An early start today by flying with KLM from Trondheim to Amsterdam. In Amsterdam we take the train to the city centre and walk around for a couple of hours before returning to Schiphol for the next flight. We travel with Martinair to Vancouver. A 10 hours non-stop flight takes us over the Atlantic to Canada. We have beautiful views during our flight towards Scotland, Iceland, Greenland and the very north of Canada. We take a taxi to our hotel for the next 2 nights: Travelodge Vancouver Airport.

Our first day in Vancouver starts with a full breakfast with bacon and eggs. We pick up our car on the Airport at Alamo's...a huge Pontiac Grand Prix and we throw ourselves straight away in the city traffic which turns out to be very easy: everyone is driving slowly and clear signs are used to mark the roads. We visit the "Look out!" (the tower offering beautiful views over the city centre), Gastown, the Waterfront and Stanley Park with the famous totem poles. Early bed time today...we still feel the jetleg in our bodies. We have 9 hours time difference to cope with!

We leave Vancouver and drive northwards to Whistler today. We take Marine Drive to avoid the busy highway. The road to Whistler is under construction for the upcoming Winter Olympics in 2010, so it takes us more time than expected. The weather is very cloudy and we even have some showers on our way up north. We make a stop for a walk to 2 impressive waterfalls: Shannon and Brandywine falls. Whistler is a very cosy place with many restaurants and shops. Though it is a typical wintersports village the number of visitors is increasing in summer, also because of the excellent mountain bike facilities. Dinner at Mongoli grill where we pick up our own food before cooks are preparing it for you while waiting. Hotel: Crystal Lodge Whistler.

We drive after a good breakfast at Starbucks's eastwards. The landscape varies a lot today, from mountains to prairies...almost deserts. The area is partly an Indian Reserve. We make a short walk to the Jaffre lakes and have a coffee in Lilloet at a German bakery. We drive through Fraser Valley passing the Canadian Pacific railroad. The trains are several kilometres long! Kamloops is a nice town along the Fraser River. Full summer here, people are swimming in the river. We have dinner at Dorian's..the best Greek food ever! Hotel: Thompson Hotel Kamloops.

One of the longest driving days today; from Kamloops to Jasper. We have breakfast in Little Fort, a charming area with the river and many farms. We have a picknick lunch today and make a stop at Mount Terry Fox, named after a young athlete who became famouse for his fight against cancer by running the whole of Canada. We visit the Information Centre in Blue Creek...an excellent salmon and trout area. Mount Robson (the highest mountain in British Columbia: 3952m) is the entrance to the National parks and the Rockey Mountains. Almost all of the mountains are over 2000m with snow on tops. We meet a lot of huge campers (RV's) with a normal car hanging behind it...a strange sight for us! On our way to our cabin, 45 min outside Jasper, we meet a group with Mountain sheep on the rocks next to the road. We have dinner on a patio at an Italian restaurant in Jasper. There are many tourists in the village and we prebook tickets for the boat tour on Maligne Lake for tomorrow. Hotel: Pocahontas Cabins Jasper 2 nights

Geir celebrates his 46th birthday today!!! We drive to Maligne Road in Jasper National Park. We make a stop at Maligne Canyon, 50m deep. Violent erosive forces created this canyon. Medicine Lake is our next stop. The water level in this lake varies a lot because of under earth rivers feeding this lake. At the end of the road we arrive at Maligne Lake, 22km long and 92m deep, surrounded by snow-cover mountains. The colour of the lake and the beautiful nature make this to one of the most popular places in the Rockey Mountains. We take the 90min boattour with a stop at Spirit Island, which is the national symbol for the beauty of this area. The lake is a popular place to hire a canoe. We meet our first elks on the way back to Jasper. They have nothing to do with the Norwegian elg, called moose in Canada. They have a very nice brown colour, the calves have white spots and they have the size of a horse. Just like the other animals that we meet and will meet, they are not stressed at all and that makes it easy to take pictures of them all. But they are wild animals so you must keep a safe distance. Geir chooses a Japanese restaurant as his birtday dinner place...and we roll ourselves back to our cabin afterwards!

We leave Jasper and drive the 108km long Icefields Parkway towards Banff. We have an early start and we meet both elks with calves and mountain sheep at the start of our tour. First stop is the Athabasca Glacier. We choose to walk to the "toe" of the glacier instead of the expensive snowmonster busses that most people take to the glacier area. It is scaring seeing how fast the glacier is dissapearing because of the climate changes. There are signs where the glacier was f.ex in 1992...and even that is a huge difference in comparison with 2007! Next stop is Peyto lake situated at Bow Summit (2069m and highest point crossed by any Canadian Highway). Peyto was a local mountainguide living in the area. The lake has an almost unreal blue colour and the shape is almost a wolve silhouette!. The pictures taken there are seen on many covers of travelguides, brochures etc...and it is indeed something special. Some flowers along the road: Western anemone and the red/orange Indian Paintbrush. Last stop is Morraine lake at Lake Louise and we have dinner with Alberta steak and prawns in the busy cosy centre of Banff. Hotel: Charlton's ceder court in Banff: 3 nights.

We take the gondola in Banff to the summit of Sulphur Mountain (2285m) Outstanding views and many animals like the mountain sheep, squirrels and chipmunks. One is almost sitting on Geir his shoe! Warm weather today and we take it at ease at Lake Minnewanka. Japanese food again this evening..!

We start with a visit to Kootenay National Park where we see the Paint Pods, a magical spot with red, orange and mustard-coloured pools, caused by iron-laden water bubbling up from 3 mineral springs. Aboriginal people used the clay to paint their bodies. We 've heard from other tourists about Grizzly bear observations at Lake Louise, so this will be our next goal for today. We get some "bear instruction" from park wardens (do not walk in groups less then 4 perople..) before we take a seat in the cablecar. High expectations off course, but no bears to see on our way up. We look at the view and on our way down we suddenly see a female Grizzly bear with one cub walking around on one of the alpine slopes right next to us!! Dinner at Tony Mario's in Bannf.

We leave the Rockies for some days now. Between the Rockies and Calgary there are prairies with large farms mainly with cows. (the famous Aberta steaks...) We arrive in Calgary after a short stop at the 1988 Winter Olympics Area, when the opening parade of the Stampede is still going on and we see some of the participants with costumes, wagons, music etc. It looks very professional! A lot of people are wearing pink today showing that the Calgary Stampede is supporting the breast cancer research. We visit the Calgary tower where Geir dares to walk on the glass floor...190m high..bbbrrr! Calgary is full of people and bars, restaurants are having a great time serving all the cowboys and cowgirls. Geir buys a cowboyhat...excellent sunprotection in the sunny weather during our holiday. Hotel: Sandman downtown, 2 nights.

We booked our Stampede tickets already on the internet some weeks ago, so we can take it at ease today...no waiting in line for us. We visit the Heritage Park just outside the city centre. This park gives an excellent impression about life in this part of Canada for 100 years ago. A funny aspect is that in almost all the builings, cars, train etc. you can meet actors/guides telling you about their lives and the buildings. We have some very nice conversations during our visit! In the evening we visit the annual Calagary Stampede. A very special event..advertised as the greatest outdoor show in the world. We visit the Indian village, agriculture exhibition etc. Besides that there is an enormous funfair, restaurants, shows, concerts, rodeo etc. In the evening we see the chuckwagon races and the grandstand show, a sort of "Las "Vegas" style show. A high-standard performance by both children and adults. They rehearse the whole year for the show and that was easy to see. A great fireworkshow completed this very special day!

We leave Calgary and drive back to the Rockies where we have a new meeting with a bear in the morning...a black bear this time. We see a lot of cars parked along the road and that often means...animals! So we take a closer look and see a black bear walking around not so far from the highway. A park warden is shooting some warning shots at him...and the bear walks terribly slowly back to his forest! We drive through Yoho National park and have a good lunch in Golden. We arrive at the end of the afternoon in Revelstoke where we take a tour to a viewpoint over the city centre before checking in at our hotel for tonight. We have again an outside dinner, this time at a Texmex restaurant in the heart of Revelstoke. Hotel: Revelstoke Sandmann Inn

Today we drive from Revelstoke to Kelowna, again a tour with a great variety in landscapes. From the high mountains, the prairies to the fruit districts...all in one day. The further we come towards the Okanagon valley where Kelowna is situated, the more fruit markets we meet along the road. Cherries, apricots, strawberries etc you can buy at fruit stables. We make a nice coffeestop at a fruit barn with home made cake and garden products. Kelowna at the Okanagon Lake is a very nice place, popular amongst the Canadians because of its comfortable climate...and the wine! It feels a bit like being on holiday in Italy or Spain walking around on the boulevard. 32C today...so it is nice in the shadow at the lakeside...or in a car with Airconditioning! We drive over the bridge and have a rest at Raymer Bay, a quite and pleasant beach. Dinner at the Neighbourhood Restaurant in Kelowna...an Irish style restaurant this time. Hotel: Super 8 Lake Side country Kelowna.

Almost our last day today, driving back to Vancouver. 35C today, so it is comfortable in our car! We almost have an unpleasant meeting with a moose calf that fortunately turns around when it sees our car and the motorway. Not long after this we meet a deer on the road...but Geir can stop in time. We make a nice picknick lunch stop at Bridal Falls, not far from the border with the United States. Our hotel is easy to find at Kingsway, the south east side of Vancouver. Spicy dinner at an Indian Chinese restaurant in the neighbourhood. Hotel: Days Inn Vancouver metro.

After breakfast and check out we drive to the city centre again for some last shopping. For us from Norway, Canada is a cheap country, so we have some extra kilograms in our luggage! We have coffee at Starbucks, walk around in the centre, Gastown and Chinatown. We drive afterwards to Stanley park where we visit the Sea aquarium. Especially the belugas and sea otters are very interesting! We drive to the airport in the afternoon where we bring our Pontiac back to Alamo. The Martinair plane has a small delay but because of the jetstream the flight time is this time 9 hours. After many hours waiting and sleeping a bit, we finally take the KLM flight to Trondheim where we pick up our car and drive back to our own bed in Børsa!! For comments, reactions etc: carolien@loqal.no