We made a quick stop in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta, during our recent motorcycle trip to Alaska and found plenty to do!

From streetcar and funicular rides, to museum and national park visits, to interesting neighborhood and eatery experiences, Edmonton proved to be a worthwhile place for us to spend a couple nights before really buckling down and getting some mileage under our belts.

Based on our experiences, here are my ‘must dos’ when you’re visiting Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

Take a tour on the High-level Bridge Streetcar

Streetcars were a popular means of transportation in Edmonton in the early 1900s but ceased operations in 1951. Only one of the original streetcars survived, and thanks to ongoing efforts by the community, two operational lines now run between downtown Edmonton and the southern district of Old Strathcona as well as out to Fort Edmonton Park.

We took the former roundtrip and enjoyed the conductor’s narrated history of the area and sites we passed along the way. I was really hoping we could visit the Strathcona Streetcar Barn & Museum for even greater background but unfortunately it wasn’t open during our visit. Next time!

Wander around Old Strathcona

If you’re not staying in Old Strathcona, I would definitely recommend the roundtrip streetcar ride from downtown to this fun neighborhood. We spent a couple hours walking around and checking out the interesting shops and restaurants before grabbing some ice cream at Yelo’d. I was pretty full from lunch but enjoyed tasting their signature ube flavor!

Take in the view from the Funicular

Another fun vehicular tour was catching the funicular from behind the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald down toward the North Saskatchewan River.

While it’s possible to walk the flight of stairs next to the funicular – which is primarily intended for those on wheels – it was not busy during our visit so we opted to enjoy the ride as well as the view!

Enjoy the lights at the Neon Sign Museum

I was really excited to check out the Neon Sign Museum, which is an outdoor installation along 104th Street and 104th Avenue.

Volunteers from the City of Edmonton Heritage Planning have collected neon signs from old or demolished buildings and brought them back to life for display on the 4th Street Promenade. The outdoor museum started with 8 signs representing early styles and iconic signage in Edmonton’s history, with the goal of collecting 30. Each sign has an accompanying plaque telling the story of the neon sign.

https://exploreedmonton.com/attractions-and-experiences/neon-sign-museum

I would recommend visiting both during the day and at night. I found the informational plaques that accompany the signs very informative during our daytime reading, and the lighted signs at dusk quite impressive. I was a little disappointed that not all of the signs were completely restored and active – I think someone should probably audit them on some normal cadence – but the ones that were operational were well worth seeing.

Visit the Royal Alberta Museum

We stayed late our last morning in town so we could check out the Royal Alberta Museum and, in particular, its special exhibit on Angkor: The Lost Empire of Cambodia (as Cambodia is on our short list of places to visit).

The special exhibit was great and worth the visit. We had a little trouble enjoying the rest of the museum as there were dozens of different school groups of all ages yelling and running around in the general museum areas. Very disruptive. I would have loved to have had more time (and peace) to really dig into the natural history and cultural studies exhibits.

The museum also currently lacks onsite parking so we had to park our motorcycle on a nearby street where the museum staff told us it might be unsafe. We ended up bringing everything we couldn’t lock up inside and paying to store it in a locker for the duration of our visit. It added an unneeded level of stress and distraction to our visit.

Take a day trip to Elk Island

A wonderful reprieve from the city, Elk Island National Park is well worth the short drive east of downtown Edmonton. I detailed our visit, wildlife encounters, and hikes in this blog post. Highly recommend!

Eat and drink to your heart’s content

Given how our days were structured, we didn’t get to many of the eateries I had on my list, several of which required reservations that we simply couldn’t commit to given all of our other priority activities.

That said, a couple we were able to check off the list were real standouts. For dinner one evening, we checked out Campio Brewing, which had a great selection of beer, outstanding spicy fried pickles, and delicious deep dish pizza. For brunch our last morning we visited Chocorrant Patisserie & Cafe where my salted egg yolk croissant was to die for – one of the best pastries of our trip.

Next time I hope we can check out these other locations I tagged:

• OEB Breakfast (known for: breakfast poutine)
• Hathaway’s Diner (known for: breakfast)
• Duchess Bakeshop (known for: breakfast)
• Rge Rd (known for: the bison and spatzle)
• Uccellino (known for: the squid ink pasta)
• Vaticano Cucina (known for: authentic Italian)
• Frida Urban Taqueria (known for: amazing tacos)

Bonus: Spend an afternoon at the Village at Griesbach

As we were orienting ourselves to the city, Brian made a remarkable discovery. Just north of downtown Edmonton is the Village at Griesbach. While this is likely of no interest to most people, our last name is Griesbach so we had to check it out!

Village at Griesbach was built on former military base CFB (Canadian Forces Base) Edmonton, also known as Griesbach Barracks, named after Major General William Antrobus Griesbach. Major General Griesbach served in the Second Boer War, and WWI and WWII. In WWII he was made Inspector General of the Canadian Army for all of Western Canada. He was promoted to Major-General and retired honourably in that rank. Major-General Griesbach also served as Mayor of Edmonton, making him an incredibly important person in Edmonton’s history! Village at Griesbach features many monuments that are dedicated to and honour the proud military history of the Village at Griesbach land, Edmonton, and Canada!

We enjoyed wandering around the village for an hour one afternoon, taking copious amounts of pictures of the various ‘Griesbach’ signs and monuments throughout this residential neighborhood.

Our time in Edmonton was brief, but we found lots of worthwhile activities that gave us a sense for Alberta’s capital. It was a fun visit, and I would definitely go back when we’re on less of a schedule and can more leisurely explore more of the sites and food scene.