Kelowna - At last the good weather!

(posted by Kizzy)

Hi everyone, good to be writing again! Where were we? - ah the land of wine!
 
We drove the scenic route from Revelstoke to the city of Kelowna - still a good 4 hours drive - with one or two stops to absorb the beauty of nature that was all around us!

En route to Kelowna: view of the Mara Lake

The drive was a bit strenuous... we felt so tired by the time we arrived to Kelowna! - a fake tiredness in many respects, let me explain. We arrived to Canada with sedentary bodies from a cultivated mind-set  of working 9-5 desk jobs 5 days a week. Our lifestyle these days is very active in comparison. So when I speak of 'tired' it is more to a comparison between before and after, that resistance to embrace a more active lifestyle - we 'get tired'.

Kelowna: The vineyard landscape

 ... but a well rewarded drive! Let me tell you about Kelowna, a beautiful city on Okanagan lake in the Okanagan valley, well knows for its wineries. Its name derives from a Okanagan language term for "grizzly bear". The whole of the Okanagan Valley used to be well know for its fruit and there are references of that throughout. We guess there's more money in wine, as most of the landscape is now covered in vineyards and most of the fruit is now imported from just across the border in the U.S.A.

We arrived around 1pm and we started our route with a visit to the visitor's centre - we did not book accommodation in advance and this was our top priority now. It took us a while to find accommodation, in Kelowna the B&B's didn't really advertise their location, and we had originally thought that we'd been able to spot them if we drove along the road. That was not the case.

We eventually secured accommodation in West Kelowna, only 15 minutes away from the main centre, at Gala View B&B. Our hosts Tom and Lynn made our stay by every standard very close to heaven. As they later explained, in Kelowna B&B cannot have any posts outside their property, which is not the case in West Kelowna, where as you go along the road you see many sign posts indicating the location of B&B's.

with Tom and Lynn

It was the right choice to stay in West Kelowna, where wherever you are, you're never more than 5 minutes away from vineyards and  wineries, good restaurants and places to visit. With a charm not dissimilar to that you would get in the South of France. It is wrong of me to compare to Europe, because I do think Kelowna has earned its own Canadian flair.

The view from our bedroom window

 At Gala View, we stayed in the Chardonnay room, a beautifully decorated master room, where every morning we opened our window to be greeted, in full splendour, to majestic views of the lake Okanagan. It's like your own living painting. I think that you cannot truly escape its gaze, no matter where you are in the valley.

Another scenic view from our window

 Tom and Lynn kindly suggested an itinerary to occupy us during our 2 day stay and we pretty much followed it to the letter:

We walked the lake front promenade (a must do!) - all the way from City Park to the Brant's Marsh nature reserve. A lovely walk with lots of boats, beaches and ducks to see. Here you not only park your car, you get to park your boat too! In the reserve there were Osprey nests, but we didn't see any Ospreys :-(

City park: the docks

Brant's Marsh nature reserve

Public art: 'Bear' - by Brower Hatcher 2010

Public art: 'The Beach' - Geert Maas 2002

Following the Art & Heritage Walk (between Rotary Centre for the Arts & the Library Parkade)

Throughout Kelowna you see a number of displays of public art. We engaged with it sometimes not knowing what we were looking at, other times just curious but generally appreciative. This is actually the result of a coordinated effort from the Kelowna City Council to "work with the community to humanize and animate the urban environment, increase the livability and artistic richness of the community, and stimulate the growth of arts and arts-related businesses through the provision of public art". I think it's very impressive!

City Park: by the beach

We visited the Mission Hill winery - gorgeous place and one of the oldest wineries in Kelowna. It has beautiful grounds of Roman architecture. Set on a hill, you can enjoy great views of the lake and Okangana valley. We arrived a bit late so we missed the last tour.

Entering Mission Hill

A view of the lake from Mission Hill

We drove along Lakeshore road and took in the views from the other side of the lake. There are great wineries to see including Summershill, Cedar Creek and St. Hubertus. We did not visit these I'm afraid, but 5 minutes from where we stayed there was another winery: the Quail's Gate, where we spoilt ourselves to the tasting menu and enjoyed its selection of famed wines of Okanagan Valley. The backdrop: to our front the Okanagan lake and our backs the vineyards of Quail's Gate and Mission Hill. In Canada it is recommended that you drink Canadian wine and the wines of this region are a good bet.. having won awards - even in Europe.  The  Canadian wines are more expensive than the imported wines - it's kind of a boutique industry and the yields are way way lower than most commercial wineries.  Kind of a nice thing about the Canadians is that they like to support there own even at greater cost.

View from Quail's Gate winery

The Stewart room

Sunset

We drove to Peachland - a short 15 minute drive to this small municipality in the Okanagan Valley - for a meal at the 'Gasthaus on the Lake' bavarian restaurant. I was surprised to see how they truly captured the Bavarian feel - with the beergarten and the whole feel inside!

A questionable display of stuffed animals at the restaurant!

Totem in Peachland promenade

If you ever come to Canada, truly, do add to your experience staying at a  B&B, if you can avoid do not stay in a motel. I cannot speak for the whole of Canada, but I speak for Kelowna. It's Canadian hospitality at its best and you have to try a Canadian breakfast - thank you Lynn for this experience!

The Canadian breakfast by Lynn

Of course, I could not do justice to this blog if I didn't tell you of our 'gourmet burger' experiences. I'm pleased to say that we ate our first favourite at the El Dorado restaurant and resort hotel. It is by far the best, but doesn't quite tip off our Londonner 'Byron' from our 'Best Burger Ever' list.

We left Kelowna reluctantly but confident in the knowledge that more adventures await for us! We took highway 33 and 33A via Osoyos and Keremeos towards Vancouver. Where we have now joined Margaret (Col's dad's sister) and her husband Graham for the next 3 weeks.

En route to Vancouver

A special thank you to Tom and Lynn whose special touches and kind disposition made our stay very special. Thank you for the wonderful experience!

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