Gateway to the West...

Winnipeg's welcoming sign near The Forks.

We've seen numerous references to Winnipeg as a town to pass through rather than visit, and that's exactly what we did a couple of weeks earlier on that snowy night when The Canadian trans-continental train made a stop there. But it's not like us to ignore a place we haven't been to before, so on our return from Churchill, we stayed 3 days in this city, the capital of Manitoba. It was bitterly cold, sub-zero, but that didn't discourage us from getting around, and we discovered one gem that must make this city the envy of the world, to some anyway.

The bell tower on the Holy Trinity Church looks like an afterthought.

Winnipeg is strategically located at the intersection (The Forks) of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers and has been a meeting and trading centre for indigenous peoples over at least 6000 years. Europeans first appeared when French fur traders built a fort in 1738, trading successfully with the aboriginal peoples. In 1873, the city of Winnipeg was declared, the name being that of a nearby lake and (in Cree) means "brackish" or "muddy" waters. In the early 1900's, as an important cross-roads and railhead, Winnipeg grew to Canada's third largest city, but the Panama Canal reduced the need for trans-continental shipping and the city slowly lost its place (now eighth) in that league table.

Irresistable, beloved by Winnipeggers, probably derlict, heritage-listed 1905 Nutty Club building standing by the rail line through Winnipeg.

In 1869, local inhabitants, headed by a Métis leader (recognised as one of Canada's aboriginal peoples) Louis Reil, were angered that they had not been consulted over the transfer of Hudson Bay Company territory to the fledgling nation. They took control of Red River Settlement (at The Forks in Winnipeg) and commenced their own negotiations culminating in Manitoba becoming Canada's fifth province in 1870, by Act of the British Parliament. Reil is celebrated in a pedestrian bridge across the river connecting to Saint Boniface, a decidedly French community in Winnipeg.

Ex-town hall clock restored and now installed in a Winnipeg shopping mall. Despite a plaque saying that the carillon bells would chime evry quarter hour, they stayed silent.

Winnipeg's Union Station is well located downtown, and it's rather sad that so few passenger trains pass through here. The trans-continental The Canadian stops here twice a week in both directions, and the recently repaired railway north to Churchill terminates here, maybe twice a week. We're not aware of any others, and the city has no subway. The building is grand, supposedly in the style of New York's Grand Central Station (aren't they all?) but much smaller. The station concourse provides a link from downtown to The Forks and the incredible Canadian Museum for Human Rights, as well as the pedestrian bridge to the French quarter of Saint Boniface.

Downtown Winnipeg with Union Station in the foreground, and the historic Fairmont Hotel behind its dome.

The Forks is probably Winnipeg's most historic site, where the Assinboine River runs into the Red River with signs of aboriginal occupation going back over 6000 years. From 1886 to 1923, four competing railway companies operated major goods yards here. The goods trains still go by, but the yards are gone or elsewhere now, but some of the original warehouses and locomotive sheds form the basis of a reinvention into a trendy hotel, shopping and restaurant precinct which was quite busy during our visit, a warm haven from the freezing cold. An observation tower provides good views of downtown and the two rivers. In winter there are skating rinks and trails in and around The Forks, and snowboard and toboggan runs too, but, for us, the snow was mostly gone and the Red River was visibly in flood from the thaw.

One of few passenger trains to pass Winnipeg's Union Station every week.

The now defunct railway goods yards at The Forks has been reinvented to become a popular shopping and dining precinct for locals and visitors alike.

Ceramic guitarist in his bath with his dog in an art shop at The Forks.

Canada Geese enter the Red River by a flooded walkway.

Winnipeg's uncontested gem is, in our opinion, the Museum for Human Rights (MHR) next to The Forks. It's housed in a custom-built and wonderful, tall glass and steel building (2014) behind Union Station. Architects from Albuquerque, New Mexico, Antoine Predock and Chris Beccone, won a design competition for the building into which visitors enter via the basement and slowly climb through a maze of ramps past exhibitions depicting the world's human rights successes and failures, eventually arriving in the Tower of Hope at the top. Both the building and the exhibits are stunning and moving. Australia's abuse of the human rights of asylum seekers would not be out of place here, and there's room for new exhibits just in case. Unsurprisingly, we read of controversy over many curators' decisions, inclusions and omissions, but the size of the museum is finite! How this important national museum came to be in Manitoba is itself controversial, but a significant local benefactor would certainly have had some influence.

The exceptional architecture of the Canada Museum for Human Rights.

One of many vast spaces in the Human Rights Museum.

Animated projection of welcome in a multitude of languages.

Visitors climb through the Human Rights Museum along a series of long, steady ramps.

Impressive sculpture in the Human Rights museum, each bead bearing the handprint of the child who molded it.

Foreigners awarded honorary Canadian citizenship due to their human rights achievements. AungSan Suu Kyi features, but her light is extinguished and her award withdrawn because of her failure to resist persecution of Rohingya in Myanmar.

Volunteers in the HRM basement sew poppies onto a massive #poppyblanket planned to be unveiled on Remembrance Day 2019. (http://www.poppyblanket.ca)

Poppy sculpture in the lobby of our Winnipeg hotel.

Esplanade Riel pedestrian bridge spans the Red River.

Having crossed the (slippery with ice) bridge past the closed restaurant, we wandered around the main area of Saint Boniface hoping to sit down for a crepe lunch but found nothing suitable, only a take-away joint. The most spectacular building on this side of the Red River was the 1906 Roman Catholic cathedral, but it was destroyed by fire the same year, and, within its footprint, a newer smaller cathedral was constructed in 1972. Nearby, is the also impressive, silver domed, Catholic University of Saint Boniface.

The cathedral of Saint Boniface lasted less than a year before it was destroyed by fire.

The silver dome of the University of Saint Boniface.

Splendid home in Saint Boniface.

Cute and open, but not for the light lunch that we wanted, in St Boniface.

We enjoyed our stay in Winnipeg. That magnificent museum alone makes it a worthwhile stopping place despite its reputation, but the time eventually came for us to start our journey home.