2013_07_31: Thompson

Thompson, “the hub of the north”, was founded in the 1950s. It had been planned as a model community with six neighborhoods surrounding a central downtown. In the first years Thompson grew at a very fast pace to meet the demands of a new nickel mine. At an information panel at the so called “spirit walk” it says that Thompson is “truly an urban oasis in a wilderness setting”. It’s true; it’s absolutely a wilderness setting.
With a population of about 13,000, Thompson is the fourth largest city in the province of Manitoba. Manitoba is more than twice as big as Germany. I think this says a lot about the Canada's population density… Thompson also remains Canada’s most violent crime city for the third consecutive year, today’s local newspaper “Thompson citizen” proudly reports on page 1.
Our train had a stop of more than six hours in Thompson, so we had more than enough time to visit all sightseeing attractions of the city – which are basically a lake, a quite ugly mall, a visitor center and the above mentioned spirit walk which connects all. We didn’t make it to the visitor center. We also didn’t really make it to the lake. But we absolutely enjoyed food and beers at Boston’s Pizza, where Eli won a lot of money at the gambling machines. Eli is Eli Matas, singer and composer and founder of the label Canadian Grass Records. He is on his way to Churchill to play there two gigs tomorrow and Friday night. We discussed mainly politics (result: Germany and Canada both have terrible governments, but at least Germany has the fairer voting system) and sports (result: it’s hockey that matters. Nothing else. Only hockey). Hockey is for Canada what football is for Germany. When Winnipeg had got a license for the NHL some years ago, the whole city was celebrating and everybody was allowed to drink alcohol in public for this one evening.


Multi-modal Thomson railway station


Thomson railway station building


Downtown Thomson


The first drive-thru-ATM I’ve ever seen


This huge wolf…


…has been painted on a building.



Our day ended in the dining car. Eli und Alex explained me “21”, I explained them “Schafkopf” (literally translated "sheephead", according to leo.org it's "egregious fool"). Denis, our great conductor, supplied us with drinks. A beautiful sunset, pristine lakes, rivers and boreal forest outside of the train; a lot of fun inside the train.