Rob-n-Hild, oot and aboot eh? Sorry - 2022

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Winnipeg (48 km, 1 hour 36 minutes, max elevation 244)

Green = drive. Blue = walk.

Now we are in Winnipeg again, we have the chance to see something of the city - as last time we drove up to Gimli and then went on to Riding Mountain the next day.

This time, our first stop of the day was the Pavilion at Assiniboine Park next to Winnipeg Zoo. The Pavilion includes Winnipeg Art Gallery. And a special thing in Winnipeg: Winnie the Pooh - British author A. A. Milne's lovable bear.

We did also visit a couple of art galleries with Walter J. Phillips, Genevie Henderson and Ivan Eyre - but nothing could really engage us like Winnie the Pooh!

"Winnie" was a real bear rescued in 1914 by veterinarian Harry Colebourn in Northern Ontario (White River, where we drove through last month). He named her after his adopted home town Winnipeg, and the bear cub became the mascot and was well-trained and welcomed by all the soldiers. They were separated when Colebourn shipped out with his regiment during the First World War. "Winnie" was donated to London Zoo (UK) until she died in 1934. Colebourn visited "Winnie" in the zoo several times until he returned to Canada in 1920. He thought it best to leave her in London because she seemed to be very happy there.

Milne and his son Christopher Robin visited the zoo many times as they grew to know each other. This friendship was the inspiration for all the "Pooh" stories. So lovely. We got to see all his friends too: Eeyore, Piglet, Tigger, Kanga, Roo and more.

Pooh: And the only reason for being a bee that I know of is making honey. And the only reason for making honey is so as I can eat it.

There were many drawings and books to enjoy in the exhibit - originally by E.H. Shepard and later produced and marketed successfully by Stephen Slesinger.

The wonderful thing about tiggers
Is tiggers are wonderful things!
Their tops are made out of rubber
Their bottoms are made out of springs!
They're bouncy, trouncy, flouncy, pouncy
Fun, fun, fun, fun, fun!
But the most wonderful thing about tiggers is
I'm the only one.

And a Norwegian one:
Her kommer ole brum, en liten bjørn i skogen
Tralala bum, jeg heter ole brum
Dette er en liten bjørnevise, om montro jeg snart får litt å spise
Her kommer ole brum, en liten bjørn i skogen
Tralala bum, jeg heter ole brum

The interactive show worked well until it crashed in the middle of the story connecting Christopher Robin to "Winnie". But, not to worry, we know the story well and enjoyed the time very much. It was really nice and brought back memories as they had the same edition of "House at Pooh Corner" that Rob remembered. There were also various Pooh-themed items including a water bottle with straw - fancier than what we had.

Later Rob was despondent to find that there was too little water in the creek to play Pooh-Sticks... Boohoo!

On our way to Assiniboine Forest we came across another example of the Red River ox cart we have learnt about before. This one looked huge, and they do admit to it being 1.5 times the true size.

The goal was to hike various trails in Assiniboine Forest and it started off well: A welcome sign, a warning sign about coyotes and how big they are relative to pets. Very handy knowledge. We also spotted many beautiful flowers and cute ducks.

The trail started off paved, then it went to gravel tracks, suddenly we were hiking on wood chips, and finally it was just utterly soggy mud! We turned around and tried to find another way to the middle - a lake. Interestingly there was supposed to be a boardwalk near the pond, but it was too muddy to reach it.

We did manage to find our way to the pond dedicated to Eve Werier and her work to protection and preservation of natural resources.

It was time to make our way back to Mary Jane so we could have lunch. On the way we found a beautiful pond with fountain and geese and goslings and lots of school children enjoying themselves. The Children's Garden had a gate to indicate how tall one should be to go in: shorter than you Hild! You can sit on the giant chair in stead...

We did find a nice place to eat lunch though at a picnic table between the Zoo and the river - again lucky to time it between rain showers.

After lunch we drove to the center of Winnipeg and parked Mary Jane just across from the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. We took photographs from every angle. Thanks to Azimir for recommending we visit the building - fantastic architecture!

We parked in this area to visit the Forks. Thanks to Fiona and Justin we had a great walk and browse. This is the area where the Assiniboine and Red rivers join and has been a meeting point for centuries - as well the site of the original trading post. We found a nice walk around the Forks - using three bridges - to make it a loop.(just as we like it!). It has to be said that the northern most bridge was the nicest one. A fun thing about the southern most bridge are the two golden "torches" of wheat.

The Red River was still flooded as many structures were under water, and the water level had been higher as there was a lot of debris to be seen. Several of the paths were closed due to flooding.

At the Forks there were a lot of interesting bits and pieces, including an astronomical guide with sight-rings set on weird pillars to look through and pick out specific stars. Of course, they only work one night each year and at night so it wasn't much use to us on a nice sunny day in June, but it was a fun idea anyway.

The other fun thing was a piece of sculpture with a hemisphere of metal surrounding a limestone block. We thought it was a bit weird, until we read that cut-outs in the metal created shadows in the limestone depicting various tools used by people through the years of development. It was actually quite clever, once we knew what to look for. We tried to guess what the images were, but we had no expert to confirm our guesses.

We also enjoyed one contraption that let us look out across the river in a telescope and showing old boats. Fun!

Another surprise was listed on the map as "Forever Bicycles" - which Rob assumed was a bike shop - and which turned out to be a very clever sculpture with thousands of steel bicycles. It looks even stranger in a photo as the lack of depth makes it seem like the bikes are exploding!

As part of our continued education, we also learnt about the geothermal heat pump system in Winnipeg: 168 holes drilled 300 feet down. They also use heat stored in the river and ground water.

We deserved ice-cream now and found a place inside what (we think) is the old railway station to sit down and eat that and then found some nice food to bring home for dinner. All in all, nice to get so see something of the city.

It actually seems like a theme for us to walk around a river in the city center. Or maybe it is a theme of Canadian cities that they are built on a river... Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Prince George, Calgary, Regina...

Peculiar items seen today were:

Rob finding pierogies in the breakfast buffet at our hotel.
A metal bison constructed by books - proclaiming that "Education is the new bison".
A metal sculpture supposedly shaped like a pregnant woman!? We're not sure that it is very flattering.
Some stone statues of bisons, a seal, and ... we can't even guess...

May/June 2022

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