Ottawa

 Ottawa is such a beautiful city. - I could easily live here. I have been before many years ago on a work trip and was glad to see it again. Canada is celebrating its 150 year anniversary of its independence from the British. We stayed in an Airbnb house about 10 mins walk from the Byward Markets which was another 10 mins walk from the city. Once again we ventured onto the hop on/off bus for a good exploration of the city. There is lots to see and do but time was limited so we agreed to check out the Canadian History Museum. I like Canada and Canadian people. We have a similar British heritage and an indigenous people. Canada also has a strong French heritage and it was interesting to learn how these empires ruled the land, New France. We later met a friend from the Australian High Commission for dinner and caught up on a lot of goss.

The next morning we were up early to line up for a tour of Parliament which was excellent. It was great to see the historical artefacts and the library was impressive. The Library of Congress in DC is gorgeous but I have to say, this library is a very close second. Canadian Government is similar to Australian with its two houses and Governor General. The Senate was about to commence sitting for the day and they mark this occasion with the Leader of the Senate being escorted by the Sergeant at Arms through the building to the Senate chamber. It was a lucky score to see this brief procession. We took the elevator up the Peace Tower which provided a fantastic view of Ottawa. The flag flying at the top of the tower is changed each day and the replaced flag is sent to a Canadian citizen who has put their name on a very long list which takes about 70 years for your name to get to the top of the list. The new flag each day symbolizes a New Day everyday for Canada.

 

 Deb took the opportunity to briefly visit the High Commission and then we drove out to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) horse stables or the Musical Ride Centre. The RCMP is comprised of uniformed RCMP officers who have at least 5 years policing service before they can apply to the RCMP horse division. The RCMP don't do law enforcement don't do crowd control like Australia, rather they are a performing function where the RCMP (mounties) do military drill to music, thus called the Musical Ride. The mounties spend 2 years here and then post out to another policing role. The Musical Ride is currently touring Canada as part of the 150 year celebrations so we didn't see the Ride. However, we took a tour around the stables which was fantastic to learn about the RCMP and the horses. There were new trainees learning so we at least saw them in action.

We stopped in for a visit to Jacques Cartier Park where a horticultural exhibition was being hosted - Gatineaux 2017. Check out some of these incredible sculptures with plants.

 

A traditional food in Ottawa and some other parts of Canada are Beaver Tails. It's not what you think so check out the photos to see what I mean. It's a deep fried sweet pastry covered in a sweet topping such as maple syrup, cinnamon, sugar, lemon, chocolate or banana. 

It was a full afternoon drive from Ottawa to Quebec so we enjoyed some sleep in the car and interesting scenery as we made our way to one of the nicest parts of Canada.