One Day or Day One? You get to decide.”
Jay Shetty
This was my third time in Canada in winter, but it has never ever been this cold before. First of all, this is what -30 degrees looks like…
We finally made our dream of a mountain cabin in the woods become reality and luckily, Blake found one in Invermere with a hot tub. However, our drinks froze to ice within the first 10 minutes. So what did that mean for us? Exactly: drink faster!
But let’s start at the beginning…
Calgary, Canada
Christmas with Blake’s family
Not only was it my third time in Canada in winter, it was also my third Christmas in Canada with Blake’s family. This time, surprisingly, WITH my luggage, which meant without a hoddie and jogging pants (like in winter 2019), but with our “ugly Christmas sweaters” instead 😉.
As always, it was a whole day of indulging way too much food, way too many drinks and exchanging way too many gifts. But I absolutely loved it!
Spending time with friends and family
Besides spending Christmas together, we met some of Blake’s friends, helped Blake’s dad move to another place and did some after-Christmas shopping, before it was time for another road trip together.
Invermere
Drive to Invermere
As I said, our dream of a mountain cabin became true in Invermere. Blake had booked three nights here for us, together with his sister and her husband and another couple, including four kids (this is excluding Blake).
The drive from Calgary to Invermere was stunning. I just love the Rocky Mountains in Canada! That view honestly never gets old!
Going sledding
On the first day in Invermere, we took the kids sledding. To be honest, I think Blake and I had even more fun going down the hill than the kids.
Walking on the frozen lake
We also walked onto the frozen Lake Windermere in Invermere. Our idea of going ice-skating got ruined as there was just too much snow on most parts of the lake. (The same happened in Banff later on this road trip: all the frozen lakes had piles of snow on them which made ice-skating impossible. However, if you remember my ice-skating skills from winter 2008, it was probably for the best for everyone…)
Relaxing in the hot tub
After all this time outside, it was time to warm us up a bit – from inside and outside! So we poured us some drinks and sat in the hot tub in the backyard of our mountain cabin. I’m not too sure whether that’s a thing in Germany but with all the hot tubs outside of our accommodations on this trip, I never want to not have a hot tub anymore in winter. It has become a lifestyle now 😉.
New Year’s in the mountains
What better way to ring in the New Year than with great friends in a great location!? We played lots of games, had some drinks and more hot tub time. In covid times, this was almost considered a big party.
Hikes and visiting friends in Fairmont
The next day we did a little walk in the neighbourhood (the stress is on “little” as it was getting too cold too fast). We then drove to Fairmont to visit some of Blake’s friends. At the end we enjoyed the hot tub one last time before we headed to Golden.
Golden
Another mountain cabin, another hot tub
In Golden Blake had booked another mountain cabin with four other couples (now it really was a party!). This mountain cabin, however, looked very different compared to the last one and had a massive living room area, also a fire place and a hot tub overlooking the frozen Blackberry River. While there were still some other mountain cabins around the one in Invermere, this one was completely in the middle of nowhere – I loved it!
Hike in Golden
Before we could check in at 4 p.m., Blake and I did a hike in Golden through the thick snow. Coming from Essen, Germany, where it maybe snows 5 days a year and then never sticks, this is a winter wonderland for me. However, always feeling cold easily (right now I’m sitting here with a blanket and a tea), I’m definitely more of a summer person.
What a wonderful thought, that we’ll have a full year of summer ahead of us on our world trip.
When we checked in at our mountain cabin as the first ones, we had enough time to soak in this amazing place in the mountains.
Skiing in Golden at Kicking Horse
In the next morning, two of Blake’s mates took me skiing. Knowing that Blake’s skiing skills are just as great as my ice-skating skills (aka non-existent), I decided to not try to convince him to come along and let him off the hook (this time!).
Finally, being able to ski again after two years time felt amazing. However, I must admit there are a few reasons why I prefer the mountains in Austria/ Europe more than the ones in Canada:
- the ski slopes are much bigger in Austria. (In Austria you can ski for the whole day and not take the same slope twice)
- skiing in Austria is cheaper. (I paid $155 for my ski pass for the day plus another $75 for my skis and boots to rent, that’s 160€ in total. How do families afford that for an entire week??)
- the huts on the mountains in Austria have a nicer ambience, tastier food and they are cheaper. (We ate in a tiny unpersonal hut and had overpriced pizza. Where is my “Kaiserschmarrn” while lying in a lounger overlooking the mountains?)
- there is no après-ski in Canada!
Okay, now that I got that German high-horse complaining and mourning out of the way, I must say I was still really really grateful to be able to ski again and had a very fun day with the boys!
Yoho National Park
Emerald Lake
On the way from Golden to Banff, we stopped at a few places, such as Emerald Lake. I’ve never been here before but it was absolutely breath-taking. Luckily, we were the only ones here and I’m excited to see what the place looks like in summer.
Natural Bridge
Another amazing experience was seeing the Natural Bridge, just a few minutes down the road from Emerald Lake (same exit). Although the river was only partly frozen, we climbed (or rather slid) down the path and walked on the frozen parts of the river. There was also a little cave on the side of the river with a frozen waterfall inside which we had to check out of course.
Banff
Lake Louise
Lake Louise was not on our list for this road trip. But it just happened to be on the way from Golden to Banff, so we thought – why not? It was our fourth time at Lake Louise together (second time in winter), but it never seizes to disappoint. There was a frozen castle built right on the ice that is a replicate of the Fairmont Chateau right by the lake.
I’d also recommend going into the Fairmont Chateau itself. Not only to warm up, but also to see the beautiful interior and different views onto the lake from inside.
Hidden Ridge Hotel
In the first night in Banff (Banff is part of our tradition when in Canada), we stayed at the Hidden Ridge Hotel a little bit outside of Banff town. Gosh, I absolutely loved this hotel! It was constructed like a little village with all the tiny apartments for singles, couples, families or groups of friends.
We put on our swim suits and went to the hotel’s hot tub that overlooked the mountains. After being with so many different groups of friends (which I really enjoyed!), it was also so nice to finally have some alone time (especially since we are back to long distance where those moments become even more special and rare).
After the hot tub, I made us some dinner while Blake turned on the fire place – no classic stereotypes here at all. Then we got cozy on the couch with wine and beer while watching ice hockey (what else?).
Nordic Spa
After all those hot tubs, what would you rather want than a full day in one? So the next morning we drove to Kananaskis to the Nordic Spa. We both wouldn’t really call ourselves “spa-people”, but we both absolutely loved the day at the Nordic Spa! In Canada you don’t go in there naked by the way (#cultural differences). We got our bathrobes and towels at the spa. After that we enjoyed the cycle of hot pools/ saunas, the cold pool (here being outside in -27 was actually enough to cool off) and resting inside by the fire on the sofas. We also had some snacks in our robes in the spa’s restaurant before doing the cycle all over again. And before you knew it, it was eight hours later and all the restaurants back in Banff were closed.
On the way back to Banff we only made it to the local supermarket in Canmore. Five minutes before closing time, we quickly bought some snacks (aka our dinner) that we ate on the front seats of our car on the empty dark car park in Canmore. Even after a fancy day at the Nordic Spa, you cannot get the backpackers out of us…
Snowshoeing/ Hiking Lake Minnewanka
Just like in winter 2019, we wanted to go snowshoeing again. We drove all the way to Jasper, only to turn around again at the gate of the National Park. That was because we found out that it would be too dangerous to drive on the roads without a four-wheel-drive. Therefore, we drove back to Banff to snowshoe there. At least the drive was nice and the conversations were good.
the 5 minutes in our snowshoes 
Stewart Canyon
At Lake Minnewanka, we put on our snowshoes but the clip on one of my shoes was broken. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be this time. So we put the snowshoes back into the trunk and went for a snow hike to Stewart Canyon instead which was also very enjoyable. Again, we were the only ones on this hike.
Banff Town
I absolutely love Banff Town! It has such a homely feeling and is such a cute little town surrounded by these massive mountains. This makes it the perfect location for a vacation in the mountains, whether it’s in summer or winter.
After strolling around town for a bit, we went out for dinner at Earl’s (my favourite; it’s a chain all over Canada). We played rock, paper, scissors against each other to see whether we’d go out after dinner or not. I won and decided against going out. To my defence: I was just so cold and tired and all I wanted was to be in our warm bed in the hotel. Maaaaybe I regretted this decision the next morning when I wasn’t cold or tired anymore but in that moment, it felt right. Don’t judge me, I’m sure you’ve all been there 😉!
Hiking Tunnel Mountain
On our last day in Banff, we decided to hike up Tunnel Mountain, which is a 2 km hike one way.
Unfortunately, it was quite cloudy so the view over Banff wasn’t the best. But at least we were rewarded with the typical Canadian red chairs and some self-brought beers at the top (which we had to chuck as it was way too cold to sit there for too long in minus 20 degrees).
And just when we were about to leave Banff, we saw a bunch of female elks (called “cows” apparently) on the side of the road.
Back in Calgary, we enjoyed one last dinner with Blake’s family at his sister’s place before it was time for me to fly back to Germany on the next day in order to go back to “reality”.
Honestly, Canada always seems like a dream to me as it is just so beautiful! Of course, on holidays you seem to be outside more often, but I feel like it’s a lifestyle here when living so close to the mountains. Many of Blake’s friends head to the mountains all the time, to go skiing or hiking in winter or to go kayaking or mountain biking in summer.
This is why I have just booked my flight to Calgary for the 11th of July, 2022 when we are going to kick off our world trip together!
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