Monday morning in Banff looked a bit better than the weekend’s weather and we were in no hurry to leave as our next stop, Revelstoke was only 180 miles from Banff. We had to drive through the park to go west and onwards to Revelstoke and it was yet another scenic drive full of mountains with snow capped peaks and valleys and rivers and lakes. The whole route in fact was beautiful and a really nice drive – apart from the inevitable roadworks! We also drove through Canada’s Glacier National Park, though this in my view just involved more mountains and wasn’t particularly impressive. This part of the world gets a lot of snow and you see a lot of pickups, often with huge tyres, verging on monster trucks, or pickups with four back wheels and a rather large arse!
We arrived in Revelstoke about 13:30 and as our room wasn’t ready we wandered about along the river and into town. I say ‘town’ but it is a very small and compact downtown area with some shops, bars and restaurants. It was very hot so we didn’t walk too far before we decided to get some liquid refreshment at the Village Idiot pub. The pub has a decidedly skiing theme, with skis used as backs on the bar stools and hanging everywhere else in the pub. The town centre is really pretty with flowers in planters along the main road everywhere.
After our pitstop at the Village Idiot we ambled back to the motel, the Powder Springs Inn and checked in. We also discovered that there is a bar/restaurant (The Last Drop) attached to the motel and that they had happy hour on, so we decided to do our long overdue laundry whilst having a cold drink on the patio. Brian was looking after the washing while I researched our next steps and booked up a few more nights. We generally book accommodation about a week ahead otherwise I start stressing out! The last few weeks have been fairly easy to book as staying in smaller towns means it is much easier to stay close or inside the towns within our budget, and the more limited options makes it easier to pick as well! Usually we are quite lucky with the places we pick, with the exception of Cardston of course!
After our washing was done and a couple of happy hour drinks, we wandered back the couple of blocks into town and had something to eat at the Village Idiot – you’d think that was the only option as that’s the only place we went, but that is not the case as there’s quite a few places to choose from on town. Brian had one of their pizzas which was quite good (I had the rest for lunch the next day) and I had a Blues Burger with heaps of blue cheese, cheddar and poutine instead of fries (so quite a lot of cheese!). Here they serve their poutine with gravy and I enjoyed that more than the actual burger, which wasn’t great, though maybe I just wasn’t that hungry. I also had a very interesting cocktail with whisky, pickle juice and tomato juice, so a variation on a Bloody Mary, that is called a Bloody Caesar around here for some reason (I see now apparently because Clamato or clam broth is involved!). The hotel wasn’t great and would have been a nightmare if the pub had music on, like they usually do, but comfortable enough for the price and we had a good night’s sleep. Revelstoke is a lovely little town, surrounded by mountains and pretty scenery, though I imagine it would get quite busy during the skiing season. There area quite a few boutique-y shops amongst the skiing and climbing shops in the town, though most places seem to have some sort of affiliation with skiing or rock climbing or hiking.
Thing to ponder for the day: If you’re wondering whether we are on a sightseeing tour or a pub crawl of North America, I’m not too sure of the answer myself anymore!
Biltong and Burger 