Canada 2006
Ottawa, 7, 8 Oct 06
Ottawa Ontario is, of course, Canada’s capital city. It was added to our itinerary almost as an afterthought when I realized it was much closer to Montreal than to Toronto as I had assumed, so it made sense to do it on this trip. However, with only Saturday afternoon and Sunday to spend in the city, we were only able to see the main government buildings in the Parliament Hill district and the Museum of Civilization, Canada’s most visited museum which is actually across the river in Hull, Quebec.
Part of the Parliament Hill complex. This building was not open to the public at the time of year we visited.
Construction of the original center block was completed in 1878 but that building was completely destroyed by fire in 1916.
The 1916 fire that destroyed the Central Block also destroyed the 55m/180ft tall Victoria Tower. The 92m/300ft Peace Tower was intended as a memorial to those that had died in WW1.
This is my favorite photo from the trip. Canada has used the familiar maple-leaf flag only since 1965.
Note the gargoyles just below the clock.
There are many interesting statues around the parliament buildings.
I had no idea that Queen Victoria was black.
Journalist and one of the Fathers of Canadian Confederation, he was assassinated in 1868. Seen here with the popular animated sea gull hat.
The library survived the great fire of 1916 thanks to a quick-thinking librarian that closed the steel doors. Having just completed a major renovation, it is magnificient.
The French explorer was the instrumental in opening up North America to the fur trade and traveled the Ottawa River in 1613. This statue in Majors Hill Park appears to mark the tricentennial of that event. I believe he is holding an astrolabe, the main instrument of navigation until the sextant was invented.
The canal links Ottawa with Kingston on Lake Ontario and was built following the war of 1812 when the British saw the need to move military supplies efficiently up to the Great Lakes but avoiding the St. Lawrence River which was vulnerable to US attack. In fact, the canal was not completed until 1832 and never served any military role but served as a major trade route.
I was surprised to see in the Wikipedia article that malaria was a major problem during the canal's construction but this article and others appear to confirm it.
There are 7 locks here in Ottawa, 47 along the canal's 220km/125 mile length. Note the wedding on the left bank.
This first panel shows Jacque Cartier alighting from his boat on to Canadian soil.
We had a wonderful tour guide called Nick who is a student of political science and did this for a winter job. At the end we were invited to fill out comment cards and he amusing said that if we didn't like the tour, that his name was "Steve"!
Neither the Queen nor her representative, the Governor General is allowed in the lower house of parliament but the upper house has many royal symbols.
The floor is beautiful.
Sorry, this is blurred but I wanted to remember on of the most attractive large rooms I'd ever seen. That is Queen Victoria on the pedestal.
This is blurry too but aren't these the nicest bookshelves you've seen?
As seen from the Peace Tower.
This was at the Museum of Civilization which traces Canadian history amongst other things. Lan had hurt her foot so we borrowed a wheelchair but the floor was quite rough in places to simulate dirt roads and boardwalks in the pioneer town section. The architects had done a nice job with a curved, blue ceiling to give the illusion of being outside.
We saw totem poles on our trip to the Pacific northwest 10 years ago but these were still impressive.
A museum guide approached us while we were looking at the front of a house that formed the back wall of the exhibit and explained the history of it. The chief had spent time in Europe (?) and so had adorned his house with a mixture of native American and western decorations. It was lovely of her to do this and I'm sure she did it in part because Lan was in the wheelchair resting her sore foot. Unfortunately, we were just about to leave the museum so we could drive back to Montreal to get our plane so we couldn't stay longer to speak with her or see the other things she suggested.
