Due to the length of our current holiday, Bob and I are trying to be fairly responsible with our flexible expenditures (food, entry fees,etc.), so we like to do as many free activities as possible (super easy here with all the pathways to explore and public art to enjoy). We also regulate the food budget by limiting the amount of eating out that we do. That having been said, we can still get our Foodie fill by perusing local markets. Calgary has a number of them that we have explored.
The first time we were in Calgary (many moons ago) was basically to fly in and out on our way to Banff and Lake Louise. We had read about the Calgary Farmer’s Market; however, and made a point of stopping there on our way back into town. We really liked it and wanted to try to visit the market this time around as well. Our first effort failed. Since we really like to walk, and it’s a cheap way to really get to know a City, we had decided that we would walk to the market. Well, it is located in the very southeast part of town (app. 5 miles from the condo). We used Google maps to plan the walking route and then took photos of the route to refer to while walking since we don’t have cell service to use this function outside of the condo (or wherever we are accessing wifi). Though we requested a walking route, Google Maps took us on a route that had us end up at the intersection of two major thoroughfares neither of which had sidewalks or a safe means of crossing. Luckily, it was a good weather day, so we just enjoyed the fact that we had a good walk. Bob continued researching other walking routes after we returned and eventually found one that got us successfully to the market on another day. It was well worth the 2 attempts. Lots of fresh produce, locally made products (food, art, jewelry), and prepared foods. The walk also took us by the Chinook Center Mall (which we had learned is Canada’s 6th busiest), so we popped in there on the way back to poke around.
Another local market that is a mini version of the Calgary Farmer’s Market is the Crossroads Market. This one is closer to the downtown area just a bit east of the river in the Inglewood/Ramsay area. Again, our first effort to see it failed. This time though we successfully found it — just not on a day that it was open (open Fri-Sun only)! We did get to see it last weekend after our walk to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. We restocked on some local produce and goodies. Awesome!
Another “market” that we have perused is the Bridgeland Market — not surprisingly in the Bridgeland area of Calgary just north of the river and a bit east of us. This was more of a specialty foods store with lots of fun local and international items. Local markets (more like mini Whole Foods or Fresh Pluses in Austin) are Bite in Inglewood and the Sunterra Market at the bottom of our condo. Both of these markets sell produce, groceries, prepared foods, and serve food and drinks in their in-store cafes. We are regulars at Sunterra.
During our housesit in New Zealand, we started noting signs that we found amusing for one reason or another. We have found a few of these in Calgary as well. See below.
Peckish Travels 