I think Manitoba gets a bit of a bad rap. You don't often hear of it being a tourist destination, yet it has one of the most (if not the most) beautiful beaches in Canada. It may be a prairie province in the middle of the country, but parts of it look more like BC to me rather than Alberta or Saskatchewan. Also, most of my family was from there so I'm partial to it. Still, when we decided to take a bus tour during the lengthy stop in Winnipeg and Glenn asked, "What is there to see?" I couldn't answer. The only thing that came to mind was Fort Garry but we wouldn't be going there.
No, this isn't Glenn's train layout, but it looks like it could be if this scene by the train station was shrunk to miniature size.
As our bus pulled out of The Forks, the area we'd seen before on our way east, the French-Canadian tour guide told us about its history. Evidence was found of bison hunting thousands of years ago. Later it became an important site in the fur trade, and then for the railway. When the government began promoting the 'Gateway to the Canadian West', they built immigration sheds here for a thousand people. Winnipeg was hit with more floods this past winter and you could see that the river was still quite high. Part of a paved walkway disappeared under water.
The tour guide talked about the city being known for its friendly people. Could be - my aunt in Victoria had many lifelong, childhood friends from Winnipeg.
Our first stop would be the Manitoba Legislative Building.
There are a lot of elm trees in Winnipeg so it would be devastating if they all got killed off by Dutch Elm disease, a fungus spread by bark beetles. To combat this, the city bands the tree trunks from fall to spring.
Heading into town it looks like they're getting ready to plant their flower beds.
No comments:
Post a Comment