Winnipeg & Edmonton... Killing time before the Rockies..

 (blog Post by Colin)

Hi All....  Ok - Today is Tuesday 21st June and  we arrived to Canmore ( just outside Banff) in the Canadian Rockies  last night...   So much hiking over the last week that my legs are killing me  and Kizzy is actually limping.. So - we have decided to take a day off and that means that I am determined to get u to date on the blog.   The last post was about New York and so I will take it from there....

Ok - so - I am not sure if Kizzy   mentioned it.. but when we left New York - we had an 11 hour train journey on "Amtrak" from Penn Station to Toronto.  We then had 2 hours in Toronto before picking up "The Canadian" for a  2 night trip to Winnipeg..  I have never been so long on a train ever...  

Tracks.

We went economy and the seats were prettyy good... Loads of leg room and  chairs that recline pretty far back.. The Amtrak was better ( a newer train)..   Sleeping on the train was not that easy despite the reclining chairs..   On the first night - we were woken by several stops at junctions ( not train stations) where some people were picked up to go a few stops..  What you have to realise about these trains is that they are the slowest trains you can imagine.. South West trains beats the speed hands down..  I am not sure but  the fastest these suckers seemed to go was  about 30 miles an hour..    When you look at the size of Canada.. you can understand why it takes so long by train..  They really need some high speed Japanese style bullet trains.. !  There was some good scenery on the way  - but frankly most of it was just flat and miles and miles of trees...  Not sure if  it was on the news - but the province of Manitoba had some severe floods  like in the US - where people lost there homes.. . This was terrible and  we did notice the  high waters along the route..

Kizzy on the Canadian

The really good scenery comes if you get past  Winnipeg and head head into the Rockies.  Anyhow the reason we went to Winnipeg is that we could not face 4 nights on the train in a row  a!  So  we stayed 4 days in Winnipeg but only because the next train to Edmonton was not due four 4 days !

Train

Oh by the way..we met some more friendly Canadians on the train.. A lovely lady called Gloria  gave us the name of someone in Jasper who might be able to put us up  and we had some good conversations.

So we arrived in Winnipeg and  sat in the  train station  which had a free wifi signal to look for somewhere to stay ( we had originally thought that the trains had WIFi.. nope.. I have to say the website was a little misleading..)  We found a B&B that did not seem so far away in the french quarter of town - St Boniface ( once an independent city from Winnipeg)  The landlady - Jacqueline was  lovely and welcoming but did not have all the nights  we needed but she recommended an old folks home ( more like a posh hotel) down the road that she said rented out rooms..   We went over there and they had 3 nights available in what turned out ot be effectively a one bed flat for half the price of the B& B's..   So we stayed one night with Jacqueline and  3nights in the old folks home.. .. The old folks home was great. We brought down the average age in the place dramatically and for that they were happy !

Colin, Jacqueline & Kizzy

Winnipeg itself is a place with a fair bit of history.  It was a place where the Natives of Canada -" First Nations, Inuit & Metes" had a strong connection before us Europeans showed up... When we did  - the area became  a major trade hub  due to the fact  that two major river arteries join here in an area now known as "The Forks" 

Sign for The Forks

It is a pretty small place and honestly there is not that much to do or see. We felt we had pretty much seen everything after Day 1..   Kizzy was not found of the place but I found it fairly relaxing..  In the main part of town it seemed a little depressed - although there are some cooler artier - warehouse development sort of areas called the Exchange District.. 

Exchange District Signs

Exchange District Police Station..

In St Boniface along the river and the Forks it is just lovely..  very quiet and relaxing and some good walks. 

St Boniface Cathedral

 Me with Art in St Boniface..

Fur traders fort reconstruction

 The Forks seems to be the center of activity in the summer months  - loads of people  converging here for festivals, BMX and skateboarding etc.. It seems that Skateboarding and BMX is really big in Winnipeg.. Even in the winter when it gets down to -20 degrees on average.. (brrr...)  they have indoor facilities..

The Forks, BMX & Skate Park

We also went to Osbourne Village - an area of town.. which seems to have a young  arty metropolitan feel..   We met a waitress from Ipswich in  a Mexican restaurant..

Graffiti

Graffiti

Ok - so that's Winnipeg. For me relaxing - for Kizzy a little dull.    Here's a few more pics to round off.. and then a very brief blog on Edmonton..

Arty house spotted in St Boniface..

Art...

Kizzy with Ghandi

Ok - so we left Winnipeg and had another over night journey by train to Edmonton.   We stayed in Edmonton for 2 nights - time needed to sort out a car rental.  It seems that the most famous  place in Edmonton is the West Edmonton Mall - once the largest mall in the world and now fifth - number one is now Dubai - surprise surprise...  As we were leaving we heard that there was a really nice park alongside a river  that runs right  through the city... I quote - "Edmonton's river valley constitutes the longest stretch of connected urban parkland in North America, and Edmonton has the highest per capita area of parkland of any Canadian city; the river valley is 22 times larger than New York City's Central Park.."  Doh !.    Edmonton was always a stopping point on the way to the Rockies..
 To cut a long story short...  The mall was ok - it's big  but we expected it to be bigger and more impressive.  We spent the day on some rides in an inside amusement park, went to the cinema, played more mini golf.... and generally arsed around.. 
 

Ice rink in the mall

indoor roller coaster. ( yes we went on !)

I actually got par on this 18 hole course. !

One thing to mention - hiring a car in Canada when you are going to drop it off in a different province is prohibitively expensive..   The best price I got for 15 days was $2500 CAD.  Around £1600 . Strangely after lots of searching I managed to get it from a company called Canadian Affair based in Canada and UK  - If I booked it from their UK office ( toll free number) I got a  price of around £400..   Very very odd.  Ho hum..

The rental  car to take us through the Rockies and to Vancouver..

Ok - love ya and leave ya..  I am feeling good that after posting this I will only be 5 days behind on the blog and I can now start blogging about the good stuff... The Rockies.. Truly inspirational...

Colin