Winnipeg & heading west

Thursday May 28, 2009

Back on the train, we were dismayed but not entirely surprised that our tap and drain had not been fixed. During the 4 hour stop in Winnipeg there was a change of crews. Thank goodness. This group seems a little more on the ball than the last one. I felt sorry for them having to pick up the pieces from the last bunch. The new service manager already showed promise when he knocked on our door, checked out the situation and apologized. They would try again tomorrow in Jasper. He offered us a bottle of wine but since we don't drink, he suggested a vest, which we picked up for Glenn later. It's quite nice.

And so, at around noon, we say goodbye to "The Peg".

* * * * *

Somewhere in Manitoba

A trestle in Uno, in Manitoba's Assiniboine Valley

We should be into Saskatchewan around dinnertime. An interesting tidbit about Melville, Saskatchewan: It was named for the president of the Grand Trunk Pacific, Charles Melville Hays, which makes you wonder why they didn't name the town Hays. The railway tended to name its stations in alphabetical order between division points. But I think Melville is a division point so presumably it could have had any name. Anyway, he had been in England to promote the railway but died on the Titanic.

At our dinner table was a German man who didn't speak much English and a fellow from Squamish who was retired after working for a railway. We passed by many boxes in fields and were told they were for bees for the canola they grow here. Not much growing yet but the fields now had a slightly green tinge that was not there a couple of weeks ago.

Another time change on this night, going back one hour.

Winnipeg - Manitoba legislative building

Thursday May 28, 2009

We arrive at the building and all pile out of the bus.

It's our old friend Wolfe again.

As you walk toward the entrance you notice an interesting thing about the building material - there are fossils in it. Tyndall stone is a unique sort of limestone quarried not far from Winnipeg. Apparently this part of the country was under the ocean millions of years ago.

A little info from the net:

The small village of Garson north-east of Winnipeg bills itself as The Limestone Capital of North America. This is no empty boast. The 450 million year-old (Late Ordovician) Tyndall Stone quarried here is probably the most frequently used building stone in Canada. It is used in the House of Commons, old Eaton's stores, the Canadian Museum of Civilization and in the venerable Empress Hotel in Victoria.

Inside are these impressive bison statues on either side of a staircase. I said to Glenn, "Wow, look at those buffalo." "Bison," the guide's assistant corrected me. The statues were modelled by Charles Gardet of Paris and cast in New York City. Each one weighs 5000 lbs. The question then is - how do you get a 2½ ton sculpture into the building without damaging the lovely marble floors? Well, the story goes that the entire main floor was flooded and frozen. The bison were put on giant slabs of ice from the river and slid into place.

The Carrara marble staircase, shown partially here, consists of 3 flights of 13 steps. Thirteen is a number used throughout the building.

There are a number of Grecian, Egyptian and even western touches throughout the building.

The rotunda - looking down and up.

Outside we take a closer look at the Golden Boy statue on the top of the building. The north-facing, 17-foot figure holding a golden sheaf and a torch was sculpted by the same artist who designed the bison. This one was cast in France and had 'a bit of a time' getting here as the foundry was partially bombed during WWI. It was then put on a ship but the ship was commandeered for the transport of troops. The statue lay in the hold until after the war when it was finally delivered to Halifax.

A view from the bus as we leave the grounds.

Winnipeg - A bus tour

Thursday, May 28, 2009

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.

Arriving in Winnipeg

Thursday, May 28, 2009

Some cloud but clearing. Up at 5:30 for breakfast at 6:30.

The less-than-dazzling crew continues to underwhelm

Unlike the dining car staff on the trip east, this group seems completely disorganized. Yesterday, people seated after us had their food before we even got our first cup of coffee. When Glenn's egg dish arrived, he had to wait some time for the toast to appear. This morning when we arrived for breakfast we were told to go into the games car and put our names on a list. We still don't know why. That car was full of people, some apparently unaware a list existed. We finally located it and added our names. After a while, an attendant appeared and announced that breakfast was on. Everyone herded into the dining car and the list was ignored.

Rule #1 - just serve the coffee!

This morning at our table was a couple who worked for different railway companies. The man was in upper management with Via Rail. The restaurant staff obviously didn't know this or our table might have received better service. His wife was immediately unimpressed that we had to wait so long to be served a cup of coffee. She had asked for milk for it rather than cream but went ahead with the cream before the coffee went cold. By the time the milk did appear her cup was nearly empty. She had wanted oatmeal but they were out (?) so she ordered two eggs and toast and that was all - no meat or hashbrowns. Like me, she likes to have the toast with the eggs but they were getting cold waiting for the toast. By the time she inquired for the third time, she was getting pretty irritated. The waitress said there was a problem with the toaster, which didn't explain why I still didn't have the muffin I'd ordered. Also, I had asked for ketchup for my sausages but ate half of them before it arrived.

We booked a 2 to 2½ hour tour of Winnipeg starting at 8:30 am. The train would arrive in Winnipeg at about 8:00. At the stop in Winnipeg you take an escalator down into the station. When we got to the bottom we saw a cluster of people and soon learned that one bus was already full and the tour company had not received the fax letting them know more had reserved. Or perhaps the fax had gone to the wrong place. In any case, they were uncertain they could accommodate the extra people but, amazingly, they managed to put together a bus, driver and tour guide within 15 minutes or so. The manager of the bus company happened to be in the office doing payroll so he started driving the bus until another driver could meet up and take over.