1st of July is Canada Day- and the people celebrate the first holiday in Summer, young and old taking to the fountains of Alberta capital Edmonton in the heat. This is the Province's legislative building which sits high above the North Saskatchewan river, very traditional, built in the late 19th century.
On this day many immigrants are sworn in as new citizens of their country in the front of this building, before going on to celebrate in their own way.
The contrast between the legislative building and this one, the Civic Centre, is striking. An ultra modern building, from 1957, this town hall is also markedly different from the monstrosity built at the same time in my home town of Carlisle UK. Again both children and adults play under the fountains in an open air paddling pool, celebrating the birth of their nation.
Inside the building a children's Twai Kondo demonstration was taking place, just one of the many events that would happen here today.
Further along, in Churchill square, a major art project was taking place, including this display of pallets, old tyres, and pieces of wood. In the background, to the right, we can just see the top of the Art Gallery, an ultra-modern building that could have been imagined by Picasso. A big band played on a stage further along.
This convex building behind the Casino is the new Ice Hockey stadium, not yet completed. Edmonton has an Underground railway, which links with "Pedways", walkways in buildings and shopping malls covered against the heavy snows and freezing temperatures they have here in winter.
Today we walked across the smaller of the two bridges in this picture, after walking down a very steep hill. The white bridge you see is still under construction to replace the green one, the roadway has not yet been completed.We then had to climb another steep hill at the other side, a total of about two kms, to visit Strathcona, a smart yuppie type area. By the time we got there we were tired and sweating profusely, those hills drop and rise about 200 metres!
We had gone to see the sand sculptures which are made here at this time every year. We spoke to one man who was working on his exhibit and he told us they had put in 5 man days already, and not really started. The one above however was complete, and represented the fairy tale, "The Princess and the Pea", most of the exhibits featured Fairy Tales.
Then we had a bit of luck; this streetcar was just behind the exhibits, and travels from Strathcona almost to our hotel. For $2-50 each we travelled over the high level bridge, which is basically a skeleton. It has run across the bridge since 1910, linking the two cities since the main line from Calgary stopped south of the river. This streetcar was donated from Melbourne Australia, many is the time we have travelled on similar ones in that city.
Another view of the Civic Centre.
A Pizza oven in a fire engine!
A patriotic driver goes down the street!
The streetcar travels over the High Level Bridge.
No comments:
Post a Comment