Day 12-15: Wrapping up in Toronto

After rising at the crack of dawn, Craig and I caught a cab to the Calgary airport. Within a few hours, we flew across two time zones and landed at our last stop: Toronto. After getting to our hotel (we stayed at the Chelsea Delta) we started exploring the city, mostly on the lookout for some food. Since we were smack-bang in the middle of down town Toronto, we had a wealth of options. However, we found this lovely little Japanese restaurant and ordered some Bento boxes. It barely cost us anything, which was great because the money we'd transferred earlier still hadn't arrived on our traveller's card. Luckily, Craig and I had kept some back up cash on us just in case but it meant we had to postpone our shopping, at least until the bulk of our money arrived.

Toronto's CN Tower

The next day, we decided to further explore Toronto on foot, to see what the city had to offer. Under the guide of the Lonely Planet, we sought out Toronto's Little Italy. Unfortunately, I made a bad call about to wear that day. While the weather had been cool, it was still pretty sunny and I thought I would get away wearing one of my long silk skirts and some layers over my top half. What I didn't factor in was Toronto's chilling winds! It went straight through me and I was almost tempted to stop somewhere and pick up some gloves and socks. Meanwhile, Craig wasn't the least bit bothered even though he was wearing only jeans and a jumper. Honestly, I don't know how that man does it. Never the less, I was grateful that we were moving at least and generating some heat. I was even more relieved when we stopped for some hot tea & coffee! As we went looking for little Italy, it became apparent how huge Toronto really is. Nothing is quite as close as it seems on the map. We mainly did a lot of sightseeing and enjoyed checking out the Toronto town houses. However, the wind eventually got the better of me after a few hours, we headed back to the Delta Chelsea for more layers.

Later that afternoon, I talked Craig into walking down to Queen's Quay so we could check out the Museum of Inuit Art (or MIA for short) and the Toronto Music Garden. This time, I was dressed for the unforgiving Toronto winds and in a much happier mood. At Queen's Quay, we stopped to check out the Harbourfront Centre and the various boats docked at the pier. We spent an hour wandering through the exhibits at the MIA, which was littered with both miniature and large carvings from stone, bone and ivory. We ended our walk at the Toronto Music Garden, before turning back and calling it a day. All in all, it was great exercise exploring Toronto on foot. And man were our feet sore!


Our third day in Toronto was spent exploring the very famous Niagara Falls. We travelled there by tour bus, on which was a grumpy old man, several noisy Japanese youths of which one had a cold and instead of using a tissue, would just snort his phlegm back loudly... and more. Despite the unruly sound effects, it was all made up for by the sight of Niagara. We got to see it first hand on the Maid of the Mist. This is the very fashionable outfit we had to wear since you do get a decent spray getting up and personal with the Falls...

It goes without saying that we really enjoyed checking out Niagara. The sheer volume of water and sight of it is truly something. And having lunch with Niagara just out the window was pretty sweet too. It was definitely a highlight of the trip. Going underground and behind the falls was spectacular too. You can see the water cascading against the rocks but the noise was thunderous. It really gave you a taste of how powerful that volume of water can be.

We wrapped up our day trip with some wine tasting. The funny thing was, the lady explaining the wine tasting process was actually a little bit nervous of Australians, as they tend to argue with her about the quality of Shiraz and how the stuff Australia produces was so much better. To her relief, Craig and I confessed that we knew absolutely nothing about wine, let alone how to taste and compare it. She relaxed after that but more importantly, Craig and I got to sample some wine. My favourite was the Canadian Ice Wine as it's concentrated and produced from frozen grapes. Naturally, it's more expensive as it's more difficult to produce but it suited my sweet tooth just fine. But since it's designed to be a dessert wine, you don't really want more than a third of the a wine glass. Anything more and it would probably be a bit much.


We spent our last day in Toronto mostly shopping. Naturally, Craig wasn't crazy about this but I'd been saving all the shopping till the last leg of the trip, so we wouldn't have to lug lots of stuff throughout the honeymoon. However, I only picked up a few small items and we probably did more window shopping than anything significant. We also spent the evening checking out Toronto by night and savouring the end of our honeymoon.

And that folks, pretty much wraps up our honeymoon! We hope you enjoyed reading about our crazy adventures and all that we got up to. Soon we'll be back in Australia and nothing much will have changed, except that we are now officially happily married!


Lots of love,
Demi & Craig.

Day 11: Sunday in Calgary

We left early that morning as we were on a deadline to get into Calgary. We were due to return the hired Chrysler by 9:12am and since we didn't want to pay any late fees, we left Lake Louise bright and early. The drive to Calgary was pretty straightforward. As we got closer however, Craig and I had a little bit of a dilemma.

Did we try to find accommodation before dropping off the car or should we drop of the car first and then somehow try to find accommodation? When we arrived in Calgary, we had about 30mins to spare so we decided to try our luck and go to a hotel recommended by the Lonely Planet. We were expecting the price to be around $120 a night. After all, the Lonely Planet had been pretty accurate so far. However, to our disbelief, the "middle range" hotel wanted $200 a night. Craig and I decided to pass on that offer and figured we'd look for a place after we refuelled the car and returned it. So we got the GPS to try and find us the nearest petrol station. It had done this pretty well in Kamloops & Lake Louise but for some reason, the Shell it took us to turned out to be a skyscraper. That was when we realised that it had found "Shell the company", not the petrol station. Needless to say, time was trickling away and at this stage, Craig and I were getting a wee bit anxious. We managed to eventually find a petrol station, all the while trying not to count the ticking seconds.

Never mind. We asked the GPS to find us another petrol station but as we were following its instructions, it kept getting repeatedly confused and would try to "recalculate" its position, causing us to become more and more lost. Luckily, the lonely planet had a map of Calgary so between that and the confused instructions of the GPS, we did eventually find ourselves to the car drop-off point. However, by the time we got there, it was like 9:20am. Luckily, they didn't give us too hard a time about being a few minutes late so we weren't charged a late fee.

We emptied the car of our luggage and walked to the nearest hotel, which happened to be the Fairmont. Not too surprisingly, they were more expensive then the previous hotel and wanted to charge us $299 a night. We kept walking and found the Marriott hotel, but they wanted to charge us $305 a night. Craig and I were both getting a little exasperated and I was about to walk past this fancy looking black hotel, but Craig suggested that we inquire about its rate. I was more than a little sceptical, given that the place looked a little expensive and everything was made of glass and marble. The hotel turned out to be Hotel Le Germain. When I asked about their rate, they were going to charge $199 a night. It wasn't exactly the budget price I was hoping for but by this stage, Craig and I were both a little tired. So we took the deal and got the keys to our room.

Oddly though, they told us that internet would be included, as was any movies we wanted to watch, and then the next morning, we would also get a complimentary breakfast. I thought it was a bit strange because none of the hotels we'd been to so far had given us any of this stuff for free. We didn't make too much of it and went up to our room. To our pleasant surprise, we walked into what seriously looked like a 5-star room. There were bathrobes waiting for us, a massive modern bathroom and even a walk-in closet that was a room of its own. We found out that Hotel le Germain had only just opened and since this was its "soft" opening, they were including all these freebies as well as a reduced room rate. In its own way, that $200 turned out to be a bit of a bargain!

After a much-needed shower, we braved the cold Calgary winds to meet up with Craig's friend, Matt and his Canadian wife, Heather. Matt used to work with Craig at Emu Web Design but moved over to Canada after marrying Heather. I really enjoyed meeting them both and they were kind enough to take us to lunch. It was just nice to sit and chat about the Australian-Canadian experience. After a delicious lunch, we said our goodbyes as Matt and Heather had other commitments. I dragged Craig to the Calgary museum, where we spent an hour or so looking at various articles and bits & pieces of history. We had a small bite to eat at an Irish Pub before heading back to Hotel le Germain to enjoy up our lovely room. Needless to say, we had a great sleep that night!

Day 9-10: Lake Louise

Craig and I had planned Lake Louise as the "proper" honeymoon part of our trip. So we paid up for a deluxe room overlooking the lake, where we could spend 2 days just chilling out. The drive up to Lake Louise is really something. There's all this anticipation as you see the snowy mountains close up and all the while, you know you're getting close and closer to the Chateau. And then you see the Chateau, being guarded by its doormen in their green stockings. They kinda looked like leprechauns to me!

Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise

We were a little tired by the time we arrived at the Lake since we'd been driving for 4 hours. However, we weren't that tired that we couldn't appreciate the breathtaking view of the lake. The day we arrived, the sun was shining in full strength and there wasn't a cloud in sight. It was so bright, the light was reflecting back of the frozen ice & the mountain's snow! After settling into the room, we went out for an afternoon stroll on the lake.

Unfortunately, we'd kinda arrived at an odd season. Since it was Spring, the melting snow meant that all the trails were closed due to fear of avalanches. And the ice on the lake wasn't solid enough for ice skating or any winter activities. However, we were told to head to Banff the next day (a town 45mins drive from Lake Louise) where there would be more activities and shops on offer. Craig kinda wished the lake wasn't frozen but I figured we'd gotten the best of both worlds. Our drive up had provided us lots of views of glacial rivers & lakes while Lake Louise was providing us the wintry version. We took lots of touristy snaps then headed for dinner at the Glacial Lagoon. Our waiter was a funny Canadian with a huge love of Montreal. He was really entertaining and introduced me to some Cider. Needless to say, Canadian Cider is awesome!

The frozen Lake Louise

The next day, we drove to Banff with the intention of riding a Gondola up into the mountains and take some great photos. First though, we visited lake Minnewanka but Aussies, it is pronounced Mini-Wonka, not Mini-Wanka! The lake was pretty spectacular. While the temperature was still pretty nippy, it didn't stop us from walking around and enjoying the serenity.

Lake Minnewanka

The stone creation is called an Inukshuk

However, as we were about to leave, we could see these ominous clouds rolling in. We took it as a hint and jumped into our car, headed down to Banff. As we drove through the streets of Banff however, it soon became obvious that those clouds was actually bringing a snowstorm. We could see the shoppers shivering in the unexpected winds and decided that today would probably not be the best day to try to ride in a Gondola. And since the storm seemed likely to hang around, we turned back for Lake Louise. As we were driving back, the visibility was pretty poor. We were driving 100km/h and could really only see perhaps 5 metres in front of us. Craig was taking it pretty easy but I was kinda like an excited little kid. It felt like Christmas had come. And the odd thing was, all the green pine trees were now completely blanketed in white. The whole transformation had barely taken minutes!

Back at Lake Louise, I was playing in the snow. Unfortunately, it was hard to get to the fresh snow and it didn't make very good snowballs. But I definitely had fun. I also talked Craig into joining me for High Tea at Lake Louise. Although we'd been eating all day, we somehow found room for all the cakes, tarts & treats. I really spending time with Craig and he even learnt how to make a tea using loose leaves. However, I think he still prefers coffee, hehe.

Anyhow, we're due to meet up with Matt (aka Coco), former Emunite from Craig's work. So we'll tell you how it goes.

Lots of love from Lake Louise,
Demi & Craig.

Day 8: 6 hours to Kamloops

It was a long 6 hour drive from Whistler to Kamloops, yet the drive was anything but boring. The first part of the drive took us through these beautiful mountain passages. As we followed the winding road, we got to see the Canadian mountains close up. There are really no words to describe it. Needless to say, the views made that drive something truly unique. At one point, we pulled off the side of the road to play with some snow but decided against walking out on our own as neither Craig or I had a working mobile on us. Since we didn't want to make a bad name for our fellow Australians, we kept to common sense and just soaked in our surroundings.

We got a little bit of snow as we drove but luckily, nothing too heavy. Often, we saw mini-waterfalls as snow melted from the mountains to form streams and rivers. The road would often curve with the winding rivers and at many points, break into huge beautiful pools and lakes. It was here that we really got to appreciate the pristine colours of pure glacial water. It's often described as "robin egg-blue" but I don't think you truly appreciate what that means until you've seen the real thing.

Unfortunately, I'd forgotten to bring the adapter that allowed me to plug my ipod into the car. But in the end, it didn't really affect the quality of our trip. We easily found ways to entertain each other, pointing out interesting sights as we drove. I often read to Craig from the lonely planet or jokes out of the Reader's Digest I'd purchased. Other times, we'd just surf for radio stations as we passed through varying towns, which usually meant that we ended up listening to a lot of Canadian Rock & Country. It was fun though and one of the best parts of my trip.

When we arrived at Kamloops, it was around 5 in the afternoon. I was so tired from the drive, I ended up falling asleep but when I woke, it was 7pm and the sun was still shining strong. This was a little disconcerting but we headed out for dinner. We couldn't really do much in terms of shopping since was Kamloops was a small town and therefore kept to the traditional 9-5 work time. However, we did find ourselves a nice little place called Zac's Tea shop where I enjoyed an apple cider. I'd become a bit of a fan of the Canadian hot cider. It seemed the pretty fix-me-up after walking around in the Canadian cold. But we turned in early after that to prepare for our drive to Lake Louise. We would get a mini-break from our road trip because we were staying there for 2 days.

Until then... take care.