Walking the Skywalk

 Calgary, AB

+15 Network

Today we walked downtown to tackle some of the +15 Skywalk.  Our plan was to walk it like a dungeon in a videogame.  We chose to just hug the left wall as far as we could.  It's less straight forward than it seems it should be because it isn't always straight even though the map shows it is and sometimes you think you are going into a private building but you are still on the skywalk.  We did our best to explore many of the nooks and crannies but we did get lost and also had to exit and re-enter due to a closure.

Here is the map and the yellow highlighted part is what we walked, we think.

We ended up walking just over 5 miles.  During our walk we noticed it was raining as we passed over one of the many bridges.  It kind of reminded me of the Mars scenes in Total Recall.  A whole group of people going about their lives, never having to go outside into the real world.  

We started our walk outside like chumps.  We had to cross the river to get to the skywalk.

There are signs all over downtown showing you the way to the skywalk.

Once inside, you get to experience climate controlled life.  Each of the bridges is private property owned by the connected buildings.

So they all look different and are all heated or cooled by a different system.  Some are too warm and some are too cold, but some are just right.

There are many maps guiding you.  You are the cowboy hat!  Just like Monopoly!

You can see other walkway bridges as you cross your own walkway bridge.  We eventually crossed the bridge shown.

The keeping right strategy paid off in a few ways.  We would have never seen this urban bee keeper because it in a section we knew was a dead end.

There is a lot of art to see along the way too.

A rooftop green space with bee hives and carpenter bee structures.

This was a giant video wall.  We just missed taking a selfie at Niagara Falls.

We even found some Chihuly glass.

There were coffee shops and Tim Horton's

Our wall hugging strategy took us by the bees again.

We even saw a Fast Times at Ridgemont High reference.

And we got to visit The 70s!

Each bridge was very different

There were screens around giving you news and advertising.

We saw a putting green too.

All of these photos were taken before noon.  At noon the walkways filled up with people on lunch.  Calgary has the busiest downtown we have experienced on our trip.  Either it took less of a Covid hit or it bounced back more quickly.  We even got to play "Business Talk Bingo".  We heard "Flow Chart", "Proposal", and people complaining about their boss or coworker.  It reminded us of how much we enjoy not working.

That's it for today.  If you missed, Tiki in Calgary, check it out.  We got tasty drinks and BLT Fried Rice.