Edmonton: Cold, but cool
By Jimm Budd
I really didn't expect to find a town as big – and as youthful, hip and sexy -- as Edmonton way up in the boonies of the western Canadian province of Alberta. Much less a party town with a festival on almost every week of the year. The capital of the province, Edmonton is new, as cities go, and has grown rich on oil and farming. People there seem to be from everywhere in the world, Asia and Africa as well as Europe. The local football team is called the Eskimos.
There appeared to be a Thai restaurant on every block, not to mention others featuring dishes from Greece, Vietnam and even – get ready for this – Canada! Toronto boasts of its gastronomic delights, but when I asked one local citizen about where I might sample Canadian cuisine, I was told finding that might be a trifle difficult. In Edmonton, I stayed at the Hotel Matrix (modern, but not futuristic) which had a restaurant, the Wildflower Grill, serving bison steaks, Alberta lamb and a selection of beers for which Canada is so famous. But no wine from Ontario or British Columbia. I dared not ask why.
The feeling you get is that Edmonton is very young and a city for the very young. Toronto-style sophistication is scorned.
Shops and restaurants occupy the ground floors of the office towers, as they do in most Canadian cities. Back home, office towers seem to be occupied entirely by offices, with everything else moved out to the suburbs.
Old Strathcona is where the young at heart gather, many sitting at restaurant tables dotting the sidewalks. I lunched on roast beef and Yorkshire pudding at the Elephant and Castle, which might have been a transplanted British pub, but only after I had pawed among dusty volumes at two of several used book stores and decided against a tattoo or piercing.
The stores had stuff for guys and dolls but nothing for me. From what I am told, Old Strathcona is really vampire-like and comes alive at night. Sadly, I missed this wondrous transformation because I had to hit the sack early in order to leave town at dawn the next morning.
I also missed the West Edmonton Mall, biggest shopping and entertainment complex in the world. With more than 800 stores, 100 dining venues and its own amusement park, it covers what could be 48 city blocks. With its own indoor amusement park with a roller coaster, skating rink big enough for a professional hockey game and water-park swimming pool -- they even have a casino – this
is the kind of place where you need at least one day, probably more like a week. They do have their own hotel.
There was much more that I missed, including the new and quite spectacular Art Gallery of Alberta with a collection of some 6,000 works, again probably more than you can see in a day. The Muttart Conservatory displays the world from steamy jungles to steaming deserts within four pyramids while the Legislature Palace, all full of murals and history, is where politicians gather to rule a province bigger than most European countries (but with a population smaller than that of
Fargo, N.D.).
You're probably wondering why – after flying all the way to Edmonton – I wasn't able to spend much time there. The reason is, I'd gone to Canada to enjoy
the splendor of the Canadian Rockies during a day and a half trip on Via Rail from Edmonton west to Vancouver. Edmonton, I thought, would simply be the place where I'd get on the train.
The trip – mostly spent in a domed observation car atop the train – was
everything I'd hoped it would be, including miles and miles of Alp-like peaks, deep, winding valleys, the breathtaking beauty of Jasper National Park and the sight of a spectacular waterfall I'll not soon forget, if ever.
My only regret is that I didn't schedule a lot more time before the trip in Edmonton.
More info: Visit the Canadian Tourism Commission at canada.travel, the City of Edmonton at edmonton.ca and Via Rail at viarail.ca.
Images courtesy of Edmonton Tourism unless otherwise credited.
