Ottawa , Canada

We arrived in Ottawa just as rush hour hit, it must have taken just as long to get to Ottawa from Gananoque as it did to crawl through the gridlocked traffic to our hotel form the welcome to Ottawa signage. When we finally reached our hotel we were greeted by the trademark of a Canadian summer, construction. They had every street surrounding the hotel ripped up to gravel, and across the street, they were setting up a large art installation commemorating Canada’s 150th birthday.  We checked in and ran to our hotel room to get settled in. The view was phenomenal overlooking a handful of landmarks that are synonymous with the capital.

Our plan to conquer this capital city was to hit 3 of the most promising museums, to eat at a different random restaurant in the Byward Market area every lunch and dinner, and to do some random exploring in the hotels surrounding area in Quebec and across the bridge in Ottawa on parliament hill.

The food was amazing every time except once. The name is “Blue Cactus”. I took pictures and did reviews of each on Google, check out my Google Contribution page:

https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/…

Hands down my favourite was the oak roasted chicken with carrot puree and peas, at Cornerstone Bar and Grill.

While we were in the restaurant it started to pour rain, we watched the streets clear fairly quickly from our people watching large street view window. The streets were empty for a good 2 to 3 minutes as the rain continued to downpour Then out of nowhere across the street some guy randomly plants himself on his knees directly under a street light. The rain slows slightly so he sparks up a cigarette and starts screaming prayers to God. We were only half paying attention to him but it was loud enough that you could hear him through the window.

The Museums were phenomenal, so much to see and soak in. We visited the museum of history, the art gallery, and space and aviation museum. I’m not going to bore you with the insane amount of artifacts, pieces of art and vehicles that we saw in the span of a few days.  The sheer size and quality of the collection Canada has accumulated within its museums Is mind boggling. You must go and experience it. Give the art gallery its own day though it’s huge. We underestimated it and ended up missing our last chance to see the inside of the parliament buildings.

One of the last evenings, we were crossing the bridge back to our hotel and got passed by an insanely long 200 +  person bike line. The next day We seen Colin Mochrie from Who’s line is it anyway? Recording something a couple of times during our travels. We saw him in his full Canadian pride suit on that same bridge as the bikes and in the Canada 150th display in Byward Market. Probably the saddest celebrity sighting ever written about…

Overall the time we spent in our nation’s capital was extremely enjoyable. The sites and food were enough to keep me wanting to spend another week there and the opportunity to learn so much about our country was the cherry on top. This being my second visit and feeling like I have still only scratched the surface of things to do.  I can say for sure that I will be back again, hopefully with the opportunity to see it from another perspective.

Travelling Trev.