Edmonton

The Labor Day long weekend (5-7 Sep’09) was just a week away and we weren’t even aware of it. After a frantic search, we nailed down on visiting Edmonton. Sharan’s colleagues assured him that it was a bad choice. “There’s hardly anything in Edmonton”. they said. But we were determined to go and more importantly, have a good time. Sharan did most of the research by burning the midnight lamp. I just booked the hotel from the shortlisted ones for 1N-2D due to the high costs of last minute booking. We packed our bags in the last minute as usual. Sharan took hazaar (1000s) print outs of maps (which was extremely handy in the end). Luckily for us the company car was also free.

We started around 7:00AM. With a couple of brief stops, the drive to Edmonton was more or less peaceful. We reached outskirts by 10:00am and headed straight to the Queen Edmonton Cruise (not quite straight as we lost our way inside the city). Since we hadn’t had any breakfast we ordered a sandwich and some coffee/beer (you can guess who had the beer) on the cruise. It was a pleasant day, with localities either jogging along the river, or musing over life at the banks, or even playing with their pets in the water. We spotted many ring billed gulls basking in the sun as well. The cruise lasted an hour and wasn’t really money’s worth (CAN$18/- per head, http://www.edmontonqueen.com/) as it was not only slow but the path was too short because of the slowness. We would recommend canoeing or kayaking down the river as a better option for those interested.

After the cruise we checked into the hotel (very good rooms) and quickly freshened up and headed to Whyte Avenue. This place seemed to have all the buzz. We chose to have lunch at a much recommended Greek restaurant called Yanni’s. The food was indeed outstanding but with a farily slow service. But I don’t really blame them because of the rush they had. We then headed to the Winston Churchill Square. It’s adjacent to the city hall and is a huge open space with beautiful landscapes. They also have a small open air amphitheatre and in evenings a large screen is put up for viewing movies on the square for free. Most of the time latest animation movies are played here. The art gallery is close by as well.

We then headed to the Beaumont Blues Festival after a short stop at the hotel for freshening up. The festival was located in a picturesque place – in the middle of farms just outskirts of Edmonton. There were grasslands till the horizon in every direction. It started to get cold in the evening with the open surrounding and wind. The festival had some stalls at one end, a beer garden at another end (surprising to see how popular Beer is despite the cold). Most people had got foldable chairs (a must buy for us now) and fleece rugs to keep themselves warm. Though we had a mat and fleece rug, we had to drink lots of HOT coffee to keep ourselves warm. Music was of superior quality. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. (http://www.beaumontblues.net/)

Next day, checking out of the hotel early, we went to a popular breakfast joint by the high level bridge in downtown Edmonton. The food was again note worthy. After a scrumptious meal, we walked up to the legislature building which is on the other side of the high level bridge. It was a very enjoyable walk across the Saskatchewan River and back. We then visited the famous West Edmonton Mall (WEM, http://www.wem.ca/). It supposed to be the largest mall in the world. I don’t have a doubt. Hosting over 800 shops, it also has an amusement park and water park inside the mall apart from host of other things (ice skating rink, sea lion show, a ship replica, etc). We strolled around for an hour or 2, tried a hand at adventure golf and saw the sea lion show. We finally reached the water world park. This park has some amazing water slides. Slides are marked as beginners, intermediate, advanced and dangerous. I tried mostly the last 2 categories. It was tiring to climb stairs for each of the rides but it was well worth it. The wave pool was also good and the hot tub relaxed our aching bones.

We left back to Calgary after a quick and short meal around 7:30pm at Funky Pizza (nothing worth talking about). We managed to keep ourselves awake through out the return journey despite being exhausted from all the stair climbing and adereline pumping water slides. And for all those people who said Edmonton would be boring, we had a splashing time.

Link to our photo album: http://picasaweb.google.ca/akshatakaranth/LabourDayWeekendAtEdmonton

Fact File:
Edmonton is the capital of Alberta Province in Canada. The Saskatchewan River flows through its centre dividing the city into half. Though known mostly as the home of the largest mall in the world, Edmonton has more to it than just the mall. The Old Strathcona area and Edmonton Oilers (NFL) are popular as well.

Getting there: Edmonton has an international airport. Greyhound Canada buses also ply to and from various destinations. Edmonton also has a small train station. Edmonton is 300 kms from Calgary by road.
Transport: Edmonton has city buses running every 30 mins and a 10 stop LRT. Taxis are plenty.
Attractions: Old Stathcona, Royal Alberta Museum, Murrat conservatory, North Saskatchewan River, Alberta Legislature, Edmonton Art Gallery, Ukrainian Heritage sites, Alberta railway museum and West Edmonton Mall (WEM)
Getting away: Red deer, Yellowhead Hwy & Elk Island National Park are nearby places of visit.
Know more from: www.edmonton.ca or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmonton