Day 28 Sun- City delights, The Heat Hits

Our Airbnb we are staying at in Winnipeg is right next to a busy Hwy…easy to find the house, but crazy traffic outside….So during the night as the house isn’t as sound proof as the dodgy motel we were last in, I was woken by street noise around 1am….no being able to g back to sleep I decided I wouldn’t muck around like all the other nights so took a 1/4 of a sleeper and yep that did the trick…woken refreshed and ready for the day,,..I only ever use these as last resort and on,y occasionally as they are addictive…so careful, careful…but ohh that sleep was good…

Up at 6.30 am finished the blog, my readings then got some easy Brekky for myself…Toast perfect…we have everything in this Airbnb it is really well stocked….we have a kettle, we have a lid machine and we have a dripolater as well…plus they have so many little extras here…truly enjoying being in a home instead of a motel….

We opened the window to see a policeman across from our accommodation….he honestly would have been there for a good 45 minutes before he actually did do something and that was to close off half the main road…we were miffed as to why…until later we discovered heaps of runners along the roads we were driving along…seems it must have been some type of fun run..heaps of roads were half shut to allow the runners.,,. mystery dud get solved….

After Brekky John and I set out to explore the city…Tim and Jess were heading to Museums and Art Galleries….

Our adventures saw us cover a lo of ground, starting with St Boniface Cathedral it is now ruins after being destroyed by fire into e 1960’s while relating its roof….now it’s the preface for the rest of the Church which has been built at the back of the excising ruins…sadly I couldn’t get great pics as there was a function there today and heaps of little red pop up gazebo’s …. So did my best before we headed along the Red Riverside walk that took us onto an unreal Bridge called the Reil Bridge…..going from the French Quarter of St Boniface to Winnipeg….it was known by both names but became one in 1972 when the City of Winnipeg was created by the unified amalgamation. It is quite a striking site spanned across the Red River..

Walking across the Esplanade Reil Footbridge we could see the Massive and very very impressive Human Rights Building Museum…. What a fantastic design it is is…very modern and very cutting edge design…built in 2009…

From here we headed to the The Forks Markets.. Named the Forks for being at the intersection of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers….it has been a meeting place for over 6,000 yrs….firstly the early indigenous people, then the fur trades, the Metis buffalo and railway pioneers….
Now is a complex with a toddies Mecca heaps of different food shops, gift shops.l.but not fresh produce like the Adelaide markets like I thought it was….we had a good look around, was about to head off when John saw a 30 min River cruise…so that’s whatever ventured to next… the little boats were extremely comfortable with the thickest most comfortable seats we have ever sat on in a little boat like this….
The guy giving the commentary as most was full of great info…. As we set of up river….. you could see the first bridge had 3 levels of colour on it…the first colour was blue…the next colour yellow, the a red colour…. Pls the fact the river at present is flooding…..it’s 10f t higher than normal now only 2 weeks again it was another 5ft higher and you can see mark that’s above the bottom colour which is blue,,.in 1950 the city flood to the point 100,000 people had to be evacuated…and major damage was sustained…more information below on the flooding over the years and what the city did to stop it…quite ingenious….

The end of World War II brought a new sense of optimism in Winnipeg. Pent-up demand brought a boom in housing development, but building activity came to a halt due to the 1950 Red River flood, the largest flood to hit Winnipeg since 1861; the flood held waters above flood stage for 51 days. On May 8, 1950, eight dikes collapsed, four of the city's eleven bridges were destroyed, and nearly 100,000 people had to be evacuated, making it Canada's largest evacuation in history. Premier Douglas Campbell called for federal assistance, and Canadian Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent declared a state of emergency. Soldiers from the Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry regiment staffed the relief effort for the duration of the flood. The federal government estimated damages at over $26-million, although the province insisted it was at least double that.

To protect the city from future flood damage, the Red River Basin Investigation recommended a system of flood control measures, including multiple diking systems and a floodway to divert the Red River around Winnipeg; this prompted construction of the Red River Floodway under Premier Dufferin Roblin. Construction of the Red River Floodway began in 1962, and was completed in 1968.

Then in 1997 another massive flood occurred. The Red River flood of 1997 was a major flood that occurred in April and May 1997 along the Red River of the North in Minnesota, North Dakota, and Southern Manitoba. It was the most severe flood of the river since 1826. The flood reached throughout the Red River Valley, affecting the cities of Fargo and Winnipeg, but none so greatly as Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, where floodwaters reached more than 3 miles (4.8 km) inland. They inundated virtually everything in the twin communities. Total damages for the Red River region were US$3.5 billion. The flood was the result of abundant snowfall and extreme temperatures. The man who designed the flood division, called “Duff’s Ditch” lived long enough to see that this time the flood plan worked enough that it didn’t flood the whole city like last time and even though it caused many issues the city was saved….with yes major damage but not enough to destroy as much as before….It came to the Yellow line on the bridge the 1950’s flood came to the red line….

The boat turned around then headed down stream into Red River under the white cable bridge Reil BridgeÀ….onto an old rail bridge built in 1906 still in action today…. we leant lots including info an
Bout the Cathedral Ruins and the beautiful Legislative Building…. Which we forgot to go back and look at…

Temps are to reach 38c today considering only 2 days ago it was 9c a big jump and hard for Tim and Jess to take….

It was starting to hot up after our cruise after seeing these unreal shapes from the way I headed straight to them,,,the Oodena Celebration Circle…… It pays homage to the 6,000 years of Aboriginal peoples in the area. Oodena, Ojibwe for “heart of the community”, features ethereal sculptures, a sundial, interpretive signage, a naked eye observatory and a ceremonial fire pit, making it a desirable venue for cultural celebrations or a place to simply sit and marvel at its beauty. It certainly has my attention in a way it reminded me of the scientific park we went to India a number of years back…

After being here our time has gotten away from us so back to the Forks Market to buy lunch…earlier I had spotted a Greek Restaurant so we heard there fir a yummy fresh Gyros and Greek salad very very good…..

Then off to explore some of the massive older buildings I spotted on the Skyline…One as it turned out the Railway Terminal…the other not getting their names I just clicked away. Lastly before heading back to our car we came across Upper Fort Garry Gate 150 yrs old……that lead into some gardens and a massive cast iron wall now this wall is dedicated to the Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries Heritage Wall…very impressive it symbolises the original west wall of the Fort…it’s 400 ft long dear ting scenes over the centuries of history in the area…

Back through The Forks area, across the Reil bridge to the Ruins if St Boniface…where I found info in the first Nuns referred to as the Grey Nuns were sent here in 1844 to bring the Word of the Lord to the Indigenous but mainly to be nurses and open orphanages and schools….on the 1840’s the building with a striking Statues in an Art piece out from of a lovely building it’s original on this site was built in 1845….work went on to include nursing the elderly, looking after young unmarried women….we all know how that okayed out 😢😢😢 Nursing schools etc…. They did do a lot…but history also has shown they also did a lot of hurt..sadly all, in the name of Religion not the love of Christ… the often missed what should have been their true calling…

From here I hit footed it to the building next to the Cathedral which turned out to be the Uni…. Another wonderful old building no history on this one that I could find…but I did find a very different type of statue…. Very odd looking man…

By now it had hit 36c and we had walked kilometres and were tired…So headed back home for a Kip….

We all stayed in having nibbles dinner…I cooked an egg plant up…it turned out really tasty…meats, cheeses, olives and fruit…trying to use stuff up…but still seems to be a lot…Read more