The Forks is a promontory where the Red and Assiniboine Rivers meet in downtown Winnipeg that’s been used for centuries as a meeting and gathering place. In 21st Century culture, that means we have a park and a lot of places to eat inside.
The park is quite nice and offers good views of the river. The food places? Well, tell me: can you tell this is Winnipeg rather than 100,000 other places on the North American continent?
Don’t get me wrong: the restaurants are all pleasant, and I’m sure serve good food. Just like 100,000 other places that look the same.
From Broadway, you get to the Forks by walking under an underpass at Union Station. Here’s where I was going to arrive from Churchill two days later had the train service not been interrupted. The clock on the station is either running slow, or is permanently stopped at 10 o’clock, thus assuring that it’s telling the correct time twice a day.
In the underpass I saw the only graffiti I saw in Canada. Once out, you make your way through the commercial establishments to the edge of the Forks. Here, I found an art piece:
As with the Millennium Library, I was unable to find a plaque telling me what it was. But I liked it.
Just beyond art thingee was a skateboard park, heavily used by skateboarders, bikers (not motorized; no Hogs allowed), and scooter enthusiasts.
I sat for a while and watch younger children not quite get the idea of potential gravitational energy, as they started on the smaller hump (picture on the right) instead of the bigger one.
By this time it was clear that I wasn’t going to make it to St. Boniface or to the Manitoba Museum. I’d had a great time and had seen parts of Winnipeg that are off the tourist circuit, and this is a city to which I just have to return to see more. I was particularly disappointed to miss St. Boniface, as Winnipeg is the second-largest Francophone community outside of Quebec. When I return, I hope I can speak French more better than I do now. I can follow spoken French decently–years of scanning Le Monde have to be good for something–and it’s odd to think of going to Winnipeg to learn to speak French–but so what? It’s a pleasant city with friendly people, interesting things to see, and you can get around on public transport. What’s not to like?
The Human Rights museum was also visible from this place in the Forks.
I can’t believe I didn’t take more pictures of it from this angle, as they’ve done some amazing things with it, including planting a ramp with prairie grass that extends up 5 or 6 stories. The outside is both monumental and humane, at a decent human scale (or at least so best I could see through the construction fence), and I look forward to being able to tour it. It opens on September 20, 2014. If you’re in Winnipeg, don’t miss it.
Gandhi is present in the park, in the middle of a walkway, close to the Human Rights museum:
Here’s the sign describing the statue. In addition to English and French, the sign has a third section in Inuktitut, which is the writing for the Inuit languages. Unlike the Roman alphabet, it is a syllabary, like hiragana in Japanese.
The train station has an even more impressive entrance from the Forks’ side than from Broadway.
The building you see at the back of the dome over Union Station is the Fort Garry, one of the best hotels in town. I passed by it after the food trucks. It reminded me somewhat of the Chateau Frontinac in Quebec city, but then so does every building with French empire styling. Here’s the Fort Garry:
My checkout time was noon, so I headed back to the hotel. I’m a sucker for Richardsonian romanesque and Winnipeg has preserved several buildings. Here are a couple of them:
As I got closer to my hotel, I again caught sight of the Manitoba Hydro tower. The tower itself is distinctive, and I never did figure out what angle to shoot it from. Here’s a cropped version of the upper floors:
When I was looking for my hotel on-line, one suggestion was the Marlborough Hotel, which I’m sure in 1914 was named after John Churchill, the Duke of Marlborough. After 10 days in Churchill, that had to be the place to stay.
I checked out shortly before noon and dragged myself down to the bus stop for the trip to the airport.
LessThan3ley 