Continuing our journey from east to west, looking at Canada’s grand railway hotels, we start in Toronto and the Royal York Hotel.

The largest Fairmount hotel in Canada, the Royal York is directly across the street from Union Station, still the departure point for trains which head across the country to Vancouver¹.

When it opened in 1929 the hotel was the tallest building in the British Empire, and it is typically where members of the Royal Family stay when visiting the city.

Hopping across the still-lacking-in-Street-View-imagery provinces, we head to Alberta and the Palliser Hotel in Calgary, located right next to the Calgary Tower.

Opened by the Canadian Pacific Railway in 1914, the Palliser is now home to the CPR Pavilion, an exhibition showing the historical links between hotel and railway, including some vintage train cars². Once the tallest building in the city, the hotel is now dwarfed by skyscrapers that have sprung up in this oil-rich city.

Following the Street View car west we get to the Rocky Mountains, and two hotels that can perhaps be considered the grandest of the grand hotels. CPR President William Van Horne declared “If we can’t export the scenery, we’ll import the tourists”, and those tourists still flock to these hotels in huge numbers every year.

The Banff Springs Hotel opened in 1888 and was rebuilt 40 years later after a fire, though it took another 40 years after that for it to be made suitable for winter use.

The Banff Springs takes its name from the natural hot springs which rise in another part of the town – the hotel’s current spa is only ‘reminiscent’ of the natural springs!

Named a National Historic Site in 1992 (and located in the UNESCO World Heritage Banff National Park), the hotel is now a major ‘resort’ with a world-renowned golf course, huge conference centre, on-site staff housing and multiple accommodation wings for guests.

About 60km to the north-west is Chateau Lake Louise, which has also developed into resort status.

At the edge of a stunning glacier-blue lake, surrounded by soaring mountain peaks – this has to be one of the most scenic hotel locations in the world³, though it is amusing to see trail-ragged hikers wandering through the opulent surroundings after a long day’s walk. And despite its size, this hotel did not open year-round until the 1970s. Winter activities now include skiing and skating on the lake, as well as horse-drawn sleigh rides.

Finally to Vancouver, end (or beginning, depending on your direction of travel) of the cross-country train journey, and the Hotel Vancouver.

A joint construction by Canadian Pacific and Canadian National, the hotel is a short distance from the current VIA Rail station. It opened in 1939 with a visit from the King and Queen.

Similar to the Chateau Laurier in Ottawa, the Hotel Vancouver housed the local CBC studios for a number of years.

We hope to conclude this series with the hotels in Winnipeg, Edmonton and Victoria – when Street View makes it to those cities.

Locations: Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario / Categories: Buildings, Street Views

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While Canada is generally thought of as a land of ice and snow, it is home to one arid desert – the Osoyoos or Nk’Mip Desert of British Columbia.¹

Surrounding the community of Osoyoos, and the lake of the same name, this area of the Okanagan is home to desert plants and animals not found anywhere else in the country. It is one of the hottest and driest parts of Canada year-round, and some believe that Osoyoos Lake is the warmest in the world (though there are several competing claims for that title.)

The desert is characterised by barren hillsides and plains, bordered by lush green fields and orchards which survive with heavy irrigation.

For a small desert, it is surprisingly well endowed with visitor centres. The Osoyoos Desert Society has its Centre to the north-west of town, while the Nk’Mip Indian Band’s Desert Cultural Centre is “an architectural marvel sensitively constructed into a hillside” on the other side of the lake. At both, you can learn about the local flora and fauna through static displays and a network of trails

The Nk’Mip Band have also managed to carve a golf course out of the desert, with an associated resort and spa, while nearby is an estate of vineyards producing some of the wines for which the Okanagan is renowned.

Some distance out of town, the desert even has a salt lake, called – not surprisingly – Spotted Lake. The spots appear when water evaporates, leaving rich mineral deposits behind.

Panoramio has a good selection of pictures of Canada’s Desert.

Locations: British Columbia / Categories: Buildings, Deserts, Natural Landmarks

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From: “deryk houston” <xxx@xxxxxx.com>
Date: 18 Apr 2005 02:40:26 -0000
To: <xxx@xxxxxx.com>, <xxx@xxxxxx.com>
Subject: [Google Sightseeing] Contact Form

I constructed a peace sanctuary on the foothills of the Rocky mountains in British Columbia. I used a forty-two ton bulldozer to move hundreds of tons of gravel to form the lines of a mother and child. A primitive drawing. The image is a thousand feet across. It is located near the Bennet dam in northeastern BC. on Portage mountain.

Could you help me find a photo of it from space? The project was completed two years ago. (It is actually an ongoing project but the main image is completed. The National film board of Canada did a documentary on it called “From Baghdad to Peace Country“.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Deryk Houston

Well Deryk, it may have taken 4 years, but Google did eventually add high-resolution imagery of the area to Maps and Earth, meaning that we have finally been able to find your peace sanctuary.

During further correspondence with Deryk, he sent me this image he took of the site from a light aircraft, which clearly shows the two faces, a dove, and a hand.

Until someone launches live satellite imagery, there will always be some sort of waiting period for imagery to be updated. However, perhaps the brand-new Geoeye-1 satellite will at least reduce the waiting time to a matter of months? Or maybe even days?

Deryk’s official site has more info on the Peace Sanctuary project.

Locations: British Columbia / Categories: Monuments

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After 43 years of service to British and US forces, the base was closed in 1993. Today the runways, taxiways and stands are home to countless¹ thousands of cars and other vehicles. Just off the main runway we can even see a transport truck delivering or removing some vehicles.

Further west, Royal Portbury Dock in Bristol handles well over half a million vehicles every year, with areas dedicated to many of the major car manufacturers.

Many of the vehicles have white plastic covers to protect the bodywork during shipping. And on the quayside cars are being loaded onto a ship for transport.

Although there’s always one person who doesn’t read the memo about colour-coordinated parking, isn’t there?

In the port of Vancouver we find a similar operation, with the north-eastern end of Annacis Island serving as a rail / sea terminal for vehicles.

We see rail cars and a ship with ramps deployed to receive or unload vehicles.

And again, there’s always one…

Where are the largest car parks in your part of the world?

Thanks to Gareth Smart and Fabio Ferrari.

Locations: British Columbia, England / Categories: Other Vehicles

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Built as a prototype and dubbed the “Terex Titan”, the 20m long truck can carry a payload of up to 350 tons.

The manufacturer came up with loads of possibly untrue facts about the truck, such as being able to hold “2 greyhound buses and 2 pickup trucks”, or “1,000,000 golf balls”.

However amazing these facts, by 1990 the Terex Titan had outlived its useful life and was purchased by the town of Sparwood in British Columbia to be put on permanent display.

Read more on the Terex Corporation and the Terex Titan on Wikipedia, or watch an overly dramatic video of the truck on YouTube.

For more large trucks see our previous post on the Bingham Canyon Mine.

Locations: British Columbia / Categories: Other Vehicles

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The city of White Rock, British Columbia, gets its name from a large white erratic that seems completely out of place sitting on the shore of Semiahmoo Bay.

In fact, boulders like this one were carried to their current locations by glacial ice, often over hundreds of kilometres. Geologists have suggested that landslides or rockfalls initially dropped the rocks on top of glaciers, which then carried the rocks along with them on their journeys. When the ice melted, the erratics were unceremoniously deposited wherever we find them today.

The largest glacial erratic identified so far is Big Rock, near Okotoks, Alberta. Measuring 41 m by 18 m and standing 9 m high, this massive quartzite boulder weighs around 16,500 tonnes.

Geologists believe that Big Rock made its epic journey between 12,000 and 18,000 years ago – all the way from Mount Edith Cavell in Jasper National Park – a journey distance of nearly 500 km.

There’s more about Glacial erratics, White Rock, and Big Rock at Wikipedia.

Locations: Alberta, British Columbia / Categories: Natural Landmarks

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Thanks: Neil Harrington

Locations: British Columbia / Categories: Watercraft

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The best thing about the appearance of this sub is that it tells us that the October 07 image update has finally made it onto Google Maps! Expect lots of exciting new posts, and get submitting your sights!

More about the Ohio class submarines at Wikipedia.

Thanks: DelPeiro & pooms

Locations: British Columbia, Washington / Categories: Watercraft

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Thanks: neosinific & Mike

Locations: British Columbia / Categories: Large Type

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Here’s some people, lots of people in fact, sunbathing on a beach in Barcelona. Not enough people? Here you go: even more people on another Barcelona beach.

Perhaps you prefer your sunbathing a little more au naturel? Try Wreck beach, a nudist sunbathing spot in Vancouver, Canada (careful you don’t strain your eyes at those pixels too much!)

Not enough sunbathing opportunities for you? How about Rimini beach in Italy? The link goes to the top of the high-resolution bit, scroll south to see the tens of thousands of parasols and sun loungers! It literally goes on for miles and miles.

Thanks to Quinn Kuiken, davide, Personne and woowoowoo.

Locations: British Columbia, Italy, Spain / Categories: Crowds, Natural Landmarks

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