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Well the day started with quite a late rise for us....ok I'll be honest! It was a very late rise and after breakfast etc we were not out on the streets of Calgary until 1100....now thats bad!

I dont know if our bodies somehow knew what the day had in store for us but to be honest the getting up late part did not interfere with the day at all. We did wake up to the news that a bridge had partially collapsed crossing the bow river with a train on it, obviously a bi-product of the recent floods. Today was going to be the day were we woud understand just how much the waters had effected this city and also just how high the water had actually been here.

Our first stop of the day was to walk the short length of 8th

Avenue SW that turns into the pedestrianised area of Stephens Street. As we alluded to yesterday Calgary is a very strange town in that it does not have a centralised high street like we do in the UK but Stephens Street is about as close as you get to something similar. The street is also the old town where the glass skyscrapers give way to old granite fronted buildings. As we crossed the various intersections more and more shops were shut until we finally reached the last block where everything was closed. All the shops has signs in their windows asking for the electricity to be reconnected to them, everything at this end of downtown and the area east of here called unsurprisingly the east village was still without power.

This unfortunately meant that our first stop was a no go area. The Calgary Tower viewing platform is located here and that is where we were planning to start out day but it to had no power and was closed so that was one off the list for today at least. Our divert took us down to an area called the east village and the river Bow that along with the river Elbow that both converge in Calgary had caused all the flooding in the first place although judging by an overheard conversation between two locals the conspiracy theories have already started.

What did surprise us was the River Walk. The River Walk is like a posh promenade complete with designer sun loungers and decked wooden sun terraces that wrap around the city and the rivers course. It really has been done very very well indeed and it has that little bit odd designer edge that makes it feel urban and edgy.

We were trying to walk to the historic Calgary Fort but at every turn we seemed to be detoured or felt like we should not be in an area as basement car parks (parkades) were being pumped out all over the place, bizarrely though out onto the streets. It was a scorching day today here in Calgary really hot and the River Walk proved a mecca for cyclists and runners so we followed them hoping through a route through the diversions and detours and eventually found ourselves at the Calgary Fort.

Now when someone uses the term fort you dont think of a wooden clad stately home do you? Well we did not but that is what we got. A two floor colonial mansion that was built for an army officer that was sent to guard the outpost that came to be known as Calgary. The building itself was not the original but a reproduction and the land where the original building had been stood had become a commercial goods yard but a campaign had made the city buy the land and the fort was re-instated.

Calgary does actually have a fascinating history from its time as a native indian meeting point as the two major rivers meet here to the time of the great gold rush and land for all. It also has fascinating ties to Scotland and a number of its famous exports and landmarks are named after its scottish roots. These include the Douglas fur tree that is seen everywhere in Canada in abundance to Calgary itself which is named after Calgary Bay on the Isle of Mull.

It was when we left the fort behind us and headed into the central area of the river walk downtown that you really got the most sense of how devastating the floods had been. Pathway railings were full of weeds and large branches of trees as they had been pushed along by the rapid waters. We saw two bridges that were collapsed unter the weight of the flowing water. The town itself is full of dust that is actually mud particles form the base of the river bed and it is quite tangible in the air.

As we walked around the city more you also do realise that it is a city like no other. In its planning stages , before all the glass towers were here all paid for by the surrounding oil wealth a city planner had decided that its people would be safer if they did not have to cross roads so between a lot of the buildings there are bridges connecting them and you can effectively walk the whole city at second/third floor level. This system is called the +15 as the skywalks are all approximately 15 feet above street level. Now we have not explored these areas as yet as we are saving that up for tomorrow but it does go a long way to explaining why Calgary feels so different to other cities, the pavements are on the third floor!

Having walked the best part of five hours we headed back to the hotel for a little down time. Trev went off for a swim in the hotel pool. Its actually a pool out on a balcony on the third floor with all the surrounding skyscrapers looking down onto it, very much like swimming in a goldfish bowl whilst Jonathan went off to the gym to run the treadmill.

Exercise completed an we headed out for dinner at a great place called Escabar. Now eating out in Calgary has not been cheap and tonight was no exception especially as we seemed to end up having a bit of a blow out (thank god we both had a workout). The food was sensational though.

Calgary is a city that lives off oil and the riches it makes. We read in one of our guidebooks that said if you are looking for a high pad job in Canada then come to Calgary. Well they must all earn quite good salaries as from what we have seen this is not a cheap place to live at all.

Tomorrow is more city hopping and hopefully (fingers crossed) the tower will be open.

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