If you are traveling in Canada near Vancouver, be sure to visit Cortes Island. The island boasts a number of attractions, but none is as unusual as Wolf Bluff Castle.

Wolf Bluff is not your average castle. It is new enough that its age is measured in years, not decades or centuries. It is not crumbling or falling down—probably because it is made of cinder blocks. You can even meet the man who built it.

Karl Triller, owner and builder of Wolf Bluff Castle (known locally as King Karl’s Kastle), grew up in Hungary dreaming of castles. When he moved to Cortes Island, he decided to make his dream a reality. When Karl was building the castle wolves were abundant on the island, hence the name.

Karl designed and built the five-story, triple-turreted, eight-bedroom castle from the ground up. He even made all 13,000 cement blocks used to construct the castle and spent 12 years completing it.

In the past, Wolf Bluff Castle was a bed and breakfast, but age has forced Karl, a former professional chef, to stop preparing and serving guest meals. The castle’s modern full-service kitchen is available for self-catering during longer stays. It is also a base of operations for caterers serving events in the dining hall, a room with space to seat up to one hundred people.

What castle is complete without a dungeon? Karl’s dungeon is also a torture chamber and features homemade dummies in various states of torment with placards announcing their sins.

Karl himself, who does not charge admission but does ask for a donation, leads castle tours. Do you want to relive that childhood fantasy of being lord of all you survey or a damsel in a tower? It can happen – talk to Karl about staying the night in Cortes Island’s Wolf Bluff Castle.

Travel in western Canada can be adventurous, romantic, and fun. All you have to do is take the train. VIA Rail, Canada’s federal Crown corporation railway system, offers several routes to travelers who want to see Canada without having to drive through it.

The Canadian is the western transcontinental train, a three-day journey from Toronto to Vancouver with stops along the way in Winnipeg, Jasper, and Edmonton, among others. Truly adventurous travelers who want to plan their own vacation can even request special stops anywhere between Sudbury Junction and Winnipeg, a service the rail line touts to outdoor enthusiasts.

The Skeena takes riders for a breathtaking trip along the Canadian Rockies and out to the Pacific, traveling from Jasper to Prince Rupert in British Columbia with an overnight stop in Prince George. Be warned, though, the Skeena does not have sleeping cars and passengers need to take care of their own accommodation needs in Prince George.

The Malahat is a four and half hour trip up or down Vancouver Island, from Victoria at the south end to Courtenay in the north central part of the island. Malahat only offers one class of rail travel, the comfort class, but this fare includes the unique privilege of getting on and off the train as many times as you want from one end of the line to the other. The train departs once daily from each end of the line and, at C$28 is a great bargain for the budget-minded traveler.

In 2007 VIA Rail added the winter-only Snow Train Express from Edmonton to Jasper, departing Friday and returning on Sunday—perfect for a weekend ski getaway. Since this is a new route, and a seasonal one, check in advance to see if this service is still available before making your plans.

The weather is a harsh mistress in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The natives have fought back by establishing a modern wonder, Montreal’s Underground City. The underground, as the locals call it, is a remarkable pedestrian network of train stations, shops, hotels, restaurants, museums, and more, under downtown Montreal.

The underground city got its start in 1962 with the building of the Place Ville-Marie office tower and underground shopping mall. That first mall connected to Central Station (subway) and the Queen Elizabeth Hotel via tunnels. Since then the underground has grown to more than twenty-two miles of pedestrian walkways.

Residents of Montreal are extremely proud of their “inside city” (not all of it is underground), the largest underground complex in the world. There are more than 150 access points to the subterranean city and more than 60% of the businesses in downtown connect to the underground. Over 500,000 people traverse the belowground pedestrian walkways and subways of Montreal each day. Several residential towers connect to the underground as well, allowing some locals to go from home to work to play without ever going outside.

Some of the most stunning features of the underground complex are the subway stations. Each station is, literally, a work of art. When the subway was built 1% of the budget for each station was devoted to procuring and displaying art in the underground. A different architect designed each station in a different style and no two stations are the same.

A number of well-known tourist spots in Montreal are accessible from the underground city. Things to check out without going out include Olympic Park and the Olympic Centre (built for the 1976 Olympics); the Place des Artes, home to the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal); and Molson Centre, home of Montreal’s hockey team, the Canadiens.

The story of the doomed ocean liner Titanic has captured the imagination of people all over the world since the day it sank. Halifax, in Nova Scotia, Canada is a largely unknown part of Titanic history.

After the Titanic sank, the White Star Line chartered four ships from Canada to search for survivors. Two of them, the MacKay-Bennett and the Minia, were from Halifax.

Of the 328 bodies recovered from the disaster site, 119 were so badly damaged or deteriorated they were buried at sea. The remaining 209 were brought to Halifax for identification, where possible. 150 of those people were buried in one of three Halifax cemeteries, based on religion (Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish), giving Halifax one of the largest concentrations of Titanic passenger burials in the world.

The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax houses the largest collection of wooden Titanic artifacts in the world in their permanent exhibit, Titanic: The unsinkable ship and Halifax, which opened in 1998.

One of the centerpieces of the collection is a wooden deck chair, one of the only intact ones in the world known to match those in photos of the ship. A grandchild of Reverend Henry W. Cunningham gave the chair to the museum. Reverend Cunningham received the chair in recognition for his services in conducting many of the sea burials for Titanic victims.

One of the most moving items on display is the log of wireless operator Robert Hunston, from Cape Race, Newfoundland. It is a condensed log of all the distress calls from the ocean liner the night it sank. Reading the log brings home the reality of the disaster and the amazingly short time in which it occurred.

For more information on Halifax’s role in the Titanic aftermath, visit the city’s Titanic web page at http://www.halifax.ca/history/titanicmain.html.

Very old school.

If you’re traveling in Ontario, Canada with your kids anytime between May 1st and September 8^th and find yourself anywhere near Greater Sudbury, make some time, a day would be best, to detour to Dinosaur Valley Mini Golf for a unique experience in family entertainment. Open from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week, this singular attraction offers service in both English and French.

The park began as a dream for owners Josee and Marcel Rainville, who, after five years of work, completed the first 9-hole course in 1998. Over the years five more courses were added as well as the amazing steel dinosaurs, all scaled to size. The park owners make all of the skeletal replicas.

Dinosaur Valley offers a variety of amusement options ranging from a total of 54 unique holes of miniature golf to labyrinths and over 20 mammoth dinosaur and insect exhibits, plus their new Raptor and Dragon exhibits, added in 2006.

It is fun with a purpose, too. The Rainvilles have dedicated the entire park to cancer families to honor of the memory of their son, Steven, who died of leukemia. Dinosaur Valley also hosted Canada’s first Pro Mini Golf Tournament in which 100% of the proceeds were donated to charity (the Canadian Cancer Society).

This family fun centre is reasonably priced, too, with labyrinth entry only C$2.50 per person and 18 holes of miniature golf starting at C$5.99 for children and C$7.00 for adults. While some of the exhibits may be a little extra, most of the extraordinary metal models are incorporated into the golf courses. The park accepts cash, debit, Visa, and American Express. For those of you who like to plan ahead, you can book your visit to Dinosaur Valley Mini Golf online via their website, www.dinosaursudbury.ca .

The Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum (CWHM) in New Hope, Ontario, is unique because it is home to world’s largest collection of flying vintage aircraft. The museum also houses an aviation art gallery, interactive displays, audio-visual presentations, and an assortment of aircraft photographs and memorabilia.

The Museum began as a labor of love for four friends, Dennis J. Bradley, Alan Ness, Peter Matthews, and John Weir. The men did not just set out to restore just any planes, they specifically wanted to preserve and maintain a collection of the aircraft flown by Canadians and the Canadian military services from World War II to the present.

In 1993, an inferno ripped through one of the hangars at the Hamilton International Airport that the Museum was using for storage and restoration and destroyed five of the restored planes. The museum reluctantly acknowledged the need to move to a single facility that could accommodate both the displays and the space needed to do restoration work. As a member of Canada’s royal family and the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum’s royal patron, Charles, the Prince of Wales officially opened the new building in April 1996.

The Museum has over forty aircraft from the 1940s warplanes to jets from the 60s and 80s. Most of the planes are military and many of them are rare. Nowhere else will you find such a large collection of flight-ready vintage airplanes. The Museum flies one of their operational planes once a day during, the summer season, and Thursdays through Sundays in the spring and autumn, weather permitting.

The Museum’s ride program, Legends Flight, gives people the opportunity to reserve a ride in either an open-cockpit bi-plane or the Harvard Trainer. They also offer two different flight paths, the Niagara Escarpment Tour over Hamilton and the Lake Ottawa shoreline or the Grand River Tour.

What does Santa do all summer? If you have been asked this question one too many times, this year travel to Bracebridge, Ontario, Canada and find the answer. Bracebridge, just north of Toronto, sits on the 45th parallel, halfway between the Equator and the North Pole. Since 1955, Bracebridge has been home to Santa’s Village Family Entertainment Park, Santa Claus’ preferred summer vacation spot.

Not sure what to do first? After being greeted by Santa himself in Santa Square guests can catch a ride around the 50-acre park on the Candy Cane Express miniature train and use it to get your bearings.

Santa is not the only one on vacation over the summer; the elves are too. The park is full of ways to amuse elves (and children). Enjoy net climbing excitement in the Elves Island Play Area. Ride Rudolph’s Sleigh Ride Roller Coaster, the Christmas Ball Ferris Wheel, the Merry-Go-Round, and more.

Children can create customized souvenir crafts in the Elves Workshop and Candy Cane Lane features a variety of skill games to hone hand-eye coordination. Live entertainers perform at the park throughout the season.

Santa’s Village also features a petting zoo complete with goats, sheep, and deer, though not reindeer since Bracebridge is too warm for those hardy animals.

One of the attractions of this summer home away from the North Pole is warm weather and the chance to cool off in Santa’s Splash Zone. Work up a sweat paddling around lemonade lagoon in one of Santa’s Paddleboats or relax and let someone else do the work when you take Santa’s Summer Sleigh Jetboat Cruise.

The park is open 10am to 6pm from June to September. For more specific information about Santa’s Village, or to make reservations, visit the park on the web at http://www.santasvillage.ca .

The bright red uniform jacket and broad-brimmed hat of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police are a symbol of Canada recognized all over the world. The well-known red serge coat, black riding pants with their yellow stripe, and red-banded Stetson are not part of the regular daily uniform for these police officers. The red, white, and black dress uniform is, generally, only worn for civic ceremonies, public relations events, celebrations and memorials.

The RCMP is a singular organization, since it is simultaneously a national, federal, provincial and municipal policing body. They provide total federal policing service to all Canadians. They are also under contract to provide policing services to eight provinces (all except Quebec and Ontario), the 3 Canadian territories, more than 200 municipal areas, 165 First Peoples communities, plus 3 international airports and several smaller airports.

The RCMP Academy, Depot Division in Regina, Saskatchewan has been training “Mounties” for more than 120 years. Despite the fact that they are a national police force, all new Royal Canadian Mounted Police recruits undergo basic training in Regina. At 12:45 each day visitors can witness the daily Sergeant Major’s Drill on the Parade Ground. Incidentally, women have been members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police since the first all-female class graduated from the Academy in March 1975.

Until October 2006, the Academy was also home to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Centennial Museum, where visitors could go to get a thorough account of the national police force’s history. The Centennial Museum was closed permanently in October 2006 in order to begin moving its collections and artifacts to the new RCMP Heritage Center.

The $40 million Heritage Center is scheduled to open May 23, 2007. A focal point of the new museum will be a ninety-eight foot (30 m) long three-dimensional sculptural timeline illustrating the roles and tools of the RCMP over the years.

Are you a wildlife enthusiast looking for something a little different? The a trip to Churchill in Northern Manitoba, Canada is just the thing. Indulge yourself in a little retro luxury with a sleeper ticket on VIA Rail’s Hudson Bay, a 2-day and night trip from Winnipeg to Churchill. The indulgence is worth it, since the destination, Churchill, is a no-frills sub-arctic town. This train is another of VIA Rail’s outdoor enthusiast routes and offers their unscheduled stop service to passengers who make advance arrangements for it.

Churchill, a tiny village with a permanent population that fluctuates between 800 and 1100, is known as the Polar Bear Capital of the World. The town, sitting between the Churchill River and Hudson Bay, is on the polar bears’ annual migration route. Peak season for polar bear sighting is from mid-October to mid-November each year. Polar bear viewing is best done by arrangement with one of the many tour operators in Churchill who will take out in a tundra buggy, vehicles specially designed for the safety of people, polar bears, and the local tundra.

Manitoba’s beluga whale population migrates to the Churchill River and Hudson Bay every summer during July and August. There are approximately 20,000 whales living in the area, and about 3,000 of them summer in the river estuary to give birth. Visitors have a chance to view, and, with many tours, swim with, these beautiful creatures.

Bird-watching enthusiasts should try to make the trip to Churchill sometime between mid-June and mid-July. According to the Churchill Northern Studies Institute, birdwatchers can expect to see approximately 100 species, easily, over the course of a four- to seven-day trip. For more information on species commonly seen, or at least heard in some cases, check out the birdwatching page on the Instute’s website at http://www.churchillscience.ca/index.php?page=ab_attrac_birds.

International sports enthusiasts can visit the history of the Olympic Games in Canada, and get a glimpse of the future.Canada hosted its first Olympic Games in Montreal, Quebec in 1976. The Olympic Stadium in Montreal features the world’s tallest inclined tower—it is 574 feet (175 m) high. The vision of the architect who planned the stadium was nearly impossible to achieve, however. The stadium’s retractable roof was not completed until 1987, more than 10 years after the event for which it was designed.

The velodrome built for the 1976 Games was re-purposed for education in 1992 and is now known as the Biodôme. Visitors to the museum will experience four typical indigenous American environments: the polar region, a tropical forest, the St. Lawrence marine, and the Laurentian forest.

In 1988, Calgary, Alberta hosted the 15^th Winter Olympiad and profited mightily from it (unlike Montreal, which is still paying for that stadium roof!). The Olympic Oval is a fully equipped training facility used by skaters, runners, hockey players, and athletes of all stripes. Nearby Canada Olympic Park is the home of North America’s largest Olympic museum, the Olympic Hall of Fame. The Park is also home to Canada’s only Olympic bobsled/luge track. Adventurous visitors willing to sign a waiver can even buy a trip down the track in a sled driven by one of the park’s trained drivers.

Canada will again be hosting the Winter Olympics, this time in Vancouver, British Columbia, in 2010. The city has already begun preparations for the big event. Omega, Official Timekeeper of the 2010 Games, unveiled a three-year countdown clock in downtown Vancouver on February 12, 2007. Construction of the Vancouver Olympic Village will begin in the summer of 2007. The Games facilities will be made available to athletes for training by Winter 2007/2008.