Ottawa

Now that I've posted the barely noticed bits of the city, I also want to show some more traditional photos of the city. I like to do two things when I go visit a city: see it from the top, and if possible , see it from the water. In Ottawa, Miss Kay and I were able to do both. We took a tour of the parliament buildings that included a ride up the Peace Tower.

We also took two separate boat tours. The first one took us on the Ottawa river where we saw the major sites from the water (the parliament buildings, 24 Sussex, waterfalls, the rich part of town...). The second ride was on the Rideau river; we began the ride right after the locks and rode all the way to the lake. In the winter,they lower the water level a few feet, and the whole 8 kilometer area is one giant skating rink. I'm not a big fan of winter, but I would surely love to skate this just once in my lifetime.


We walked a lot during the three days before the conference started. In addition to the sites mentioned above, we also went to the Museum of contemporary photography, the National Art Gallery (great Emily Carr exhibit), the Museum of Civilization (fantastic exhibit on Petra- the city of stone in Jordan),we caught some free jazz concerts, investigated the entire Byward market and a number of other things as we walked to and from the above mentioned locations.

The weather was fine and the city had enough to keep us entertained for those few days. It may be yet another long while before I go there again - my only regret is leaving the day before the Canada day celebrations that were being set up on the hill.