{"id":748,"date":"2009-08-10T20:35:29","date_gmt":"2009-08-11T04:35:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ehcanadatravel.com\/blog\/?p=748"},"modified":"2009-08-10T20:49:16","modified_gmt":"2009-08-11T04:49:16","slug":"wowed-in-winnipeg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ehcanadatravel.com\/blog\/2009\/08\/10\/wowed-in-winnipeg\/","title":{"rendered":"Wowed in Winnipeg"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a few days researching downtown – the crowds and civilization in general – I was due for a drastic change.\u00a0 Do not get me wrong cities are interesting, I love visiting and meeting people, but it is just that me and downtowns get on each others nerves after a while.<\/p>\n

So, today I was looking forward to researching the parks and trails of Winnipeg!\u00a0 The same trails and parks that do not exist. Huh.. you say, how can that be?\u00a0 While, let me share with you my experience. On my recent visit to the tourism info office they had no information on any of the parks or trails nor did they mention any when I asked.\u00a0 Not a map of all the parks? Not an information sheet. Not a photo copy? Not even a shred of\u00a0 information? Shaking my head.\u00a0 They just do not get it.<\/p>\n

It seems no matter how popular the parks and trails are for the local population, the local tourism association here must believe us tourist have no interest in exploring trails, parks, natural areas or gardens. But they sure like to push paid admission activities. Imagine that?<\/p>\n

However, Winnipeg itself\u00a0 has turned out to be a pleasant surprise.\u00a0 Not only do they have a good selection of\u00a0 well maintained, interesting and bustling parks they have some colorful flower gardens too. Recently,\u00a0 I was floored by the quality of the Forks Historic Site\u00a0 and the connecting Riverwalk located on the Red and Assiniboine Rivers downtown. Today I was equally impressed by two parks in particular – the Assiniboine Park and the Fort Whyte Park.<\/p>\n

The Assiniboine Park was huge and it adjoined a demonstration forest. The grounds were very clean. The trails paved and consistently trampled on by bikers, joggers, dog walkers and roller bladders. The vast fields of grass lawns were well trimmed and lacking dog do do.\u00a0 People were picnicking, reading, suntanning and playing Frisbee. You could smell the fresh cut grass in the air.\u00a0 Beats car fumes and factory dust any day.<\/p>\n

To my surprise the park also has one of the nicest flower garden exhibits and outdoor art collections I have come across so far in my travels. Although smaller than Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island the English Gardens and Leo Mol Gallery in Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg is very much comparable in color – and it is free.<\/p>\n

\""The<\/a>

"The Bather" and moi in Assiniboine Park<\/p><\/div>\n

The entire park is covered in various flower gardens and statues donated by various people (main picture). Good looking works of art too – not the 7-11 kind where your shaking your head asking yourself, “Where is the art in that”. Although, one should be aware some of the art is naked.\u00a0 Myself, I was drawn to the naked and wildlife statues. Which to some close minded people may be offensive. Too bad, so sad.<\/p>\n

The paths in the gardens lead you to fountains, wishing wells, awnings, benches and, yes,\u00a0 more art statues. Because the flower garden is tight and more personal the colors seem to be right on top of you. So many colors in your face. And it was not always the same flower over and over again.\u00a0 It was beautifully done. You cannot help but feel at peace after visiting the gardens. It left me feeling good.<\/p>\n

\"Muir<\/a>

Muir Lake floating boardwalk trail at Fort Whyte Centre<\/p><\/div>\n

The Fort Whtye Centre, as they like to call it…\u00a0 is actually more like a park with lakes, bison, birds and trails.\u00a0 One of the best trails was a floating boardwalk route which zig-zagged on top of a lake. The water was green and murky. There were cattails. We were in wetland country.<\/p>\n

Some sections of the boardwalk trail must of been at least 350 metres long. Some with benches on them in the middle of the lake. Others walking right by bird houses on stilts as if they were little resort cabins in the tropics.<\/p>\n

On the main lake, again to my surprise, there were people sailing and canoeing. I also found a sod house exhibit recreated from the pioneer days. On another trail I came across a York Boat, tipi and what look liked war canoes.\u00a0 It just kept coming. It was a day full of surprises.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After a few days researching downtown – the crowds and civilization in general – I was due for a drastic change.\u00a0 Do not get me wrong cities are interesting, I love visiting and meeting people, but it is just that me and downtowns get on each others nerves after a while. So, today I was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-manitoba-adventures"],"aioseo_notices":[],"geo":null,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ehcanadatravel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ehcanadatravel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ehcanadatravel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehcanadatravel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehcanadatravel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=748"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehcanadatravel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":757,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehcanadatravel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions\/757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ehcanadatravel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehcanadatravel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ehcanadatravel.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}