CALGARY – The greatest outdoor show on earth? It just might be. Hard to believe, but I’d never made it to the Calgary Stampede prior to last week. I know, I know. It makes no sense. But at least I made up for it with a rollicking good time involving pancakes and champagne at 9 a.m., a great Stampede parade, mini-hot dogs, a new pair of cowboy boots and a wonderful afternoon watching cowboys ride buckin’ broncos and little kids chasing ponies in the dirt and the famous Chuckwagon races. My wife and I decided (mostly her to be fair) Read more
July 2014
LES ILES DE LA MADELEINE, QUEBEC – I had a business call to make to Toronto and was on the phone with a co-worker. “How’s your trip,” he asked me. “It’s absolutely spectacular out here,” I said. I told him about the endless and glorious and empty beaches and the adorable towns and the wildly colourful houses and the incredible food and the utterly fabulous art and the local beer and the towering cliffs and the red rock coastline pockmarked with caves and carved into arches and the pounding surf and the gentle lagoons. I think I sounded like a National Read more
My recent trip to Amsterdam with KLM started off great. Then it got better. I was expecting an economy ticket to be provided by the airline, which was getting me to Holland on behalf of the Dutch tourism folks. But woman in line at Pearson told me m ticket looked like one in business class. Sure enough, 6F. I try not to take these things for granted, because no travel writer getting a free ticket to Europe should complain about being in coach. I always arrive at the airport expecting to go in economy class, and there’s nothing quite as satisfying as Read more
Jim Byers photo A cruise ship departing St. John’s, Newfoundland is saluted by an officer at Signal Hill. I used Twitter on Canada Day to post a whack of my personal favourite photos that I’ve taken over the years in this great country. Here’s a sampling of them, iin no particular order. I hope you enjoy the show! Feel free to write back to me, of course: jim@jimbyerstravel.com. If I left your favourite place out pf my gallery, my apologies. I don’t have time to post all 10,478 photos in my laptop, and there still are many parts of Canada Read more
CALGARY – From old school to new age, and from Brazilian coffee to Chinese statues, Kensington is one cool shopping destination. I didn’t know a lot about the area prior to a visit I made to the wonderful Kensington Riverside Inn a few months ago (more on that later in this blog). But I had an awesome time checking out a very urban – and urbane – part of a city that doesn’t get enough credit for its hip neighborhoods. I started my walk around Kensington Ave. and 10 th St. NW, checking out the tattoo shops (I didn’t indulge, Read more
