Walking to St Patrick’s Island
I was meeting my ski group at Calgary airport on Saturday morning so I only had one last day in this city to cover as much ground as possible. Given how much I had enjoyed my walk of the previous evening, I decided I would make my first target of the day, the other island in the Bow River that was further downstream from where I had walked the previous afternoon; St Patrick’s Island. To save a bit of time, I caught the light-rail to Centre station which, as I expected, intersected with one end of Centre Street!
I had noticed this huge mesh sculpture of a girl’s head in the distance earlier in the week so I decided it was my starting point for the morning’s walk. It was twelve metres high and was set up to dominate the entry into the Bow Building. It is called Wonderland Sculpture and there are two openings to enable viewers to walk through it. The sculptor believed that this piece “Represents the dreams and hopes of young people and airs the fresh youthful energy of the tenants of the building“.
Below left is another sculptural piece that sat on the other side of the Bow Tower. Some folk call it ‘Tree-Hugger’ but its official title is Alberta’s Dream. It is a ‘self-cast’ portrait of the artist Jaume Plensa who was also responsible for the Wonderland sculpture at the front of the building.
Opposite the Bow Tower was a curious structure that looked like a cross between a bell tower and a clock tower. It is a piece of architecture that was part of the original building on the site which was removed in 1914. The domed cupola was salvaged, stored and returned to this spot in 1991 with the addition of the clock. Apart from being a very interesting piece, it shows the fondness of the city fathers for significant architectural achievements from the past.
Not far down Centre Street, one entire block of the district was given over to the Dragon City Mall. This area of downtown Calgary was certainly showing the influence of Chinese immigrants to the city.
One of the most significant sculptural groups in Calgary’s inner city is the 21 feet tall set of sculptures that is to be found on the corner of 4 Avenue SE and 1st ST NE. It was created to be displayed at the British Pavilion at Expo 67. After the expo, the statues were purchased by a local company and displayed in front of the Calgary Education Centre.
I turned right at 4 Ave SE and headed down this street which eventually brought me to the pedestrian path along the river. Before I reached George C. King Bridge, I came across a curious installation that had been set up to provide some shelter during days when homeless folk had nowhere to go during the cold winters of Calgary. It consisted of two large containers set up to cut off the winter winds sweeping up the river corridor. In between these two containers there was a large metal object in which logs were burnt, providing anybody who was out of the wind with significant warmth.
The Council warning underneath the Hours Notice on the right above is rather ‘chilling’… “If we aren’t here during these hours, it’s because the mercury dropped too low.” Let’s hope the homeless have a plan B to avoid freezing to death during Calgary’s cold winters! Despite the limitations of this Council warming site for the homeless, it is another example of Calgary’s Council attempting to provide for the homeless of this ‘plains’ city.
From “HYGGE HUT”, it was a short walk up to another of the city’s pedestrian Bridges across the Bow River. This took walkers and bike riders across the river or if they wanted a more rural setting, they could walk down onto St Patrick’s Island. For those wishing to visit Calgary’s Zoo, this is one route that can be taken if you intend to walk to the Zoo.
Like so many of the areas along the Bow River, there were sculptural installations at various points. The creation below on the left is to be found at the end of St Patrick’s island near the pedestrian Bridge. The ‘creation’ on the right below is the beautiful Black-billed magpie that can be regularly spotted in all sorts of places around Calgary.
After checking out the end of St Patrick’s Island closest to the bridge, I walked back over the George C. King Bridge and made a decision that if I was ever going to see the Calgary Fort, this was the afternoon for it. The Bow River walk-way continued on round the river and eventually led to a turn off that would take me to the Calgary Fort. At the turn off was a large notice that indicated that the council was going to build a permanent Indian residential School memorial on this site.
After checking out the end of St Patrick’s Island closest to the bridge, I walked back over the George C. King Bridge and made a decision that if I was ever going to see the Calgary Fort, this was the afternoon for it. The Bow River walk-way continued on round the river and eventually led to a turn off that would take me to the Calgary Fort. At the turn off was a large notice that indicated that the council was going to build a permanent Indian residential School memorial on this site.
The previous day I had been surprised to see the train I had caught to the Town Hall’s LRT disappear under the magnificent building over the road from the train station. I presumed that a regular train running under such a large building would make life difficult for the workers in this building. I decided to buy a ticket and go for a ride to the next station after I had discovered that the building was the new city library. This short trip illustrated that once the train entered the building, it immediately plunged down into tunnels underneath the library so my concerns for train noise disturbing the folk in the library were misplaced. On my return to the Town Hall station, I decided to walk over and visit the beautiful library and found it to be very peaceful. As I left, I asked the guy on the door if noise from the train was ever an issue for readers. He explained that the early days of building the library were all about pushing the trains below ground. Train noise was not an issue for library users.
The inside of the library was quite spectacular as the woodwork stairs and the upper floors in the image on the right above illustrate. I had a good look around and decided it was one of the most beautiful librarys I had ever been in.
There were two more sights that I had to pass on my way to my train back to the hotel. The first were the posters on the wall of the Town Hall Station with words of encouragement for the passer byes. The second were the collection of racing horses that were gathered across the road from the Centre Street LRT. They were a beautiful sight to finish my tour of this area of the city of Calgary!
FOGTRAVEL 