I’m not up to the more difficult route yet. I managed to ski 12 km the first day this season, my husband probably more. But we were both so tired afterwards that we headed straight to the hotel, took a bath and an afternoon nap. It was most certainly due to the fresh air up in the mountains that neither of us experience a lot on an everyday basis.

But by 5 pm we were already in a pub having pints and eating yam fries at the local Rose & Crown. Really nice combination! Then we visited our last time favourite Canmore hotel pub for a beer – the one that had been the miners hangout. We started talking to two guys there – one of them was not very happy at all that we had come to Canada to take their jobs. But with 4% unemployment pretty much anyone who wants to work should have the possibility. Fortunately his mate was more sensible and calmed him down, so we did not get into a pub fight with the locals. The sensible guy looked like the miners of the old could have looked like – bearded and dirty hands in his work gear. He works at a construction site because he likes it and he likes living in Canmore. He said that he has 2 university educations just like many other people in Canmore. People go to live in Canmore because of the lifestyle, not really to have great jobs and make lots of money. We can totally believe that – after only 2 visits we are converted – we like Canmore a lot!

Our dinner reservation was at Zona’s bistro – it had great reviews at Tripadvisor. The ambience was very nice and inviting. Unfortunately people sitting next to our table were really noisy, so we couldn’t hear ourselves speak, but that can happen in any restaurant. We had mussels from Prince Edward’s Island for a starter accompanied with a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. For the seconds we had mushroom strudel – mushrooms in filo pastry and with green veg and potato wedges and their famous lamb curry accompanied with Pinot Noir and Malbec. Lots of wines were by glass, so instead of ordering a whole bottle, we tried different ones to see what works best.  Everything was really good except the lamb in their famous lamb curry was more like mutton – a bit hard and did not have that nice taste. The mango chutney with onions was really nice, though.

After dinner we went for a browse through the shops that were still open and on our way back to hotel saw two bunnies on the side of the road. Since it was Good Friday we automatically assumed that these are the Easter bunnies laying the chocolate eggs 🙂 We let them mind their own business and went on to our hotel.

Easter bunnies on Good Friday in Canmore

That day had zapped all our energy, so after a nightcap at the pub at the hotel, we were in bed and asleep by 9 pm. What can you do – city dwellers and too much fresh air with exercise and big dinner is the best sleeping pill.

The next day we were a bit slow in the morning – had late breakfast, did a bit of shopping at the local stores and ended up at the ski track by 1 pm. With my legs and shoulders aching from the day before, I decided to be a bit more reasonable that day and skied only 6 km, but my husband did a long round again.

There were lots of people skiing both days – beginners and pros, families with kids – there was even a competition for kids going on Saturday. We started our trip back to Calgary in the afternoon and decided to take a different route back to see Cochrane – town were lots of people live, but work in Calgary.

The road to Cochrane – highway 1A is a curvy road that goes by the railway and mountains. We passed a few cement factories and even one gas mine. The road near the cement factories was greyish-white, so we concluded that it cannot be that healthy to live in that area – your lungs might turn into cement after a while.

Cochrane is situated on a beautiful hill – Big Hill – with views on the Rockies, it seemed that the whole habitation was just houses and more houses. It is only 15 min drive from Calgary, so it is probably easy to drive back and forth every day. It is also the second largest town in Alberta and growing – it is actually eligible for city status already. And as it turns out it is one of the few communities in Canada without business tax.

We did not stop at Cochrane this time because we had had only muffin for lunch and were hurrying back home to get some early dinner, but there should be also a lot of different small shops to visit and it is popular location for different sports.

From our local Safeway we managed to buy some Canadian lamb chops and these accompanied with corn on the cobb and a few grilled vegetables was our dinner that we washed down with a bottle of Jackson-Triggs Cabernet Sauvignon. Pinot Noir would have probably been better with the lamb, but we did not mind – the lamb was fantastic! The best I’ve had in Canada at least.