Paris, Brighton and Lewes

Eiffel Tower - there was low cloud the day that we were wandering around. 

 Eiffel Tower

 Grand Palais - ice skating rink inside

 LaFayette - large (and pretty) shopping centre

Little alley that we stumbled across that had pretty shops and lights lit up for Christmas

 Old cemetery in Lewes, SE England

(this is a few hundred metres down from where I used to live in Lewes in 2006 and 2007. We had amazing weather when I visited Lewes for the day. It was beautiful and sunny, and I felt kind nastalgic during my visit)

 Harvey's Brewery in Lewes (on the the River Ouse)

 Lewes High Street

 View of the River Ouse

 River Ouse / Lewes

 View of Lewes from the golf club

 Lewes

Lewes Castle entrance

 National Gallery, water fountain at Trafalgar Square, London

Big Ben, London

 Notre Dame island (if that is what it is called!), Paris

 The Louvre, Paris

 Arc du triomphe du Carrousel, Paris

 Palais Garnier - old opera and ballet house

 Inside Palais Garnier

  Inside Palais Garnier

  Inside Palais Garnier - Grand Staircase

This is the most beautiful building and staircase - I have not done it justice!

 The eye, Paris

 Arc de Triomphe

 Eiffel tower - sunset shot

Eiffel tower - night shot (the tower lights up and sparkles on the hour every hour)

Skoki Lodge, Lake Louise

 Porcupine!

At the start of the trail up to Skoki lodge we saw a porcupine on the trail. It is the first porcupine that I have seen! It was a lot bigger than I thought and I didn't realise that they can climb trees.

 Creek on the way up

The weather was overcast and about 13 degrees for the hike up to Skoki, which made it a little easier to hike up with a backpack on.

Hidden Lake

This lake is about 2km off from the main trail. 

Ptarmigan Lake

In January, this lake was frozen over and we snowshoed across it. This time we walked / hiked up around to the left of the photograph. 

Hoary Marmot

We heard this little guy before we saw it. It whistles or calls at a high pitch and at first we thought that it was someone blowing a whistle. It sat on the rock for a long time and wasn't that fussed about us edging closer to get a photo.

Ptarmigan Lake

 The lodge

The trail up to the lodge is about 13 km from the Lake Louise ski area. It is open in winter and in summer, and closes for the shoulder seasons between. They provide bedding, food and drinking water for the guests. There is no running water or electricity (and no mobile phone reception) so it feels like a good (but short) getaway!

 The lodge

 Our cabin

Last time we came, we stayed in the main lodge (dorm rooms), but this time we got a cabin between 4 of us to share. 

View from Merlin Pass 

Once up at the lodge, we had access to more hikes and beautiful scenery.

 Merlin Lake

Despite it being late June, there was still snow around in places and ice in parts of the lakes. After the first day, we had gorgeous sunny weather with temperatures in the low 20s.

Lake Agnes Hike, June 2014

 Lake Agnes

View down to Lake Louise and the chateau 

Cuba 2014

 Plaza de Revolucion (Plaza of Revolution) - which has a large Che Guevera tribute.

 Cuba is full of old cars from the 1950s. The green car here with the door open, is the car that took me from my hotel into Havana. 

 Square in old town Havana

 This is in the old town of Havana. Lots of the buildings are old and falling apart, but they are (bit by bit) renovating the old buildings in Havana. It is a beautiful old town and I wish that I had more time there.

 Hotel Ambos Mundos, Cuba - this is the hotel where Hemingway rented a room in the 1930s and (I think) did a lot of writing.

 Beach at the door step of my hotel in a place called, Jibacoa. The hotel that I stayed at was half way between Havana and a popular resort area called Veradero. I was about 1 hour from each area (by car), so relaxation and quite is what I got!

This is another shot from Jibacoa beach where I stayed.

Moraine and Eiffel Lake

 

Eiffel Lake (hike around and above Moraine Lake)... we did this hike in June... I think!

Eiffel Lake

Eiffel Lake

Moraine Lake (from above)

Moraine Lake

Moraine Lake

Sorry.... no commentary.... I was taking too long to add commentary, but at least you can see some pics!

Lake Louise

Hi all!

Sorry about the delay between posts... 

Over the weekend, I went up to Lake Louise with a few friends. 

We travelled into the mountains on Saturday and went skiing at the Lake Louise ski hill. We had good weather for most of the morning (not too cold or windy), but just before lunch it started to snow a little. But after lunch, it cleared and was even more gorgeous than the morning!! We had sunny blue skies and no wind. It was gorgeous!

A few of us booked ourselves into The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, which is situated on the edge of the lake. 
For those of you who don't know, there are a number of hotels that make up The Fairmont Hotel chain (and includes The Savoy in London). In Canada, the hotels were built close to the Canada Pacific railway. There are a number of them in Canada (Vancouver, Calgary, Banff, Toronto, Montreal) and the hotels in the mountains were apparently built to attract tourists from the east to come to the Rockies. The Chateau Lake Louise opened in 1890. 
It has beautiful decor and large windows that overlook the lake. 
It is a fancy hotel, but we managed to get discounted rates for the rooms. It was lovely! I didn't want to leave my room! Except the hotel has gorgeous tea rooms, dining rooms and bar areas. 
In Calgary, before Christmas, a group of friends and I had an afternoon tea at the Fairmont Hotel in Calgary. The food at these hotels is fantastic!! 

Anyway! Sunday morning we went for an ice skate on the lake and had a look at the ice sculptures that are sculpted every winter and on display. The lake is a popular tourist destination, so it wasn't exactly quiet skating around and the area was smaller than expected, but it is now ticked off my list! It is a truly beautiful location too.

(Taken with my phone during the evening)

After a lazy cup of tea, a couple of us went to Johnston Canyon on the way back to Calgary. Johnston Canyon has an easily traversable pathway that follows the canyon and is accessible most of the year. The creek and falls freeze over in parts of the creek (and parts of the year), and when we were there, the face / outside of the falls were frozen, with water still falling / running behind the wall of frozen ice... it was incredible to see.
The Canyon is split into upper falls and lower falls, and at the upper falls, there is a wall of ice where a lot of people go ice climbing.
Once again, we were spoilt with beautiful sunny weather.

After a weekend like that, I didn't want to have to return to Calgary and the reality of work on Monday, but sadly, it was necessary!
This coming weekend will be very quiet in comparison! I will save up the adventures & site-seeing for another weekend.

Love Kate
xoxo

Photos below are of Johnston Canyon (playing with the settings of my new camera!)

 Water falling behind frozen wall (Lower Falls)

 Upper Falls

 Upper Falls

People ice climbing at the upper falls

More photos at Lake Louise...

 View from my hotel room (ski runs in the distance)

At Lake Louise... thought that it looked cool with the sun behind the mountain