Day 6 Tour 2/6/12

Today we left Montreal for Ottawa, after a coffee at "second cup"( similar to Starbucks and Tim Hortons, but has nicer food) .
The trip was only 204 kms, so we arrived in the rain mid morning for a morning tour by a local strict teacher type guide.
Ottawa is an Indian tribal name and has a population of 1 million . It is a relatively young city, founded in 1820, as a lumber/ milling town. Ottawa is the capital of Canada ( decided by Queen Victoria) and is in the province of Ontario and borders the province of Quebec. It is surrounded by 3 rivers ( st Laurent, Ottawa and Rideau), ideal for logging, and has a lock system for the movement of boats. The rideau canal becomes a skating canal in winter and people use it to skate to work. It has lots of green spaces, trees and water ways. Ottawa is mainly English speaking and signage, menus etc are all in English- thank goodness . Only 25% of the population have French as their 1st language.
In 1857 Ottawa became a country.
It is easy to get around as the streets are in a grid system. It reminded us of Canberra, with it's organized street system , cleanliness, Parlimentary buildings, courts , museums and stately residences and embassies. The House of Parliament has a peace tower built in 1927, which is a memorial for those who, lost their lives in WW1. The tower is just beautiful with amazing stain glass windows and stone work which was supplied by Belguim, England and France



The day rained off and on all day, but that did not stop our sightseeing. We went to the house of Parliment, which was spectacular, the Museum of civilization and had a tour around the The Chateau Laurier which was celebrating 100 yrs of serving Ottawa as a hotel. The chateau's original owner was drowned on the titanic , his wife and children survived and opened the hotel several months after his death.

We finally found some "beaver tails " and thoroughly enjoyed them. Beaver tails are pastries , like flat donuts. I had apple and syrup on mine and Greg had chocolate and banana. I think we have now managed to eat all the disgusting fatty yummy traditional foods of Canada.


After a nanna nap we headed off for tea at a local diner.

Cheers Leanne and Greg






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Location:Ottawa