Winnipeg
If you ever have an opportunity to travel that way, plan to spend at least two days in Winnipeg. djjo says a visitor could easily spend a week there without getting bored. Situated at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers, it possesses much natural beauty. It is the political and cultural centre of the province of Manitoba.
After Unison festival finished on Monday we were tired and spent the evening relaxing. So we only had a few hours on Tuesday in which to explore the city.
During the morning we wandered around the Manitoba Legislative Building, a Neoclassical structure completed in 1920, supposedly the costliest building in Canada. Atop the central dome stands the Golden Boy, a statue of Hermes covered in gold leaf. Beneath the dome is a rotunda 27 m high and 16 m in diameter. Another circular room beneath the rotunda is known as the Pool of the Black Star. A round hole in the ceiling opens to the space above. Acoustics throughout the rotunda and pool are remarkable. If you stand in the middle of the star and speak, your voice echoes back equally from every direction, magnifying the sound. The entire building is uncommonly and beautifully decorated.
We had lunch at Mondragón Bookstore and Coffee House, a political bookstore and vegan restaurant maintained by a workers' collective, then spent a couple hours wandering around downtown.
The main intersection at Portage and Main is considered the windiest intersection in Canada. Pedestrians must cross through an underground concourse, otherwise they are prone to getting blown off their feet.
We headed to the Forks where the two rivers meet, but it was an extremely windy day and city streets drain my energy under even the best of conditions, so we didn't make it far enough. We turned aside to the place where beautiful St. Boniface Bridge crosses the Red River. Nearby the massive Museum of Human Rights is under construction, scheduled to open in 2012.
From the bridge we could see Cathèdral Saint-Boniface on the eastern shore, and decided to walk there. The cathedral was gutted by fire in the 1960s. Although part of the church was rebuilt, most of the historical structure was preserved as it appeared after the fire.
This picture was taken looking westward from the cathedral across the Red River toward downtown Winnipeg. Louis Riel, a founder of Manitoba and leader of two resistance movements (for which he was eventually hanged) is buried in the cemetery. The air was fragrant with lilacs.