Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel - 5 year anniversary
5 Year Anniversary getaway at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel
Wow. How time flies! Its been 5 years this June we've been married, I know its cliche to say but time does really move fast and slow at the same time. Anyways we were debating which hotel to book for this little early and very winter getaway in the mountains, I wanted to go to Fox hotel because they have a recreation of the banff upper hot springs as their pool which is very cool and honestly still on my bucketlist. But for the price it was almost the price of the Banff Springs hotel. Of course my first thought was, "well if we are going to spend that kind of money then we might as well spend it on the hotel that's been on our bucketlist for a long time... the castle in the mountains. The hotel I never dreamed I would ever get the chance to stay at. I've taken so many photos of it over the years and always kept an eye out for it when hiking in the parks. So dreamy and beautiful. Well I was debating it and not sure whether we should spend the money on the hotel, Justin said, "You obviously want to go and we are moving further away in the fall so this is the perfect time."
That was the kick I needed to pull the trigger so to speak. Then I thought well there has got to be a deal kicking around online somewhere. After going through the fairmont website for a bit the Alberta rate for Alberta residents popped up. Perfect, the deal is sealed.
After a bit of chaotic check in and drive up... We drove up to the door and forget to tell them we had expressed check in then Justin drove right past the door instead of stopping and letting us unload the luggage before parking in the parkarde. I kept telling him to pull over but he kept going saying he was already committed in his mistake and he would punish himself by carrying all the bags himself all the way from the parkade. haha Husbands I tell ya!
Once we checked out the room and caught our breath, we were off to exploring the castle hotel. We were also trying to look for the Bavarian restaurant on the grounds but closer to the river. It took a but we eventually found the passage way along a Magnificat stone wall. The path goes through the woods on board walk down to the first hole of the golf course. The Restaurant was on top and a little pub downstairs.
It felt like walking into my childhood home going into the pub. The whole restaurant was built in true German fashion and all the wood work was exactly the same as the old German log house I grew up in. They even had a black forest coo coo clock on the wall just like my Mom and Aunt's clock they shared. We were seated in big grandfather chairs and watched the hockey game for most of the night. We started off with soft pretzels , beer and cheese fondue. They used a gruyere cheese with a sprinkle of cinnamon. It gave a nice sweet and earthy pop to break of the cheese. For the main we had classic schnitzel and finished off with a chocolate fondue. We were thoroughly stuff from that point and asked the waiter to call the shuttle around so we wouldn't have to walk back up to the Hotel. lol.
We took an early night and slept in. After sleeping in a bit, we eventually made our way to the pools and enjoyed a full soak in the outside salt water tank. We did a brunch at the Vermillion Room. The all you could eat buffet was top notch. Everything from the apple juice that tasted like home, to the perfect buttery eggs and waffles. We could not get enough!
After rolling ourselves out of the Vermillion Room, we wandered and explored the hotel.
In true Justin fashion he took a nap while I sipped wine and watched Tastmaster UK. Then a massive snow storm started coming in with these giant snowflakes. So went back to the pools and soaked in the warm outdoor pool with the snowstorm above.
Once we got out of the pools we headed to the 1888 Chophouse to make our dinner reservation. Justin finally got to try Bison steak and I got a fish dish with a spruce tea poured over top. While interesting dishes we have had better. We left kind of still hungry and decided to drive down to the McDonalds in town and pick up some lotto tickets. You know classy and trashy in one night is what makes the best night!
The next morning, we headed straight to the ice rink and had the best skate of my life. The mountains all around and the castle behind us was magical. We had the whole the ice rink to ourselves and the quiet hotel was serenity. The sun was slowly rising over the mountains and some of the mountains were bathed in beautiful pinkish light. After skating around and taking more videos than I can count we went for a dip again and sat in the sauna. We couldn't resist indulging in the breakfast buffet again before checking out.
