Best Canadian City: my awards

Quick! What's the best Canadian city? The subject has led to a lively discussion on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree, something so prickly that Toronto-based author Andrew Potter suggested could actually bring about a civil war.

Most people equate Canada with its natural beauty, or hockey, or Mounties, or beaver nickels. Last year I visited Canada six times, mostly to focus on Canadian cities (resulting in this string of videos on Canadian cities). I like Canadian cities. So thought I'd put together my awards.

(Note: I've not been to Halifax, among others.)

Canadian city most want to live in: MONTREAL. Montreal is ridiculous. A top-five city in the world to me. I love a place that takes bikes seriously (public-use bikes clean-up canal rides), and the city truly beats NYC with bagels. Plus all sorts of playful architecture, like a orange-shaped food stand (that serves as my Twitter photo) and the unreal Habitat '67 (above).

Canadian city with most interesting neighborhood: TORONTO's post-hippie Toronto Islands. You get there by ferry, it has super views looking back on TO (above), a fun community of locals that have survived development, a hokey amusement park, nude beaches and the spot where Babe Ruth hit his first homerun.

Canadian city that's best in winter: QUEBEC CITY. Its winter carnival has dog-sled races and a huggable snow man, and there's free open-air skating rinks, minor league hockey with NHL buzz, ferry rides over the icy St Lawrence. Plus curling.

Canadian city with most energy: right now, WINNIPEG. I enjoy having French food across the river in St Boniface (and seeing the atmospheric cathedral ruin), but I've never seen more energy than at the Winnipeg Jets' first win (above). (If you don't think Peg is a hockey town, watch Guy Maddin's hilarious 'My Winnipeg' documentary.)

Canadian city with them most tunefully suggestive name: SASKATOON, SASKATCHEWAN. Pronounced as SASKaTOON by locals. It's the place I zeroed in on during back-seat atlas-scavenger-hunts on long roadtrips as a kid. Plus the saskatoon berry makes for a nice pie.

Canadian city that’s most beautiful: Easy, VANCOUVER. Views from False Creek ferries are worthy, as is a revolving meal up Landmark hotel (above).

Canadian city that most surprised me: EDMONTON. Expected a flat oil town, and immediately struck by the deep river valley linked with shady trails and crossed by a historic bridge to Strathcona's theaters and bookshops. (I bought a used copy of the full transcript of Louis Riel's trial. Yet to read, must say.) And I was surprised when 12-year-olds agreed to teach me hockey in the second-biggest mall in North America.

Canadian city most want to return to: ST JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND. It's not just the apostrophe, seafood, rugged coast, local kids with Bieber haircuts and the voice of 70-year-old pirates, but its friendly vibe of a place that really sees itself as its own nation.

In case you missed it: 10 fascinating things of the week

Here are some things I found fascinating from the last week:

1. Frederick the Great, a possibly gay German warrior king who befriended Voltaire and tried to run away from his abusive father, is tributed in Germany with a small potato.
2. An Amish man is being charged for hate crime, including forced beard-shavings. His name is Mullet.
3. Marky Ramone -- drummer of the Ramones -- now makes pasta sauce. He recommends 'go kiss someone you love.'
4. The WTO estimates that the number of travelers in 2012 will break one billion.
5. Apparently 226 million vacation days in the US will not be used in 2012.
6. Eight-two stranded dolphins have been found at Cape Cod.
7. BBC's Sherlock is a lot better than the dumb Sherlock Holmes film series with Robert Downey Jr.
8. PBS' documentary on George Custer doesn't mention Crazy Horse or the fate of the Lakota Sioux.
9. The only US state to lose population in the last census? Michigan. (I'm late to this.)
10. You can fly to St Martin for under $400 in peak season, take a $15 ferry to celebby Anguilla, rent a car for $50 and stay in a nice B&B for $135. DIY Caribbean.
    

19 random Burma photos

Saskatoon frenzy (it's a)

I wrote a song for Saskatoon recently (debuted at the end of this video).

And apparently Saskatoon is delighted.

A local on this CBC News TV broadcast calls the song 'pretty catchy.'

Global Saskatoon broadcast says 'Saskatoon Sensation' does a 'good job.'

Article covering it on CTV News.

And a delighted Saskatoon is a delighted Robert.

Saskatoon in B/W

While in Saskatoon, making this video, I took some black-and-white photos on my old 35mm camera. It felt as cleansing as a summer rain on a muddy face to do. Here they are.

Granite Curling Club is the city's oldest.

Calories was once the Louis Riel Coffeehouse, where Joni Mitchell played one of her first shows.

Finding the Saskatoon Sensation [video]

Ever since reading about Timbuktu in Dr Seuss' 'Hop on Pop' as a kid, I've concocted all sorts of wild visions of what places are like based on the sound of their names. The more unusual, the more magical the skyline I envisioned. Of course, it rarely works out that way -- Tahlequah isn't all that different from Fort Smith -- but it did help fill hours in the back of a station wagon on family road trips. I'd ignore the 'Annie' soundtrack my sister played and disect the road atlas, pouncing on places like Okefenokee, Truth or Consequences and Chevy Chase and wonder what they really looked like.

One place I found towards the back of the atlas always resonated with me most: Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Just saying it aloud sounded like a toy train wobbling across a cobblestone bridge, guarded by bunnies. Nothing else really compares. It even won my recent poll for most 'tunefully suggestive' city name:

Some songwriters have noticed its rhythmic nomenclature over the years, including songs like Sonny James' fun 'A Little Bit South of Saskatoon,' Johnny Cash's 'The Girl in Saskatoon,' and the Guess Who's 'Running Back to Saskatoon' -- which Pearl Jam tried to do as well.

But did locals ever chip in on the lyrics, I wondered? I mean, in travel we say that locals make for great experiences, but can locals make great lyrics?

So when I was there recently (to create a video for Lonely Planet/Canada Tourism), I carved away a precious day to find out. I met with a pierced t-shirt maker, a curling vet, a indie rocker, a high-end bass-guitar maker and Canada's 'Craziest Mayor' -- to ask how they summed up the 'Saskatoon sensation.' I took their answers for lyrics, then made up a song. (It's debuted at the end of the video.)

Pearl Jam, if you cover it, go ahead. I won't sue.


By the way, a note on how Saskatoon got its name. In the 1880s, John Lake, of the Temperance Colonization Society of Toronto, founded Saskatoon because his notoriously by-the-book home town back east was just too sinful. (Alcohol and prostitution would soon follow though, and Lake himself would be found guilty of corruption.)

Regardless, on a sunny day in 1883, Lake named the new settlement for the local juicy berries he so enjoyed to snack on. Good choice, but a wrong one. Apparently saskatoon berries weren't in season at the name's chosen hour, and chokecherries were. Should the name really be Chokecherry, Saskatchewan?

It's not a bad name. But I'm not sure it deserves a song.

I Woke Up with Al

I shared a few good-value destinations for 2012 -- and talked a bit about Al Roker's 'pal' Marco Polo -- on the Weather Channel's Wake Up for Al this morning.