A Day in the Nation's Capital

The good news, for those who like the photographs of the holidays is that I have managed to load all the photos that hadn't been going up onto Flickr in the last few days. Please have a look at them as they show a more detailed account of the holiday than I can ever get in the blog.

Today's post will outline the day we spent in the Capital of Canada - Ottawa. An amazing, open, gentle City which was a pleasure to explore:

The Tall Tower and Parliament Buildings - Ottawa

But before we go into details of our visit, let's start at the beginning of the day.

Wi-Fi

This morning aware that I had not got all the photos uploaded last night I woke earlier than on previous days at 3.00am and made my way to the Lobby of the Quality Inn and Suites, Brossard. Our room had very poor wi-fi access but, even though the hotel lobby's access was faster, the photos would still not load onto the system. Drew suggested last night that hotels might have a size limit per file and that the issue is not the speed of the wifi, but the size of some of the images we are putting on Flickr. However the higher the size of file, the more able one is to zoom in on elements of a picture, something I don't want to loose. Still it was a bit frustrating to make multiple attempts to load the photos and fail.

Breakfast

At 5.00am I gave up on my efforts and went back to the room and made us a morning coffee, then showered and shaved etc and caught up with my emails. 

We went down to Breakfast at 7.00am and, as mentioned in my last post, the hotel has an attached restaurant. Thus, unlike the usual buffet breakfasts in the Quality/Comfort style hotel, we had a breakfast served in the Paolo Gattus restaurant which was contained in the price of the room. 

I opted for the sausage, two eggs over-hard and whole-wheat toast. This came with sauteed potatoes and half a banana and a piece of melon:

Haydn's Breakfast

Drew went for bacon, two eggs over-easy and white bread with the same accompaniments:

Drew's Breakfast

While I used my toast to mop up the sausage juices, Drew had a pot of blueberry jam on his. 

The breakfast was served with coffee, which they kept filling up each time we had drunk it.

With breakfast complete we packed the car and headed away from the hotel at 8:10am

The Journey to Ottawa

Montreal to Ottawa

The route today is very simple. We leave the hotel and go onto Autoroute 10, which leads us briefly to Autoroute 20 and then on to Autoroute 30 for the rest of the time in the Quebec Province. The 30 crosses the St. Lawrence River at Pont Serge-Marcil 

Shortly afterwards the road became the Autoroute 40 and at 66 miles after our departure at 9:19am we entered Ontario (the Provincial border is shown as a dotted line on the map above):

Welcome to Ontario

We enjoyed this moment far more than we expected as we saw English road signs for the first time in two days. In Ontario the road signs are in English first, but unlike Quebec, where they are French only, these are now bilingual. it was interesting to find out what some of the signs we had been guessing at in the last few days actually meant.

Bilingual Road Signs

75 miles later we were in downtown Ottawa.

Ottawa

History

We arrived in Ottawa at 10.30am. Along the journey we had again referred to Drew's Rough Guide to Canada and it was largely positive about Ottawa. Though did say it might be: "a bureaucratic labyrinth of little charecter", this was not the case.  

Ottawa has a fascinating history and its name, which in the Algonquin language means "to trade" or "Trading Place" indicates that it has been a centre for human habitation and trade for a very long time. The earliest human inhabitants were already here 8,000 years ago. The River Ottawa is known in the Algonquin language as Kichissippi (Great River), you'll note it was the Algonquin who gave the French explorers the name for another Great River further South - the Mississippi - but though the two rivers have the same name, they are not connected.

The Algonquin had long been enemies of the Iroquois who had encroached on their traditional land in the 100 years before the arrival of the European's, this was to play a big part in future wars in what has become Canada with the Algonquin siding with the French and the Iroquois (sometimes known as the Mohawks about whom James Fenimore Cooper wrote a fictionalised account in his book: The Last of the Mohicans) siding with the British. This was to ensure the Iroquois support for the British against the French, and later against the Independent States to the South. In many ways it is the First Nation support which kept what is now Canada separate from the USA.

With the coming of the British to this part of North America, especially after the War of 1812 between the British and the USA, Ottawa became a key strategic point for the British ensuring trade and prosperity for the Colonies which stayed faithful to the Empire. Lieutenant John By saw the risk of American incursion along the St. Lawrence River and built the Rideau Canal as a way of ensuring Ottawa's Supply Routes. The Canal runs through the centre of the City.

The Rideau Canal

City Hall

On arriving in Ottawa we find a Car Park and the first building we see is the Ottawa City Hall. This is a combination of an old building, looking like many other British City Halls, and a modern building which is where most of the work is done and which is light and airey.

The Modern Side of City Hall

The Old Frontage of City Hall

We explored the building and came across a Chamber Music group engaging young people with conducting. It was a lovely background to our walk around City Hall having the music wafting around.

City Hall includes some great art and the Ben Babelowsky Paintings of Ottawa and its surrounds are well worth a look (They are on Flickr). My favourite is the one that shows a City scene with a light dusting of snow:

From City Hall we walked through Mandela Square and through the Canadian Tribute to Human Rights. In addition to its theme of the UN declaration of human rights and the global impact it focuses on the rights of indigenous Canadians. 

Memorial of the multiple cultures of indigenous Canadians

Across the road from the memorial we found a coffee shop with strong wi-fi (it was of a brand more famous in Seattle than in Ottawa!) Below is my happy face as the photos I had been trying to send for two days sped their way up to the Internet:

Confederation Park

At the heart of the CIty is a lovely green area, next to the canal, called Confederation Park. This celebrates the confederation of Canada in 1867.

The park has a range of monuments of different periods in Canadian history including the South African War Memorial, the National Aboriginal Veterans Monument, and the memorial fountain honoring John By, which stood for nearly a century in Trafalgar Square in London, UK.

Memorial Fountain - John By

ByWard Market and the Cathedral

From the park we headed to the thriving ByWard Market which is an area of the City, south of the canal, which includes fruit and vegetable stalls of great colour and tourist traps including the Ottawa selfie location (being perverse we have the letters back to front, rather than as they are designed behind someone in a selfie).

Fresh Fruit and veg

Selfie Sign

The Cathedral of Notre-Dame

Our next stop was the Cathedral of Notre-Dame, when we arrived Mass was in progress, so we found some shade - it was now very sunny and 85℉ - until Mass was over.

The Cathedral became the seat of the Bishop of By Town (as it was then called) in 1847, with the change of the City name the Diocese name changed and Ottawa's growth in importance was marked when it became an Archdiocese in 1886.

The sanctuary of the Cathedral is very ornate and the Church is fall of stained glass. It is less flamboyant than we have seen in Quebec, and is, for me, nicer because of that.

The Sanctuary and High Altar

The Resurrection

Major Hill’s Park

Across from the Cathedral we come to Major Hill’s Park. The first monument in the park is to the role of Canada in peacekeeping, especially for the UN. 

Peacekeeping Monument

The park has some wonderful views over the Ottawa River, and Quebec beyond. The place where the canal meets the river is just below the House that John By built for himself and his family when building the canal. The exterior shape, rather than the building itself, is marked out in the park.

Ottawa River, with Quebec beyond

Outline of By's House

Memories of World War One

Along the canal side are a series of photos, now enhanced in colour, as well as the original, marking the 100th anniversary of the end of World War one, and the Canadian contribution to it. We took our time walking along this display which evidences so much heroism in a far off land. I had no idea, for example, that a Canadian (George Lawrence Price), was the last Empire combatant to die in combat during the war at at 10:58am on the 11th of November 1918. 

Parliament Hill

From the memorial to World War One we crossed the canal and came to Parliament Hill with its range of immense buildings and its statues of famous Canadians, especially Canadian politicians.

The Hill is inspiring because of its Victorian grandeur and its way of evoking Westminster, but in a much more open and airy way. 

Centre Block

Archives of Canada

The House of Commons

There may have been even more to see in Ottawa, but after 4 and a bit hours in the blazing sun we were ready to walk back the mile and a half to the Car. We got back there at 2.40 and the car temperature was 92℉ (33.3℃) no wonder we felt a bit hot.

We headed to our hotel, but more of that in my next post.