After a few weeks of working at Renshaw Travel as an intern from Germany, it was time for my first adventure in Canada outside the beautiful city of Vancouver. When looking at the highlights of Canada in brochures, websites and other platforms you are always confronted with the beautiful landscapes and lakes of the Canadian Rockies, especially in the National Parks of Banff and Jasper. So it was obvious for me and my girlfriend Carla, who studies for one semester at Capilano University in Vancouver, which place in Canada we want to visit first. Another aspect of travelling to the Rockies as soon as possible was the pressure of the incoming winter, which obviously would mean a lot of snow on the roads and in the parks, and limited access to the natural sights.

Eventually, after the plans were made we picked up our rental car in Surrey on a Thursday evening in September, and were quite surprised when we realized with what kind of car we had to drive the nine hours into the province of Alberta. Instead of a small Toyota Yaris which we had actually booked, we were presented a Dodge Ram truck, beautiful to look at, but as high in its fuel consumption as you would imagine when looking at it. We didn't bother and started our adventure into the mountais good-tempered. 

We spent a night in the truck in Kamloops and continued to drive the next morning at sunrise. We were rewarded with beautiful and sunny weather on the last few hours on our drive to Lake Louise, were we arrived at about 2 pm in the afternoon. What came next was just breathtaking. Visiting Lake Louise and Lake Moraine on the same day gave us the first glimpse of what to expect in the following three days. The two lakes are like shimmering gems in a vast and beautiful landscape! White Snow-peaked mountains merge with the blue and turquoise hues of the lakes - Great spots for cool pictures! 

The next day was more active. We went on a hike to the two beehive viewpoints above Lake Louise. The moderate walk took us about four to five hours and provided us with stunning panorama views of the area. The nature here is so different then in Europe, everything is so much vaster and so much bigger. It sometimes feels like being the only person in the world. 

Highlight of our trip was the Icefield Parkway, the drive from Banff to Jasper, which is meant to be the most beautiful drive in the world. For us it definitely is the most beautiful we have seen so far, even if we only went half-way - and again, beautiful lakes like Peyto Lake or Bow Lake glowing amidst spectacular mountain ranges, blue glacial streams flowing into the valleys and mountain views that makes it difficult to keep your eyes on the road. On the way we also visited Athabasca Glaciers at Columbias Icefield. We learned how climate change affected the decrease of it. Small signs are constructed on the way to the glacier to show to which extent it has vanished. It is crazy to imagine that it was nearly two times more voluminous about 125 years ago. 

Unfortunately the time vanished as well, as we found ourselves on the drive back to Vancouver just a night later. Another nine hours of driving were ahead of us - a lot of time to marvel about our experiences in Banff National Park and to look at the hundreds of pictures we took. 

Manuel Hoffmann

Marketing Intern from Germany

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