Our first free day in Calgary today. Sleep in for all of us. We then wandered into the CBD for a look around. Free pancakes were the first order of the day. In an area called "Rope Square" were lots of volunteers cooking pancakes on bbq's set up on the back of small chuck wagons. This initiative was introduced a few years ago to get visitors and locals alike up and about and enjoying the activities. The cooks fried up bacon and then topped this with pancake batter, and voilà, bacon stuffed pancakes.....delicious. We sat and ate and watched the hat stomp competition.....yes who can wreck a perfect white stetson hat and rip it to pieces in a set time...person with the smallest piece sitting on their head wins. All good fun. We walked the CBD and enjoyed the continuous parades meandering up and down the streets. Old wagons, First Nation People in full indian costume, mascots, musicians it was fantastic. The local police get involved shutting down streets, but also had little dance to the music at times, and also encouraged us to have pancakes with them too as they were handed around.
We then went to the top of Calgary Tower to get a birds eye view of the city. It is 191m high so we could see forever. Rockies in the distance and the Bow river that caused all flooding.
An afternoon at the Glenbow Museum for a bit of culture. The museum started with the donation of a private collection by a man called Eric Harvie. What a generous man. Plenty to see and read.
Drinks at the Delta Bow and into Chinatown for dinner.