Oct 19

Written by: chris
10/19/2009 

Edmonton, Alberta

Edmonton: Alberta’s capital and Canada’s Festival City. What a great surprise. I had always jetted through town: airport to hotel to airport, never sparing the time to explore. Well, now I know. Edmonton is a great destination for both city cultural delights and accessible outdoors exploring. And the surprises start right in the heart of the city where the North Saskatchewan River Valley provides a swathe of parkland winding through the centre of this million metropolis.

Edmonton City

At the centre of Edmonton lies Sir Winston Churchill Square with the eight-storey glass pyramid of City Hall and the architectural gem of the new Art Gallery of Alberta which opens next year. Close by is the Sutton Place Hotel where I stayed: a great base for getting about the city. The Gallery Walk is a multi-disciplinary group of art galleries in the 124th Street neighbourhood and the first of its kind in Canada; Alex Patterson of TU Gallery was a companionable guide. And Chris Szydlowski of Segway Guide showed me the delights of the latest generation of Segways on a tour of the trails in the North Saskatchewan River Valley.

Edmonton: Elk Island National Park

Nowhere in Canada does a National park lie closer to a major city than Elk Island National Park to Edmonton. Just 35 km east of the city, this was Canada’s first federal wildlife sanctuary and is home to free-roaming herds of elk, moose, deer and bison. Evelyn Henke of Parks Canada guided Alicia Roy, my journalist companion, and I to close encounters with bison and on a splendid hike on the Beaver Pond Trail.

Edmonton Travel Show Guests

After such an enlightening time in Edmonton, it was a delight to broadcast my radio shows from the Metterra Hotel in Edmonton. My guests were Shirley Lowe of the Old Strathcona Business Association, Alex Patterson of TU Gallery and Mae Anderson, a talented local singer whose first CD “Off the Floor” has just been released. In typical Edmontonian fashion, I was pleased to see Mae perform later at Edmonton Chante, an annual French song festival. My grateful thanks to Kelly Bertoncini of Edmonton Tourism for hosting my trip so professionally.