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Published: November 4th 2008
Things to do in Winnipeg...
I'm afraid to say there wasn't much to report on Winnipeg. I wanted to like it, but it was closed. Like Toronto and Calgary, it has one of those enclosed walkways above street level connecting buildings in the town centre. It enables people to walk in air-conditioned comfort during the blistering cold in Winter or the prairie heat of Summer. The downside is it robs the streets of people and there's less of a buzz about the place. Saturday afternoon, place was like a ghost town.
(...in fact, there aren't that many things to do in Winnipeg)
So the greyhound took me away again, across Manitoba and Saskatchewan provinces, through Moose Jaw, and Medicine Hat (I've always wanted to go to Medicine Hat) to Calary in Alberta, where I stayed with Chris and Sara for a couple of days. They are both looking absolutely fantastic and enjoying being back home, though admit to missing British Christmas dinners. Sara still misses Innocent smoothies; and I thought I made good cappuccinos, but Chris does that 'leaf' shape thing in the foam on top of a coffee better than you get in Starbucks. I
watched him several times but I still don't think I've figured the technique completely. Whilst they were at work during the day, I visited my favourite outdoor gear shop, MEC and visited Fort Calgary. Established by the North-West Mounted Police (later the famous Royal Canadian Mounted Police) in 1875
just as, not
after the first settlers were arriving from the East, Fort Calgary is a good example of the forward-thinking attitudes that prevented Canada from going through a 'Wild West' phase.
Rocky Mountains and Vancouver
The final leg of my Canadian journey was to get to Vancouver and re-visit some of the places in the Rocky Mountains on the way. I hired a car again, and on the way had a night in Banff including a soak in the hot springs, then took in the Icefields Parkway and Lake Louise. 5km East of Golden I passed "Pretty Nuts" - the ice-route where I broke my ankles in 1999. Couldn't stop to lay a wreath, the lay-by that used to be here has disappeared behind a new 30ft high stone wall because the rockface is dangerously loose. And there wasn't any ice on the route, so a photo wouldn't
Chris & Sara getting beers in for the game
(Calgary Flames 2 - Washington Capitals 1). I like watching ice hockey, but it's hard to follow, the puck is whipped around so fast. I have to infer where it is from what the players are doing: "Hey! Those guys over there are getting excited, it must be down that end-"have meant much, but someone else has a few good ones at:
Vancouver was fantastic: the streets were full of people. If there's a tunnel system somewhere, I didn't find it. It's rather a 'low-rise' city; there are big cargo ships in the bay, but also sea-planes, water-taxis, rowers, canoes and lots of very expensive looking yachts. Noticeably warmer than inland, there were even a few convertibles with the roof down. It's a city of two halves though; there's a seedy, run-down side to it as well, particularly the 'Downtown Eastside' and the junction of East Hastings & Main Streets in particular. It seems in Vancouver they accept the reality of homelessness, drug addiction and prostitution and have tried to concentrate the welfare services for them in one area which is heavily policed. So you get the corner of Hastings & Main Streets with dozens of people with thousand-yard stares -and I don't habitually hang around with drug users by the way, but even I could tell what I was looking at when watching a woman bent double, without any coordination, weaving all over the sidewalk trying for 2 minutes to get out of a cardigan. It didn't Canadian Rockies - The Terminator
The vertical weep of ice from Mount Rundle around the corner from Banff is one of the Rockies' toughest ice-climbs: 'The Terminator' is 150m high but doesn't always form, surprising to see so much of it this early in the season. put me off the place, I thought Vancouver had quite a liberal approach; its a change from sweeping it under the carpet as happens in most other cities (and not just in Canada).
New friends: Fiera introduced me to bubble tea in the Aberdeen centre in Richmond: Steve, Helen and Toby took me to dinner in (Hairy) Mary's American Diner; I even managed 30 minutes lying in the sun in Granville Island Park. All in all I had a great week.
Porsche-count:
Winnipeg: 0 in 36 hours.
Calgary: 2 in 2 days.
Vancouver: 14 in 7 days.
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Dave McCann
non-member comment
Moose Loving
Hi Mart, Hope things are going well. Really enjoying the updates - please keep em coming. Do you see any Moose? I hear their quite attractive, in a funny way of course. Just wondered if you found the same...... Dave