Lake Louise

Lake Louise and our hotel was such a picturesque place that offered opportunities for walks and fine dining with a view that I have decided it rates mention on its own. There was a small village nearby, but I stayed the hotel, given the limited time we had. The morning after we arrived we were off on another long drive . . . so we really only had time for breakfast and a short stroll around its grounds. 

Some of my companions from the two days of touring were going off to catch the Rocky Mountaineer that morning. But I was continuing on the panoramic route by heading to Banff and catching the train later. I am so glad I did! (There are so many ways you can mix and match your Rocky Mountaineer experience. ) 

The hotel had a lot of really good shops - even a book shop and a lovely art gallery which had beautiful carvings and sculptures in marble, jade and other precious materials - some very large - of bears and other local animals, as well as some beautiful artwork by First Nation people. It has been very interesting seeing television programs and reading in Canadian newspapers about the problems in Canada that reflect our own in Australia. According to the sources I saw, when Canada was first settled by white settlers, the First Nation peoples were driven off their lands, inveigled into signing treaties that were not worth the paper they were written on, forced to live on land that did not belong to their heart and spirit and did not provide the food they required, and stopped from practising their songs, dancing, art and language. On top of that their children were taken from them. Exactly the same happened in Australia with our Aboriginal people. The arrogance and brutality of the white settlers in those times beggars belief. Only now, apparently, is the current Canadian Prime Minister beginning to really recognise that the needs of the First Nation peoples and the justice of their demand for their own land must be addressed, and now! Previously it has been empty rhetoric, like so much of our politics today. 

When a lady I sat next to on the two coach tours and I had breakfast together, we were delighted to see a little chipmunk scurry between the tables. She had gone for a walk on her own along the side of the lake the evening before, something I decided not to do because of the fear of encountering a brown bear, and to be honest, I was very tired in any case. She had to turn back herself because she found fur from brown bears all over the bushes. We were told at breakfast that those bears do attack people quite viciously, even though they are herbivores, so just as well she came back when she did!  

The hotel shown in the following photos of the lake and the hotel grounds is Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise. A great hotel! You will notice I loved the flowers around the place too.