A few weeks ago I got to spend about two days exploring Calgary. Calgary is Alberta’s largest city and third largest in Canada. It’s rapid growth in the last couple of years, has seen the city transformed. When deciding how I should spend my time in Calgary, I debated whether I should visit museums or explore the different neighbourhoods that make up the metropolis. With so many options to chose from, I let the weather be my guide. With uncharacteristically warm weather being forecasted I opted to spend my time walking around.
Day 1: Discovering the neighbourhoods of Kensington and Inglewood
I started my morning by walking to Kensignton Village from downtown Calgary. The river valley is so beautifully developed with large walking and biking paths. I crossed over using the Peace Bridge, which is a cool piece of architecture designed by a Spanish architect. The Peace bridge connects downtown Calgary with Sunnyside over the Bow River.
Across the river you have a beautiful vantage point of Calgary and the many glass sky scrapers that make up the downtown core.
Kensington Village
While downtown Calgary is composed of modern skyscrapers, Kensington Village is by comparison a lovely suburb with a ton of New England charm! In Kensington Village you will find brick front buildings and lovely colored homes with white picket fences. The residential area is so charming especially since many of the houses were done up with Halloween decorations.
I found Kensington Village to be a fun combination of trendy shops and restaurants. Red’s (286 – 10th St. N.W) is a great place for breakfast if you are starting your day of exploration. However, I suggest going around the corner to Pie Junkie (1081 2nd Avenue NW). When I walked in the smell was heavenly and the decor was so nice. I expected sweet pies, but not savory ones. They had a variety available from steak and kidney, to butter chicken.
Another fun place to drop in is Pages (1135 Kensington Rd NW), a bookstore, with a combination of new and used books. There is also a Safeway grocery store in case you need provisions. Right next door is the Plaza Theater which has been open for over 75 years! If you want to catch a movie, that’s the place to do it!
Ingelwoods
With lunchtime nearing I grabbed bus #1 to Ingelwood for some lunch and taste a (few) beers! Just across the bridge into Ingelwoods is a lovely sculpture garden put together by the Stone Sculpture Guild of North America.
Ingelwood turned out to be one of my favourite neighbourhoods because of all the vintage stores, fine grocers, and of course, the beer! I stopped into Fair’s Fair bookstore (907 9 Ave SE) because I love browsing bookstores and I immediately wanted to move in. They had all my favorite childhood books! The Boxcar Children, Nancy Drew, and the Bailey School Kids. If it wasn’t for the lack of space in my luggage, I would have bought them all!
Another fun shop to check out is Murphy’s Mid Century (1221B 9 Ave SE). The owner is super friendly and I love the pieces he put together of authentic mid-century furniture. I also popped into Antiquaire Boutique (1219A 9th Ave SE) to browse their collection of vintage clothes. I was surprised to see a collection of wedding dresses at really affordable pricing. The shop had a nice variety of clothing, accessories, and even some dishes.
I concluded my visit of Inglewood at Cold Garden (1100 11 St SE). Ingelwood is known for their breweries and Cold Garden was the perfect location to taste local beers. The large tasting room has long tables and benches as well as plenty of sofas to sit with friends and have a great time. There is even a pile of board games that you can have fun and play.
I tried four beers: East Calgary lager, Cake Face, One Summer in Saskatoon, and Red Smashed in Buffalo Jump. I really liked Cake Face probably because it is brewed with Madagascar vanilla for a touch of sweetness. Disclaimer that is also the beer I accidentally spilled all over myself lol. I can be real classy sometimes… I smelled like a drunk for the rest of the day! The pricing was very reasonable at 5$ for a pint, 1.50$ for samples.
I was hoping to explore more of the downtown core on my walk back from Ingelwood’s but it was getting late and decided to postpone for the following day.
Stay tuned for Day 2 of visiting Calgary!
