St. Boniface Cathedral

Saint-Boniface Cathedral by Michael Peck

Winnipeg, Man.—Much of what I’m seeing on this portion of the trip is like the St. Boniface Cathedral: a closer look reveals that it’s more interesting than it first appeared to be.

The cathedral is in its third incarnation. The first was destroyed in 1860 when two girls making candles accidentally started an uncontrollable fire; the second burned to the walls in 1968 when a worker on the roof was careless with a cigarette; version three was built inside the grand facade in 1972, but I don’t really notice that from the street: I have to get closer in order to see it behind the grand old former entrance.

The St. Boniface Museum, too, is far more than I thought when I first walk in. Not long after my guide starts talking, I’m struggling to keep up with her as I take notes. The statue of the bearded old man? That’s God; most churches forbid the representation. The Virgin Mary statue? Though it looks like some sort of hard plaster, it’s paper mache, weighs only about 14 pounds, and was built by the nuns in stages as they collected enough newspaper to finish it. That odd little contraption on the floor is a unique mousetrap that killed its unlucky victims via drowning. And that original staircase looks so good because the nuns, seeing it torn up by hobnail boots, took it apart and flipped all the wood in order to save on replacement costs. Oh, and did I mention that the place is haunted?

A walking tour of The Exchange District continues the theme. Red River College’s Princess Street location is a new building constructed behind the facades of older structures, but it’s more than that. To avoid merely hiding behind an old surface, the architects added extra twists: The front wall of the bookstore inside is an old wooden storefront that was taken apart, moved and reassembled; a tin ceiling is discolored due to a fire in its original warehouse home. (Turns out putting paper storage and a match factory in the same space wasn’t such a—OK, I’ll say it—hot idea.) An old bank building houses the cheekily named Whiskey Dix bar, and the unremarkable exterior of the Marriaggi Hotel hides a boutique operation with truly unique theme rooms that include such amenities as waterfall jacuzzis, 50-inch TVs and steam baths.

Winnipeg, it seems, confounds anyone trying to do the typical hit-and-run checklist travel. As the great philosopher Ferris Bueller once said, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it. — Michael Peck