WINNIPEG

Either coming or going, you might need to spend a night, or a day and a night or two, in Winnipeg.

Winnipeg a lovely, clean, safe and interesting city that combines a rather cosmopolitan classy ambience with a solid midwestern feeling. Compared to Los Angeles, crime is non-existent and relatively minor. I saw no beggers, street people or graffiti. Lodging ranges from ultra-el-cheapo to very elegant, although even the finest places are reasonably priced, at least by Los Angeles and NYC and probably Toronto and Montreal standards. You can also find good ethnic and home-style restaurants.

Cultural and entertainment activities

Places to see

Where to buy groceries

Lodging

Manitoba Travel Guide The phone number listed at the very beginning can get you a booklet devoted to accommodations, including the phones/faxes of every hotel in Winnipeg, in case the choices I offer aren't adequate to your needs. Winnipeg has many hotels. I am too lazy to include them all here. This entire website is heavy weighted toward Winnipeg, and should give you a pretty good idea of what is available.

If you are traveling due north at the right time of year, you may be able to catch a performance of the Winnipeg Ballet. The town is also rich in blues clubs, bookstores, etc. Winnipeg is home to University of Winnipeg and the University of Manitoba. The latter I have visited and recall fondly for its fine new and used bookstores, and its excellent offering of logo sweat shirts. East of the Assiniboine River and The Forks is Winnipeg's French Quarter.

Some of the most interesting areas include:

• Portage Place on Portage Avenue. Both a street and a very pleasant shopping-mall-under-glass.
• At the west end of Portage Place, right on the corner of Portage Avenue and Osborne Avenue, you will find the best Army-Navy surplus store in the entire western hemisphere. Anyone with free time during the day and a taste for adventure gear might enjoy a good browse.
• Osborne Avenue, south of Portage place, is locally famous for its boutiques, restaurants, and lively atmospere. It is one of the places popular with college students. I find Osborne Avenyue a tad too clean-cut and pretentious, except for Ozzie's Zoo, a very cheapie hotel/nightclub catering to Winnipeg's avant garde and artistically alienated. I love Ozzie's. More on that later
• The Exchange District is a sort of converted warehouse district now inhabited by local artists and hangers-on. Personally, I find the Exchange district far more interesting than Osborne Avenue. If you walk along Portage Avenue downtown you will come to Main Street. If you turn left and walk up to about McDermot Street, then turn left again, you will find yourself on Albert Letinsky, Arthur, King St. Princess St. Adelaide St. Hargrave St. etc. you are now in the Exchange District, amid some very interesting galleries, shops and artists studios in an old, picturesquely seedy yet oddly attractive section of Winnipeg. I have heard there are some pretty good clubs thereabouts too, although I have no first-hand experience.
• "The Forks" right near the train station is an absolute delight. The basic structure is old, rambling and brick, a former train station that is a very short walk from the current one and a lovely place to kill a few yours while waiting for your train north. The town has added to this a very modernistic bluish glass structure that creates a very interesting and nice juxtoposition. The entire complex sits on top of a terraced hill leading down to the Assiniboine River. In summer, The Forks offers alfresco dining and river sports. In cold weather, hardy souls can dine alfresco on their own, and some do. In addition to restaurants are farmers' produce stalls and interesting habitats for recreational shoppers, although none of the shops offer practical things such as aspirin, underwear or sox. If you wander down Portage Avenue, you can find--in addition to Portage Place, the mall, you can find along the avenue everything from a large department store, called The Bay, to grungy little five-and-dime type places.

Just off Osborne Avenue, near Ozzie's is a supermarket. If you plan to take the train north after lingering in Winnipeg for a day or two, you are strongly advised to stop there (or elsewhere--this is the only one I know about) and buy some bread, cheese, peanut butter, fruit juice, fresh fruit and bottled water to take with you on the train. The dining car is nice, but costs can add up. It's also nice to have along an alternative source of sustenance in case you are hungry when the dining car is closed.

Take along a plastic drinking glass or cup, too. The paper drinking water cups provided by Via Rail Canada are horrid things with pointy bottoms you can't set down.

If you are already at the train station, walk outside to Main Street, about half a block east. You will see a train overpass. Walk under it. Beyond, is The Forks, where you can - if you get there before about 5:30-6:00 pm - pick up some cheese and produce and other misc. food at one of several produce stalls. It is a lovely old building attached to a very modern verdigris/glass structure.

I discuss reasons in taking the train, but be advised that you will be glad you brought along juice and bottled water. Revised 11/30/96

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