Arrival at Churchill Northern Studies Centre

On Sunday, the train finally left the station at 4 o'clock. Noon was the scheduled time! It was a very pleasant and interesting journey. This is an older train on very wobbly, uneven tracks. The train jostles from side to side, and heaves up and down at times. Fortunately I had invested in some motion sickness tablets that worked wonders for my sense of equilibrium.

At one point, the train was stopped for an hour because of a frozen switch. The train personnel had to get off the train, and manually operate the switch on the tracks. For quite a large part of the ride, the train ran into snow drifts over the tracks, which would make the train jolt a bit as it pushed through. We were assured all of this was normal. But the next time the train took on a passenger, it could not get going to push through the drift. Not sure how they solved that, but I was glad it was not my job!

Our very own polar express!

All in all, it was an enjoyable journey. They tell us that these things happen all the time. Nothing to be overly concerned about. Perhaps they were right.

Churchill Northern Studies Center

 After two nights on the train, we pulled in to Churchill at 11am on Tuesday morning, where we received a warm welcome on such a chilly day.

For the past two days, we have been seeing this beautiful halo around the sun. The photo does not really show the upper part, but you get the idea. I was impressed that my little camera did so well.

Notice the trees leaning in one direction from the prevailing winds.

In Churchill, they have had blizzard conditions for quite a few days. They get very little snow, but the wind is so severe that it looks like a sand storm on a dessert, only white. The trees had a dense coating of snow from the harsh winds of the last few days. The last photo is of the observation deck on the side of CNSC. This is one of my favorite aurora viewing sites, as it is very close to a door where you can get warm. I believe it was built to ensure  a safe viewing area during polar bear season. There should be no bears around at this time of year. Let's hope we can count on that to be true.

Arrival in The Peg

Brian and I arrived in Winnipeg, known to locals as The Peg, on Friday afternoon, and we spent a couple days in this very interesting city. We stayed at the Hotel Fort Garry, constructed in 1911-1913. It was Winnipeg's first skyscraper at 11 stories, and it forever ended the city's pioneer identity. There is a story that Walt Disney chose the design for his Fantasy Land castle from a memory of seeing the Fort Garry Hotel as a young man. To me, it looked more like the inspiration for Harry Potter!

View from the elevator to the Prairie View 360 restaurant

The Grand Ballroom/Dining Room

Front view of Hotel Fort Garry

Highlights were our dinner at Prairie View 360, a rotating restaurant atop the building next door to the hotel. In the photos we took from the top, you can see the train station, a new museum whose focus will be human rights, and the view of the top of Hotel Fort Garry. Unfortunately, the museum has not opened yet, and this is the second year there has been a delay. We'll just have to come again. The view of all the trains moving about was a bit like the feeling of visiting a toy train display.

Prairie View 360 Restaurant

Train Station in the foreground, and the new, unopened museum in the back

With no museum to see, we spent extra time at The Forks, a Quincy Market of sorts, located at the fork of the Red River and the Assiniboine River. It was a lot of fun! The rivers are frozen (pretty much), and tracks are cleared for several kilometers for skating. There is also a hockey rink cleared on the river. I tried to convince Brian to go skating, but he thought it was just as well to play it safe, heading to Churchill injury free.

Down on the river, there was a tent set up- polar dining at its very best, and we did visit for just a hot chocolate. Chefs were preparing delicious foods for breakfast and later for the evening meal. It would be pretty cold dining, even with the furs they provide at dinner time.

The Raw Almond- Fine Dining ON the River

Polar Fine Dining

Cook??

Also at The Forks, there were displays of warming huts. I think it was a competition, and several of them were quite creative. My two favorites were the fir hut and the noodle hut. The fir hut smelled as if you were living inside your Christmas tree. In fact, it was made from recycled trees. The noodle huts used the pool toys, and you were supposed to snuggle in and pull them around you. Fun, but not too warm!

We are off to the train.

Lure of the North

We're heading back! Brian and I will be returning to Churchill, Manitoba to view the northern lights. We'll be staying at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre once again, doing volunteer kitchen duty to earn our keep. 

Churchill is located on the southwestern edge of Hudson Bay in Manitoba, Canada. In November of 2010, Brian and I first came to Churchill to see the polar bears as they waited to migrate out onto the bay's ice. Last year, in 2013, we returned to experience the wonder of the aurora borealis. It indeed was wondrous. The powerful lure of the north has drawn us back for another visit.

Dancing Lights Over the Tundra Pond