Exploring Europe

We’re back from exploring multiple countries in Europe. I’ll add the links to our YouTube videos as they get completed and published.

Let’s start with our travel adventures from Calgary, Canada to Podgorica, Montenegro.

Video recorded December 1-3, 2023

Having now arrived in Montenegro, let’s check out Budva.

Video recorded December 4, 2023

Our second full day involved heading out to explore Cetinje, a town with roots going back to the 15th century.

Video recorded December 5, 2023

Next up? What I think was perhaps my favorite experience of the entire trip — hiking up the Ladder of Cattaro to the Fortress of Kotor.

Video recorded December 7, 2023

We bid farewell to Montenegro and moved on to Hungary. We start with a tour of the Hungarian Parliament building in beautiful Budapest.

Video recorded December 9, 2023

We have more time to explore Budapest before we board the AMAMagna. We cross the Chain Bridge, ride the Budapest Castle Funicular, and then check out the city from the top of St. Stephen’s Basilica.

Video recorded December 10, 2023

Time to depart Budapest but before we go, let’s check out Matthias Church and take a tour of the AMAMagna.

Video recorded December 11, 2023

On to Slovakia!

Video recorded December 12, 2023

It’s time to add another capital city to our list, this time it is the Austrian capital of Vienna.

Video recorded December 13, 2023

How about sailing up a valley that is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and then climbing up to an abandoned castle that once imprisoned Richard the Lionheart?

Video recorded December 14, 2023

This next one is a special video, just for people who find my content through DanOCan.com. I didn’t think there was enough footage there to make for a “proper” YouTube video so it is only published privately and only accessible from here.

Video Recorded December 15, 2023
Video recorded December 16, 2023
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Spending a Lot of Time in the Great State of Montana

We’ve been making a lot of trips to Montana over the last few weeks, all in the effort to secure a cancer treatment for Mabel the Dog which isn’t available in Canada. If you haven’t been following along on YouTube, here is the adventure (so far!) presented in four parts.

Video Published October 3, 2023
Video Published October 20, 2023
Video Published October 25, 2023
Video Published November 24, 2023
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Signs, Signs, Everywhere There’s Signs

With so much focus on our YouTube channel, the blog and our written content has been getting ignored. I decided to remedy that by taking a look back at some photos we have taken on this day in previous years. While doing that, I noticed a bit of a theme emerged and that was “signs”.

Our first stop is historic Fort Macleod in southern Alberta. We captured a number of great signs on our way through town last year on this day.

Opening in 1912, the Empress Theatre features a classic sign which can be seen in the movie “Ghostbusters: Afterlife”, which is actually the reason we stopped.

The Empress Theatre is significant as one of the last remaining examples of small town theatre architecture in Alberta. As the last remaining theatre in Fort Macleod, the Empress is also representative of the social and cultural life of the town since the theatre’s construction in 1912. SOURCE: EMPRESS THEATRE. Historicplaces.ca – historicplaces.ca. (n.d.). https://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=5891

Photo by Emily Overes, October 30, 2022
Nestled in the small town of Fort MacLeod, Johnny’s Restaurant offers a unique blend of Chinese and Western cuisine at affordable prices. The establishment boasts a clean and friendly ambiance with a mix of historical and modern interior design elements.  SOURCE: Johnny’s Restaurant in Fort MacLeod – Restaurant reviews. (2023, September 29). Restaurant Guru. https://restaurantguru.com/Johnnys-Restaurant-Fort-MacLeod

Photo by Emily Overes, October 30, 2022

Every small town on the prairies needs a Chinese restaurant and one way to tell a good restaurant is a classic neon sign like this one from the New Silver Grill Restaurant.

First opened in 1910, the Silver Grill Restaurant has been a historical foundational pillar for Fort Macleod as the oldest operating restaurant in Western Canada. SOURCE: History. (n.d.). New Silver Grill Restaurant. http://www.silvergrill.ca/history.html

Photo by Emily Overes, October 30, 2022

This sign hangs outside the former Greyhound Station and was a familiar sight to me when I used to make multiple trips per year between Calgary and Lethbridge on the bus in the early 1990s.

Photo by Emily Overes, October 30, 2022

And, this sign tour would not be complete without the Queens Hotel.

The Queen’s Hotel was one of the first buildings in Fort Macleod to be built of sandstone. It was built in 1903 to replace an earlier, smaller, wood-frame hotel of the same name.  SOURCE: Rkelland. (2015, March 25). Queen’s Hotel, Fort MacLeod. RETROactive. https://albertashistoricplaces.com/2013/01/15/queens-hotel-fort-macleod/

Photos by Emily Overes, October 30, 2022

It’s not just neo signs that we love. We’re also big fans of signs painted on the sides of buildings such as on the American Hotel.

The American Hotel

Photo by Emily Overes, October 30, 2022

And, it’s not just Fort Macleod that we have photographed on this day. Back in 2015 we stopped to check out the Mill City Museum in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Featured prominently is this industrial-sized sign proudly proclaiming “Gold Medal Flour”.

Soon after Minneapolis was born on the Mississippi’s west bank, the city’s flour milling industry skyrocketed. Powered by the mighty river and fed by boxcars of grain rolling in from the plains, the industry gave Minneapolis bragging rights as the “Flour Milling Capital of the World.” Explore where old mingles with new at Mill City Museum, built into the ruins of what was once the world’s largest flour mill. SOURCE: Mill City Museum | Minnesota Historical Society. (n.d.). https://www.mnhs.org/millcity

Photo by Emily Overes, October 30, 2015

Hopefully you enjoyed a look back at some of the photos we have taken on this day. Maybe I’ll make this a regular feature?

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First Visit to Haskayne Legacy Park, Calgary’s Newest Regional Park

There is a brand new park in Calgary — Haskayne Legacy Park. Made possible through the donation of $5,000,000 of land plus an extra $2 million for construction by Dick and Lois Haskayne, this new park opened to the public for the first time on September 16, 2023.

Haskayne Legacy Park is 126 hectares (~311 acres) of space, containing 1.8km of paved pathway which connects to the neighboring Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park to the west. In addition, there is also 1.5km of nature trails providing a loop through the grassland portion north of the main pavilion. Speaking of the pavilion, it is 2400 sq. feet and powered by geo-thermal and 72 solar panels.

So, years after the land was donated the park is finally open to the public. What did I think of it? Watch and find out…

Access to Haskayne Legacy Park is obtained by following Highway 1A west from Calgary or east from Cochrane and turning south on Woodland Road. Follow the road towards the river and it will eventually turn left (east) towards the city. The road is gravel at this point. Alternatively, you can hike/bike to the park from Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park. At this time there is no pedestrian access to the park’s eastern side from Calgary.

Video recorded September 24, 2023
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Hiking, Scrambling, Tree Climbing in K-Country

What was supposed to be a simple hike turned into something far more involved. By the time Mabel and I were done, I had been up a tree, standing atop a cliff, and scrambling through the rocks on Canyon Creek Hill. Who knew you could pack so much into a mere 3.5km hike?

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