Jasper

I am now heading towards Hawaii on a ship, looking forward to being home. But I must tell you that while its WiFi is really expensive, and claims to be high-speed, it is so inefficient I have spent countless hours and many attempts trying to upload this post and the previous one. So I am not sure how many I will be able to post before we reach Sydney on 20 October . . .  It is very frustrating! 

I don’t usually talk about the hotels in which I have stayed. Some have been great, some have been good, and others - well - unusual or just plain disappointing. Do you remember my very strange hotel in Florence? It looked more like a bordello . . . Then there was the hotel in Vienna with the big glass cage-like shower right in the middle of the room . . .  

However, I must tell you about the quite unique ‘hotel’ in which I stayed in Jasper. It was a few kilometres out of the township and was more like a resort. It had huge golf links - championships had been played there the day I arrived. Set amongst the mountains, it also had a large lake, many  gardens full of trees and flowers, swimming pools and all the rest. Instead of being in the main hotel building, which apparently only had about 50 or 60 guest rooms, I was one of the majority of guests that were housed in lodges. About four apartments were in each lodge. Most lodges were quite old but beautifully restored and maintained. Each lodge had a verandah front and back. 

The arrangement of all the streets in which these lodges were located was more than I could cope with when tired, so I availed myself of their service of driving people everywhere around the grounds in various kinds of vehicles. On my first night there I had room service and on the next night I went to their friendly, casual dining area, which still had full service and lovely open fires.  

Because the grounds were open, various animals visited the site. On my first night I was very excited to see a male elk just outside my back window. It was so elegant, standing there with great dignity, but by the time I raced to get my camera it was gone. I also saw a few little squirrels (or were they chipmunks?) scurrying around that door early the next morning as I waited to be picked up to go to the main lodge for a quick breakfast and my bus tour of the beautiful Jasper National Park. They too disappeared very quickly, before I could make my mind up about what they were.   

This place was called Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, and below are some photos of the main building, some of the lodges and a general outlook. I was not able to go down to their golf course. The indoor photos were taken in the main building.