On the last count we have visited 47 different countries. We have seen the Eiffel Tower, the Kremlin, the Grand Canyon, the Great Wall of China, the Terracotta Army, Halong Bay in Vietnam, the Killing Fields in Cambodia, the Leaning Tower of Pizza, the Colosseum, the Vatican, Uluru, Egyptian Temples, the Golden Gate Bridge, Thai Temples and Angkor Watt and many more of the world's great sights.
But the one place that sticks out in my memory is somewhere not mentioned on any tourist trail. It wasn't even mentioned on the itinerary of our holiday. In fact it was just a lunch stop. But what a lunch shop.
So let's set the scene. We were on a tour across Canada from Calgary to Vancouver and then on a cruise up to Alaska. We had visited the wonderful town of Banff with its exceptional mountain backdrop and sat on a terrace overlooking the mountain watching some very good golfers and with a pint and some Nachos in front of us (remember those days when you were free to travel and enjoy yourselves?)
We were on a coach and were told by our guide that we would shortly be stopping for lunch at a place called Three Valley Gap. The coach pulled in and it looked like a pretty nondescript canteen where we had a meal. I seem to think it was chicken and chips and very average. But then we went out the back. The view of lakes and mountains was fantastic but nothing compared to what we then experienced.
The hotel looked like a mash-up between Salvador Dali and Antonio Gaudi or should that be gaudy? There were turrets here and gargoyles there and it looked as if extensions had just been propped on top of existing buildings - and so it proved.
But that was only the start of it. The place was owned by the Bell family and we were introduced to the owner Gordon Bell. He had the most amazing collection of vintage steam locomotives and cars (including original Model T Fords - "you can have any colour sir as long as it's black").
But that was only the start of it. The Bell family had reconstructed a town from the frontier days with fire station, sheriff's office, gaol, saloon, medical centres and even a bordello. Each building was an original from various parts of Canada. Gordon had taken them apart brick by brick or plank by plank, transported them to Three Valley Gap and then put them all together again. And he had done that to produce a whole frontier town. It was beyond fascinating but being just a lunch stop we had such a short time to walk around although we did get to meet Gordon.
I will always remember his answer to a question from one of our group. "You must spend an incredible amount of time working on this," said our traveller.
"I work 17 hours a day, seven days a week in the summer and then take a break in the winter when I only work 14 hours a day and have Sundays off," Gordon replied. Now if that's not a work ethic I don't know what is.
Gordon began collecting memorabilia as a teenager and the passion never left him. Back in the 1950s, Three Valley Gap was a small service stop and motel. Today it's still there and the hotel has over 200 rooms. If I have whetted your appetite to find out more have a look at the website: www.3valley.com.
As you know I like to link my writings to music lyrics. Three Valley Gap is on the Trans Canadian Highway which brought a Neil Young song to mind. The lyrics of his song Bound For Glory start with the following:
Out on the trans-Canada highway
There was a girl
hitchhiking with her dog
Fireflies buzzin' round her head
Like candles in the fog.
Sadly from reading the website for the Three Valley Gap I learnt that Gordon Bell died in November 2007 just over a year after we visited. The place is now run by his family.
Personally I could have spent an entire day at Three Valley Gap - it was that intriguing and interesting. The trouble with guided tours is you have to come when called as we found out when we had just 20 minutes in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. Have you seen the size of that? We were on a strict schedule and had timed tickets for entry to the Forbidden City (which isn't Forbidden at all as it was full of tourists). That gave us 20 minutes in one of the most historic squares in the world. On the tour we all had headsets so that our guide could 1/ communicate with us on timings etc and 2/ Tell us about the sights while we roamed around.
We were on the far side of the square when our guide - Francis - said "could Anne and Peter please return to the meeting point." We had to do a quickstep to get back. Francis wasn't his real name of course as he came from Beijing. All the guides picked British names to help tourists. I asked him why he chose Francis and he said it was because he really liked the British actor Francis Matthews. He was most impressed when I told him I knew who Francis Matthews was and that I remembered him as Paul Temple in the Francis Durbridge mysteries.
Anyway our Francis the guide spoke impeccable English and kept a notebook in which he entered any phrases that were new to him. This usually took the form of idiomatic or slang phrases from English speaking countries around the world. On our trip there were Brits, New Zealanders, Australians, Canadians and Americans. It was quite amusing to hear him shout "streuth" in a mock Chinese/Australian accent.
Our holiday was mainly a cruise down the Yangtze River. Our table for meals was a real United Nations with two Brits (us), two Canadians, two Americans and four New Zealanders. I was confused as two of the New Zealanders spoke with distinct Yorkshire accents. On about the second night the gentleman said: "I bet you can't tell we come from Barnsley. We've lived in New Zealand for over 20 years and sound just like natives now." No they didn't. They still sounded like Tykes (that incidentally is the nickname for people from Barnsley and not an insult).
More waffle tomorrow.