Calgary to Churchill

11/2/20242 min read

silhouette of high-rise building during daytime
silhouette of high-rise building during daytime

Calgary in Half a day

This is likely to be a short blog, we are currently in Churchill waiting for our helicopter ride so a chance to catch up.

We left Banff by coach, luckily we were the only people on a 52 seat coach so as well as spreading out, no other pick ups cut an hour of the journey and we arrived in Calgary just after 2pm. We checked in and went for a walk, we headed to the Bow River which we had followed in Banff. Crossing this on the Peace Bridge we then walked round and over another pedestrian bridge onto Prince Island. This gave great views of the city and if we had more time would have explored the island and sculptor trail in more detail.

In the evening we went looking for some food and I think just chose the wrong road as not masses of places, we headed to the Ship and Anchor following good reviews. Seeing the pub packed was positive but then we saw it was full for Punk Rock Bingo! We decided might not be what we were looking for, after a bit of a trek we food the Market Food Hall looked good but some of the outlets, the ones we were wanted, were shut before 8pm. So after a quick pint, I had an orange cream beer which was different, we headed to the Craft Beer Market. This was a good place for food and drink.

Calgary looks like such an interesting city, I think probably my first itinerary regret of our trip is that we didn't have longer here. Would have loved longer to look round the city and to visit the Canadian Music centre, although not sure where I would have taken the extra time from.

In the morning we caught out flight to Winnipeg, no real time to get out and about so just had a swim in the hotel pool, then the following morning caught our flight to Churchill. At Winnipeg airport we were amused/jealous of one group going to Churchill, who had all been given big orange coats and massive walking boots, looking on the internet at their tour they were the posh ones!

Arriving in Churchill

We arrived in Churchill, there we 2 other people on the flight at the same centre, Churchill Northern Studies Centre, as us. We were picked up and taken to the centre. Seems to be 18 in our group, whereas they normally sell out the full 25 spaces. We had an initial briefing and look forward to the various activities.