On my arrival at Calgary airport, I decided I would catch a bus rather than a taxi into the centre of town. My thinking was that a bus would be slower and give me the opportunity to have a look at the outer suburbs before arriving in the centre of the city which would be where I would be spending the bulk of my three days in and around Calgary. While the idea behind this decision may have been well-founded, the bus driver dropped me off at his normal bus-stop in Fourth Avenue, leaving me with a walk down to Seventh Avenue where my hotel was apparently located. This was where the first error of the visit occurred, and I turned left rather than right in my journey to find my hotel. Seventh Avenue was in many ways the main street of Inner Calgary and it was the home of huge Sky Towers where no doubt the over 100,000 local millionaires worked. Hotels seemed to have been banished to the ends of this busy street allowing the huge sky-scrapers to dominate the centre of town. I intercepted a policeman who cheerfully explained that I was at the wrong end of the street and I should catch a train to the other end. Said train was just pulling in over the other side of the road and it would have taken me five minutes to get to my hotel. However, I was still struggling with directions so I decided that I was happy to walk
I have always thought that a city that valued its art pieces was a city that was on its way to being very livable. Before I actually reached 7th Avenue, I passed and admired a gigantic bull that was set up outside the City’s stock exchange. No doubt the stock brokers that worked in this stock exchange rubbed the nose of this bull to encourage regular ‘Bull Markets’ to increase their fortunes. In fact, the bull was a tribute to one of the famous bulls, ‘Outlaw’ who was only ever ridden once from 71 attempts in the Calgary Stockade.
Well into my walk down the 7th Avenue, I came across an impressive Indian Statue that was dedicated to one John Hunter, Sitting Eagle. He was described as a Patriarch of the Stoney Tribe who was recognised for his business and ranching acumen. The statue was raised in 1988. The third image above is an eagle mural that was painted by two local artists in two weeks! I enjoyed my stroll down main street, not only checking out the art pieces but also getting a sense of what the light rail system did for the locals who needed to get down the street as quickly as possible. The LRT system was free for everyone as long as they were travelling along this avenue. Once the train moved on to other suburbs, the commuters needed a ticket.
I finally arrived outside the Sandman Hotel of Calgary and I was mighty pleased. I noted that directly opposite the door of the hotel stood the last ‘free’ station of the Light Rail system so I knew how I was going to be travelling around Calgary over the next few days. It was simply a matter of walking across the road and jumping on board the carriage and getting out at the stop that was closest to my destination. I was able to settle into my room and recover from the long walk so that later in the afternoon I was able to re-emerge and have a look at the parts of Calgary that surrounded my hotel.
FOGTRAVEL 