Traveling north to Canada in wintertime is always a bit of an adventure, particularly when one’s destination is Winnipeg. This city in Manitoba normally endures a cold season lasting longer than three months from late November to early March with an average daily high temperature below 25° F. My trip was made in January, the coldest month of their year, when the city experiences average lows of -1° F and highs of only 14° F. No wonder they call it “Winterpeg.” My mid-morning departure was from the Baltimore Washington Airport aboard a United Airlines Boeing 737 aircraft with 16 seats in the forward cabin. This roughy two hour flight touched down at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport at about 11:30. My next flight departed from Terminal Two’s F Concourse. Since I had about an hour and a half between flights, I visited the United Club across from Gate F9. To the airline’s credit, this was one of the most modern and cleanest United Club Lounges I’ve ever visited. I had no trouble finding a seat at what was a busy time of day and neither the bar nor the buffet stations appeared to be very crowded.
While my next flight was actually longer than the first one that took me to Chicago, it was not a scheduled mainline jet, but rather an Embraer 175 regional jet operated by SkyWest Airlines on behalf of United Express. The First Class cabin contained only 12 seats in a 1 x 2 configuration in four rows. Whenever I travel alone, I always try to choose seat 2A or one of the other single seats on the port side of the aircraft for better privacy. While not overly large, these seats were 20" wide and featured 37” of pitch. I was pleased to discover that snacks were made available to passengers seated up front. The flight landed in Winnipeg on time at approximately 3:30 in the afternoon. Customs & Immigration formalities were short and efficient and I was in a taxi on my way to the hotel by 4:15 PM.
We made it to the Delta Hotel by Marriott in less than a half hour, which wasn’t bad considering the rush-hour traffic. Located in the downtown entertainment district, the second floor of this Four-Star hotel connects directly to the RBC (Royal Bank of Canada) Convention Centre. Front desk staff welcomed me to the hotel and I was recognized as a Lifetime Platinum Elite Bonvoy member. As such, I was granted access to the 12th floor Club Lounge where breakfast was served each morning, along with evening hors d’oeuvres. I was checked into a 216-square foot Premium King-bedded room on the 11th floor with floor-to-ceiling windows and a rather small balcony overlooking the city center. The room was equipped with ample charging ports, an oversized lounge chair and a good sized writing desk. The main dining venue in the hotel was the Blaze Bistro & Lounge, which was open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. There was also a grab-and-go coffee shop called Urban Bean directly next to the restaurant. It featured a good selection of sandwiches, fruits, snacks, salads and cold drinks staffed by a barista who prepared and served espresso-based coffee drinks and other hot beverages.
There was no doubt the city was prepared for winter. I noticed that both the downtown parking lots and parking meters were equipped with electrical outlets so that drivers could ensure their block heaters had the power they needed to keep their engines warm. Block heaters are used in cold climates to warm engines prior to starting. They are mostly used for car engines; however, they have also been used in aircraft engines. The most common design of a block heater is an electrical heating element that’s embedded in the engine block. In addition to prolonging a car’s longevity and preventing severe damage, block heaters also save money because starting and idling a warm engine burns less gasoline. The provincial government’s a fan as it’s illegal to sell a vehicle in Manitoba without one.
I appreciated the Delta Hotel’s ’s downtown location when my business ended at the Convention Centre. A short 20-minute walk from the hotel took me to the historic heart of the city and the Forks Market, one of Winnipeg's most-visited sites. Beginning as two adjacent stables for competing rail companies (Grand Trunk Pacific and Great Northern) in 1886, the horse stalls were joined by a courtyard and bridges, and became what is now known as the Forks Market. It includes a six-story tower with a viewing platform, which is accessible by stairs or elevator and features interpretive panels with information on the site's history. The market also comprises two floors in which I wandered among vendors selling everything from fresh fruit, bread, meat, and wine to cigars and aromatherapy products as well as craft items and artwork from 300 local and Canadian artisans.
The Manitoba Museum was just over a mile away from the market and was well worth my time. The Manitoba Museum is unique in Canada, as it is the only heritage and science centre to offer a combination of world-class history galleries along with a science gallery and planetarium theater. Centrally located in downtown Winnipeg, it’s pretty close to City Hall. The museum was designed in 1965 by Canadian architect Herbert Henry Moody. Including its Planetarium and Science Gallery exhibit, the museum focuses on collecting, researching, and sharing Manitoba's human and natural heritage, culture, and environment. As a history buff, I thoroughly enjoyed the museum’s interpretive galleries which portrayed the province’s rich and diverse history. Here, we traveled through millions of years, from the icy arctic coast to the windswept prairies of Manitoba, meeting dinosaurs along the way before climbing aboard the Nonsuch, a full-sized replica of a Seventeenth Century English merchant ship. The Planetarium Theater recreated the current night sky and highlighted the latest space discoveries while the Science Gallery explained the universal laws of science and explored the wonders of modern technology.
For a change of pace, I visited the Winnipeg Art Gallery one afternoon. It’s one of Canada's leading art museums and home to the largest public collection of contemporary Inuit art in the world. (The Inuits are the group of Indigenous peoples that made their home in the Arctic and subarctic regions of North America.) The gallery’s permanent collection includes over 24,000 works from Canadian and international artists and I was impressed to discover that about 70 % of their permanent collection was gifted to the gallery by private donors. The Canadian collection includes works from Canadian artists dating back from the 1820s to the present day. Their permanent collection includes 200 works by Canadian artists from 1820 to 1910. The images created by Inuit artists on display showed me the importance attached to the animals on which they traditionally relied for food, including seal, walrus, fish, whale, and caribou. Other animals, such as the fox, wolf, and bear, were also represented in their art. In trust, the Winnipeg Art Gallery holds close to 14,000 pieces of Inuit art, including carvings, drawing, prints, textiles, and new media. And each piece has its own story to tell.
I found Winnipeg to be a friendly and welcoming city, albeit rather cold in the dead of winter. Perhaps I should plan another trip in the summertime to enjoy its many offerings in better weather.
Until next time…safe travels.
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