Warming up
The first day of a road trip is always tricky. We’d collected our rental car last evening but since none of us had been to Winnipeg before, we thought we’d take time to get our bearings and explore the city on foot, leaving the car in the hotel garage. A bonus benefit of that would be to be out in the fresh air and sunshine, the most effective means of alleviating the jet lag and ennui that two days of travelling can bring about.
Our hotel, formerly the railway hotel and very traditional in style, is fine though our tiredness provoked some impatience with a couple of shortcomings last evening. Our server at dinner offered a couple of useful suggestions however, including a strong favourite for breakfast just up the road.
The shortest route there took us through the Union Station, totally deserted at 9.30am on a Saturday morning.
Inside the station was similarly empty, except for a woman sweeping the vast expanse of marble floor. A quick look offered a possible reason for there being no one around: there were no scheduled trains arriving or departing this morning at all.
Looking back as we emerged from the rear of the station, there was a very different and yet similarly grand portal. I wonder how many times a day (?a week?) the building comes alive and serves the purpose for which it was built?
Our pathway continued through gardens with a small memorial fountain which was attracting the attention of a group of Canada geese. These big things gave me cause for concern, but with my Hero always in between me and the closest bird, I made it through the worst.
Our destination was just over the road: The Forks Market. Now there was quite a buzz about here and we’d passed several clues along the way which offered the reason: it’s Pride weekend in Winnipeg and this area was the centre of activity today, there being a parade tomorrow.
We soon found the recommended breakfast spot too, though if truth were told, this wasn’t our first “Original Pancake”. As soon as I spotted the “Baby Apple” on the menu, I remembered ordering it previously, but where? Mary had the answer: July 2011 in Portland, Oregon, on a previous Road Trip! Good grief…
This Baby Apple Pancake was just as good as I remembered I’m glad to say. What a great breakfast!
We took a quick look around the rest of the market whilst we were there, thinking that we’d be looking for somewhere for dinner later. We’d got another recommendation for an Italian restaurant which looked good and how about the name of this hot dog business then?!
After a conversation with the very enthusiastic Ashley in the Manitoba tourist information office across from the Pancake House, we agreed that our first stop should be the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. We’d spotted the distinctive structure when we’d left the Union Station earlier, so headed straight there through the park where the Pride supporters were assembling. By now it was warming up rather and by the time we reached the entrance, the blast of chilly air coming from the museum was a welcome confirmation that coming here was a good idea!
Our visit proved to be an interesting experience for all kinds of reasons. The design and layout of the space has been very carefully considered to ensure inclusion, accessibility, respect, cooperation and fairness for all. Right at the start it’s made clear that the content is appropriate for all ages and levels of understanding and that there are guides on each floor ready and able to offer explanation and answer questions. Normally in such places, we’d begin at the top and work our way down, but here the journey was from darkness into light, ie from the ground floor upwards.
It would have been easy to become overwhelmed by the content of this place. Stories of injustice don’t make for comfortable reading even though in many cases, a positive and optimistic approach was taken. Many of these stories were particular to Canada, because they involved Indigenous people and their struggles against discrimination, for their democratic rights and language rights in particular.
On the third floor was a “gathering space” surrounded by natural light in which “to contemplate your museum experience”. This floor focused on protecting rights in Canada, with explanation of the evolution of law here. Noting that the fourth floor was dedicated to the Holocaust, the Declaration of Human Rights and breaking the silence surrounding genocides around the world we decided to leave those weighty topics for another day and chose to head straight to the fifth floor where there was a cafe and a comfortable chair or three. There’s only so much serious thought one can take whilst on holiday after all.
Whilst we’d been in the Museum things had heated up outside and it was pretty darned hot out there now. Even the at the crossing of Portage and Main where we felt sure we’d find a little cool air, there was no such thing to be found. We sought shade wherever we could, but there was precious little of that, too.
We continued along Main, reflecting on the “mad dogs and Englishmen” line (acknowledging that one of us was a Californian). There wasn’t that much to be seen, save for the occasional interesting statue however.
In view of the weather, rather than potter around the Exchange District of small shops and cafes, we chose to continue on Main a little further to another (cool) museum instead.
The story of the Province was here, from bison charging across the plain, pursued by one of the indigenous people we’d been reading about earlier
to artefacts illustrating their lives and art.
We saw fine examples of Manitoba wildlife too
and learned of notable aspects of Manitoba history - here a trading post of the Hudson Bay Company.
Before long however, all three of us agreed that we’d had enough. We were ready to return to the hotel and put our feet up for a while.
After all, we had dinner to plan and to look forward to! And when the server repeated the order “Two lousy beatniks” he wasn’t referring to us but one of the local brews. With the alternative “Grandpa’s Sweater” also on the menu, it was a difficult choice to make!
