We woke up in this sumptuous room in Edmonton’s historic landmark Fairmont Hotel Macdonald and plotted our early morning run. Hurtigruten provided breakfast in a separate room from the other guests, but it was only available from 6.30 ‘till 8.30, so we chose running over breakfasting.
The hotel is one of Canada’s Grand Trunk Pacific railway station hotels, and is grandly situated on top of a cliff looking over the North Saskatchewan River, with city high-rises crowding it on each side and from behind. Named after Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John Macdonald, Queen Elizabeth II stayed there with her father George VI during their royal tour of Canada in 1939.
Turning left, out of the hotel, we took the lovely little funicular railway down to the river, and enjoyed an exceedingly blissful run on a wooded path, greeted by cheery ‘good mornings’ by the occasional other runners and cyclists. Crossing one of the many bridges, we happened across the John Walter Museum, which consisted of the 3 homes of a man who grew up opposite the fort in mid to late 1800’s. Coming from the Orkneys, he responded to the various needs of the settlement across the river, building its industry, becoming its first millionaire. His 3 houses showed the progression in his wealth and stature. Fascinating to see the difference between the ‘then’ and the ‘now’ with the present thronging skyscrapers.
Turning left at a fork, we took the smaller path. This became smaller – and smaller – turning into an impassable muddy scramble. Turning up a steep forest bank, we scrambled up to the path we should have taken, met by a woman who laughed and said normally ‘completely other types’ would come out of the woods like that!
Very self-satisfied, we did our final packing and vacated the room, handing luggage over to the bell boy, with less than one hour to find breakfast. Being in the city’s downtown district on a Sunday morning put paid to that, and we ended up with only a coffee before boarding the coach taking us to the airport.
We found Canadian Airline Maple Leaf lounge, had a soup and wrap breakfast, well past mid-day! Boeing 737-8 M (AKA Max) took us for the 3 ½ hour flight to Toronto.
After a long, long walk to the international terminal we visited the spanking new Air Canada Signature Lounge for an exquisite light dinner and cheese with a couple of very descent glasses of wine. This was perfect, allowing us to bed down directly for the shortish 7 hour flight to London.
