Winnipeg, Manitoba

I got the overnight bus to Winnipeg, from Regina to save on money, I slept most of the way! The hostel I am staying in is a renovated hotel and each dorm has it’s own bathroom, with a bath! Because they are still completing the renovations you get a free breakfast each morning, which is great! More money saved!

Winnipeg is has lots of districts, I took a walk round the Exchange District were you can see architecture and historic buildings from early 1900`s Winnipeg.

I visited the Forks, known as the “Gateway to the Canadian West”, the Forks is the junction of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers and it was a gathering place for fur traders.

From the Forks, I walked over the Esplanade Riel pedestrian bridge to Old Saint Boniface, Winnipeg’s French Quarter and home to the largest French Quarter west of Quebec. I took a walking tour here which took me round all the historic sites, Saint Boniface Cathedral – Basilica which burnt down in 1818 and where the new cathedral was built within the remains of the walls and in the cemetery there, is the grave of Louis Riel, who was the founder of the province of Manitoba.

I visited the Royal Canadian Mint and took their tour to see how Canada’s money is made. The mint makes 15 million coins a day, 40% for Canada and 60% for other countries, like the Bahamas and Panama. They had on show a gold bouillon coin made from 99.99% pure gold, with a face value of $1 million, only a few were made and some of them sold for $2.5 million to coin collectors in the US!