Castle in the Mountains

Quiet day today exploring our Castle ie: Fairmont Banff Springs.  What an experience!  I dont know exactly how many staff they have, but they are housed in a housing complex next door!  Thousands it must be.  We followed the map to explore the warren of corridors with ballrooms, conference room, bars, restaurants, spa and pools, lawns, gardens, managers grounds etc etc etc.

Can’t believe they were in the pool: it was only about 10 deg!

All the terraces have magnificent views of mountains, rivers and forests of course.   We finished the day back at their own pub, which looks like a castle gatehouse, but was originally the golf course club house (the course can just be glimpsed at the foot of the mountain to the right).  We arrived early in the evening so was able to grab a window seat.

The sun came out briefly this afternoon allowing us to walk the grounds, but the rain settled in again as we returned to our room.  Oh and by the way, there was snow falling in the mountains this morning!  We were told that this time last year it was 30 deg and you couldn’t see across the valley all summer because of smoke from wildfires!  Which do we want: smoke or rain?  Not sure on that one.