Walking between James Short Park and Olympic Plaza

On January 17, 2021 we visited two of Calgary downtown's parks, James Short and Olympic Plaza. On our walk from one to another and back to the car we observed many different forms of art, and once again were amazed by that.

At the back of the Bow Building there is this beautiful sculpture in bronze called "Alberta's Dream" and nicknamed the Tree Hugger. It is a self portrait of Spanish artist Juame Plensa in which he is holding a living tree. Its body is covered with the names of some Alberta's cities. 

Here....we were having fun taking selfies showing The Bow....

...and taking photos of the "Wonderland" another Juame Plensa's sculpture.

Just in front of "The Head", on the other side of the street, there is nice fence that its design beautifully contrastes with the buildings and with the Calgary tower on the background.

Our eyes were also cached by....

..... and finally we took some selfies with the beloved Calgary Tower....did not work well! ;))

Walking a bit more, right by the Olympic Plaza we found The Famous Five, a bronze monument created by Barbara Paterson to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the accomplishments of the women's -right act. 

On our way back to the car we passed in front of the "Transit Story", artwork created by Jill Anholt  that depicts different views of people at the C-train station.  As you move around the "people" you see different colours and image definition. It reminded us some Optical Illusions that we lke so much. 

I Arthur liked...

I typically think, Its a type of optical illusion! when you look on one side its one color, on the other side its a different color!

Once again we loved our little tour in between two of Calgary's parks in downtown. 

We can't wait for the next discoveries!

Cheers!

Marina & Arthur <3

Olympic Plaza (4)

In January 17, 2021 we visited the Olympic Plaza in downtown Calgary. We have been in this plaza many times before in different seasons and events, but this day our mind setting was into looking for details and the little things that usually pass invisible. 

The plaza was built for the 1988's Olympic Winter Games and it was the place where the medals were given. Nowadays the plaza is used for different events during the year. 

In the winter its center area is transformed into an ice skate rink where anyone can use for free. 

We also found lots of gophers (ground squirrels?) in so many different colours! ;) in a brick wall.

The colorful gophers are part of an installation to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday. 

In 2010 those same gophers (but all in pink) - designed by Kristina Meehan-Prins were installed in the Olympic Plaza to celebrate Calgary's Parks's 100th anniversary. 

In one of the corners of the Plaza we found an orange installation of tubes. We noticed that they were arranged in different sets, each set with tubes of more or less the same height. We also noticed that each set represents a decade from 1910 to 2010 and each tube has a name of a Calgary park. 

We wondered if all those tubes are representing all parks in Calgary....

We found later that the installation is called The Centennial Grove and also was created to celebrate the 100 years of Calgary's Parks in 2010.  Each tube represents a trunk of a tree and the entire installation symbolizes 100 aspen trees nestled in grassland. 

Looking down..... we discovered that we were walking on special bricks!

When we realized that, we stopped, and started reading the bricks. 

Most of them have people's names inscribed on, but some have messages. 

We had some fun trying to find messages and our names. 

We found Alice and Arthur and some love messages...

Later on, while preparing this post we found more interesting things about this special sidewalk. In 1987 when Olympic Plaza was under construction Calgarians could pay around $20 and get something written into a brick to be lined on the ground of the park. Here there is a map of all the brick area. There is also a website where you can search for your brick - in case you got one at that time or.....just as us, moved by curiosity, search for ...  whatever! 

We were curious about our names. How many of them would we find? 42 Alice, 37 Arthur and only 4 Marina! 

And some other stuff...

And, of course, as a beer lover I (Marina ;)))) decided to search for the word beer, not really expecting to get any interesting result, but...look what I found!  

Now we feel like we have to go to Olympic Plaza again and using the app finder look for some of those funny or interesting bricks! 

I Arthur liked...

The big tree decorated in Christmas lights! And the funny silly names on the tiled floor! Even though not all the names are silly, some are and that's what i like! (:

At the City of Calgary you can find more information about Olympic Plaza .

Cheers!

Marina & Arthur <3