Calgary and Banff

Banff Pictures

Hello everyone,

So we flew over to Calgary yesterday after going back to Toronto for an evening.. we had a bit of lie in Saturday morning as our flight wasn't until 1pm... The flight over was pretty smooth apart from the descent which was mental turbulence.. As we were about to descend one of the stewardesses said over the intercom;

"Can I just ask you to remember where your nearest emergency exits are, a bit of a strange thing to say to be honest"

Anyhow once we had landed we got an airport shuttle to our hotel in Calgary.. We were only there for one night, it's a pretty small place but was nice... This morning we met the new people who had joined us in Calgary.. We only have 30 in the group...

We left the hotel at 8.15am heading for Banff which was only a short drive compared to some of the others we have been doing.. First we stopped at the Olympic park to have a look around... Lee worked out there was Wi-Fi on the bus which was great cos he could get the footy scores, come on Man U!!!!

We got to Banff about midday, lovely place and some of the views were spectacular... We had the whole afternoon to ourselves.. We found a local pub for lunch which just happening to br showing a re run of the footy, hmmmm coincidence!!! lol

We are off tomorrow to the Columbia Ice Fields, early start but should be worth it, hoping for some great pics and vids...

Lots of Love
Lee and Lucy xx

Banff Pics

Random car

Some of the views in Banff.. absolutely stunning and a great start to the West Coast

Big fancy hotel in Banff - Unfortunately not ours!!!

More views from Banff

Olympic National Park

Us posing for ski pictures!!!

Lee wins the Gold Medal in ... drinking!!!

Calgary

Messing about in the hotel room.. in our defence we had just consumed a bottle of wine

Couple of pics fron downtown Calgary

Montreal

Some pics from the city tour

On the Montreal race track

Chez Dany where we had our traditional Quebec meal on the way to Montreal.. was a right laugh

Vides below in order

1) At the Chez Dany lunch, some traditional Quebec entertainment

2) Divebomb

3) Medal ceremony for Lucy!!

4) I bet he drinks Carling Black Label

Montreal Not As Nice As You FIrst Think.

Hello Peeps,

Good Morning or should it be afternoon there now i think, had a nice little lay in this morning as we fly to Calgary at lunch time to start the next part of our tour the west of Canada as our flight isnt until 1pm we leave the hotel at 10am we could have alittle lay no settng the alarm for 6am !!!! yey

So Montreal we arrive there around 3pm after stopping for lunch at a surgar shack it was fantastic lots of other groups were there as well we had all you can eat food which was, pea soup, meat pie, potatoes, beans, maple glazed ham, beetroot and pancakes was lovely food and there was live music well a women singing in French playing wooden spoons our group had a seating section in the conservatory but there wasnt enough seats in there for all of us so the 6 young people of the coach me and Lee and 2 other couple sat in the main dinning area which was great we join in the loads to the waving and clapping and singing kinda sining being it was in French but was a great lunch...

Then we got to Montreal at around 3pm had a local guide jump on the bus for our city tour and what we saw of the city was lovely (pics to follow soon) but when we arrived at hotel and check in which all good nice hotel Holiday Inn Express Which was mini kitchens in them and big bathrooms so lovely me and lee took a walk to the main street to get some food and wine and found ourselves walking down the red light area well i dont think i need to say anymore sex shops everywhere you look cinemas showing blue movies and private dancing shops and so on and so on, So i said to Lee the local guide on the bus tour was right she said that catherine street was the main street in Montreal If you cant find what you want on that street you dont need it !!!! we kept walking until we found food shops and cafes and things and found some food and wine and walked back to the hotel..

So all in all Montreal is Like Amsterdam !!!

We are looking forward to touring the west we are told its better than the east for things to see we pick up new people here too some left us here in Toronto last night Thank god some of them were driving me mad !!!!

Lots of Love

Lucy And Lee

Toronto, Ottawa & Quebec

Bonjour,

Yes I know we are in Canada but we are in Quebec and they all speak French!! sorry we haven't blogged for a few days but we have been a little bit busy..

So we last left you on Sunday morning in Tortonto.. we met the rest of the group, there are 51 of us.. much like the Cosomos tour we are one of the youngest on the bus but everyone seems nice...

So first stop was Niagara Falls.. it took about an hour to get there.. given we were there only a couple of months ago we decided not to go on the maid of the mist but we had a look at the falls, played the arcade machines, went bowling, had a drink etc.. On the way back to Toronto we had a city tour and we finally got back to the hotel about 7pm.. tired we just crashed out and got some food..

The next morning we were leaving at 8am so we had to have our luggage outside of the room for 7am... There are 4 coaches following the same route as ours (the other 3 are German) and this morning we experienced the Germans at the Breakfast Buffet.. Basically we had to queue and some of them didn't like it, pushing in, not waiting to be seated etc, basically bloody rude, but there you go!!!

We were on route to Ottawa by 8am... It was quite a long day on the coach.. on the way there we did the Skydeck at 1000 islands, some cracking views (see the pics below) we had a but of a city tour on the way into Ottawa and finally got to the Delta hotel about 6.30pm.. Lovely hotel, shocking lifts, when we left the next morning we were waiting for a lift for about 10 mins (turns out someone had got stuck).. Lee got impatient, went down 10 flights of stairs in the fire escape and promptly set off the fire alarm when we went out of the exit.. still at least we were on the bus in time to leave...

Next stop Quebec where they all speak French.. Another long travelling day and we had a very informative city tour when we got here.. Just had a quite one in the hotel last night... Today we were hoping to go whalewatching however there were not enough people in our group who wanted to go (we did!!!)

We were offered the opportunity to go on the German coach but after the breakfast buffet Lee would rather chew his own toenails!!! Our tour leader Barabara offered to organise an impromptu half day tour and just charge us 15 dollars each, a bargain, most of the group said yes!!!

We left at 8am and first of all stopped at a chapel.. Next stop a bakery called Chez Marie in the old town for a slice of home baked bread and maple butter, twas lovely!! We then went to a waterfall, got very close up.. this is by far the best thing we have seen in Canada so far!!! We were then dropped back into town for the afternoon.. We looked round both the upper and lower parts of town, had a lovely lunch at an Itialian restaurant and bought a couple of knick knacks.. All in all Quebec is a fablous little city...

Tomorrow morning we are off again, next stop Montreal, busy busy busy!!!!

Lots of Love
Lee and Lucy xx

Quebec Pics

View of Lower Quebec from the Upper part of town

The waterfall we saw today in Quebec, taller than Niagara and definately the best thing we have seen in Canada so far

The house where they filmed Psycho and the Addams Family

The chapel were we stopped on city tour in Quebec

The main part of Quebec

Ottawa

The neck pillow kids on the bus

Our bus kinda cool

Us larking around

Some pics below from the Skydeck at 1000 Islands on the way to Ottawa

Some pics from Ottawa city centre

Tortonto and Niagara

Lucy at Niagara

Tim Hortons - Donuts good!!!!

Lee bowling, he won!!!!

Couple of pics from the falls

Lee did ask to be introduced, apparently he was busy!!!

Some pics of Downtown Toronto!!

Vids below in order:

1) Some happy Christians in Toronto City Centre

2) Lee bowling at Niagara Falls

3 and 4) - The waterfall in quebec

5.30am Alarm Call !!!!

Morning Peeps,

Our Hotel outside Toronto Centre was ok thats all i can say about it really it wasnt fab but not really bad either. We checked out yesterday had to get a bus and subway trin into the city centre to find our hotel the tour starts from which ws just around the corner from the subway station so was very easy to get too , we couldnt check in as it was only 1pm and chcek in time was 4pm so we left our bags said hello too our tour guide Barbara and went for a walk around its a lovely city and made our way back to the hotel via the sports bar for a drink around 4pm, the room its very nice. We have just gone down for breakfast after getting our 5.30 am wake up call from reception that we didnt even know we were getting that makes you jump we had to be at breakfast at 6.30 the breakfast was fantastic everything you could image was there from hot or cold fresh fruit about 6 didnt kinds of bread and rolls it was fab !!!!

now getting ready to meet the rest of the group on the bus at 8am

Lots of love

Lucy & Lee

Cod & Chips & A Bastard Journey!!

Hello lovely people,

Well here we are again back to blogging our travels, its only been 4 days and OMG the stresses, laughs, nearly tears is unbelievable i should properly start at the beginning really...

So we leave Norwich at 12.50 pm the taxi picks us up from catton to take us to the bus station to catch the national express to stansted all good turns up on time and not much traffic we get there in time but in Tues the weather was not good it was very windy well the taxi driver found this out by dropping the 10 pound note Lee gave him for the fare the wind took it and it went flying into the road watching this short fat taxis driving running across the busy road trying to catch the money was very funny how ever he did catch it... We then board the bus and all good we arrive at stansted at 4pm found the taxi desk booked taxi to travelodge and back again in the morning all good go outside to get in taxi and there is an accident in the drop off lane and we sit inside this taxi for about half an hour we didn't really mind as we were only going about 15 mins down the road to the travelodge it clears and we go get to travelodge had a nice meal and couple of glasses of wine (to help me sleep of course!!) set the alarm for 4am !!!

We get to stansted at about 4.45am had a coffee and found our check in desk Air Berlin just our luck they were having problems with the computers so could only print off our boarding cards for first flight stansted to dusseldorf the lady told us there is a transit desk when you arrive in dusseldoft go there and they will print off your boarding cards for JFK so we arrive there found the desk no one on it was told we had to leave the arrivals hall and go back into departures which meant through security and everything no problems just a pain in the arse !!! all sorted go through had something to eat and sat waiting for our next flight. which we boarded no problems, in our seats waiting to take off the captain talks to us telling the plan and says the flight time will be 8 and a half hours Lucy looks and Lee and nearly starts crying because Lee had told Lucy its only a 6 hour flight from dusseldorf to JFK he says oops.... he got the time differences messed up to top it off we didn't get are own TV screens they had ones in the middle of the plan for everyone to share lucky (For Lee) we had the laptop fully charged with stuff downloaded on it to watch because if not i think Lucy may have killed him. Food given to us was good not great but good the best part was they gave you a choice of Baileys or Cognac Lee loved that!!!

We arrive in JFK all good passport control OK found our bags and leave the airport to find a taxi which Lee had looked into a number of was to get across New York to Newark as that's the airport we were flying out off the next day to Canada well Ive never seen a Q so big on the way across the road to join the taxi Q Lee gets approach but a guy offering him a rise in his car will cost less that a yellow cab and given him all the patter i take one look at him and go NO THANKS and keep on walking Lee catches me up i say no way am i getting in a car with someone who just approaches us off the street Lee agreed, we waited around 45 mins in the Q got in told the driver where we wanted to go and he nearly has a heart attack anyway he drives on tells us it could take up to 2 hours to =get there because of rush hour traffic we that's fine we knew that anyway he then told us he had no idea where the hotel was which was fun and games trying to find we stopped at hotel in new jersey to ask them how to get there we could see the hotel from where we were just couldn't get to it !!! very funny the taxi driver was good made us laugh alot...

after that i thought nothing else is gonna be stressful......... how wrong can you be !!!

after the long day getting up early and travelling we fall asleep quite early but were woken up at 1am but the fire alarm sounding telling everyone to get out we jump out of bed crab our passports and go out no one else was leaving there room and we do a silly think we get into the lift !!!!! i said to Lee you not suppose to use lifts in a fire to late!!!! as we reach the lobby there are lots of people in the bar drinking and laugh as if nothing had happened Lee spoke to reception who said oh yeah not to worry the chef burnt something in the kitchen its OK you can go back to bed NOT HAPPY !!! after awhile i fall back to sleep but to be woken by the big and loudest thunder in my life i nearly wet myself i jumped over to Lee on his side of the bed and yes i nearly stared crying as people know I'm shit scared of thunder storms!!!! didn't last long but still scared me to make it worse i knew i had to get on a plane that day i said to Lee if the thunder doesn't stop i cant get on the plane I'm sorry but there is no way !!!!

They had cancelled some flights and delayed some flights coz of the weather but ours seem to be on time and OK and the weather had changed massively the sun was shining it was nice, our flight did get delayed by 20 mins but not to bad the flight however was awful Luckily it was only 1 hour and 20 mins it was really really really bumpy my stomach was in the throat the whole time not good !!!

We pick up our transfer bus to the hotel and check in the hotels is run down but OK we are only here 2 nights so I'm sure it will be fine.

We have just been out for fish and chips to a restaurant near the hotel and I'm sorry but there were the best fish and chips Ive tasted !!! lovely evening too sat outside the sun was going down nice glass of wine and being just the two of us Magical !!!!!

looking forward to starting our tour we check out of here tomorrow head into the centre of Toronto and meet our group Sunday morning at breakfast..

So until next time peeps!!!

Take Care

Lots Of Love

Lucy & Lee

On the Road Again

Alwight seeing as we are still in the UK!!!

So we left Norwich today after a month of being back at home.. To be honest it was a bit of a drag to leave but at least the weather was crap today..

eventful as ever we were picked up by taxi to take us to the bus station.. when the guy dropped us off it was so windy that when he was giving Lee some change the tenner he had blew out of his hand across the road by Marsh, incredibly funny watching him run across the road to retrieve it..

Journey down to Stansted was ok and the after we had sorted a taxi to take us to the Travelodge there was a small accident at Stansted (someone had wedged their car by the barrier) so we were stuck for 30 mins..

Early start tomorrow 7am flight to Canada (via dusseldorf and New York).. Yes before you ask Lee booked it!!!!

Lots of Love
Lee and Lucy xx