Capital of Canada

 What is the Capital of Canada?

If you guessed Ottawa you win a free beer from Mike Kelly! Ottawa is a beautiful city with enough to offer  keep you busy for a month. We left Montebello on Sunday July 3rd for a 40 mile cruise to Canadas capital city. We stayed on the Quebec side at a marina because we had reached critical mass on clean laundry. Translate that to clean underwear was running out fast. Sue got that handled in short order and we were off to take a quick peak at the city which was a very short ride over the bridge. The Parliament  building complex was impressive to say the least. Back to the boat for dinner and an early night.

On Monday July 4th we crossed the Ottawa river to enter the “Flight of Locks” which is the gateway to the Rideau canal system. The flight of locks are a series of eight locks, one after the other,  that raise the boat 80’ above the river. Now here is the crazy part, the locks are all hand operated, both the gates and the valves. College kids fill most of the positions with a senior, much older, lock master to ensure all goes well. 

These locks still have wooden gates and manual gear driven cranks. It is a sight to behold. In essence they are exactly the way they were when the canal and lock system was  built in the early 1800’s. The Rideau canal system is part of the Heritage Canal Waterways. The Rideau was originally built as part of a defense system but later was utilized for commerce.

The canal has a total of 45 locks that raise a boat over 272’ across 124 miles of some of the most picturesque landscape imaginable. So after about an hour and a half we were thru and tied up at the lock wall in the center of  the city. The parliament buildings are all done in a grand Victorian style architecture keeping with their ties to England.

 

They are stunning to see up close. They somewhat reminded us of stylish castles. Unfortunately the center block as it is called and likened to our capitol building, is under a 15 year renovation program. Get this, they are removing each cut stone, cleaning it and then putting it back! Over 400K of them. Wow!

We did a tour of the complex with a young Canadian gal who was very enthusiastic. We stopped at a monument to the war of 1812 and she proceeded to explain it’s significance. Did you know that the war of 1812 was about the US trying to take over Canada and that we lost? The things you learn, lol.

We then went to a big market area and enjoyed the national art museum. There is also an extensive trail system thru out the city and along the canal. We reconnected with a couple of Loopers we met back on the Hudson who were also tied up to the lock wall. Tuesday was our first overcast drizzly day we had had in many weeks.

 

Fortunately it didn’t rain hard enough to stop us from continuing to explore the city. One other neat fact about the Rideau is that in the winter it turns into the worlds longest ice skating rink at 7 km long! No we did not strap on the blades and give it a go! 

Another beautiful church.  Below is the oldest Pub in Ottawa. 

Canada’s Parliament building center block

On the Blue line waiting to go up the flight of locks. 

Market area loaded with shops, restaurants and bars. 

looking back to Gatineau, Quebec. 

The wall we stayed at in the heart of Ottawa. Everything within a short walk. 

West Block where the House of Commons is currently being housed. 

Rideau Falls

So Ottawa has what I compare to DC’s Smithsonian’s.  Natural History, Air and Space and the Museum of Art. There is a large spider that delights and terrifies small children at the entrance of the museum. Inside in particular I enjoyed the indigenous people’s art.  The bison skin coats with glass bead work, tools they carved.  The colonists were fascinated by the indigenous way of life and painted many daily life scenes often painting what the artist wanted to see and not what was actually happening.  I saw numerous painting of Indians dancing and entertaining the colonists when in reality their relationships were often tenuous wondering if the colonists were their to steal their bison and land.  Thanks hon for letting me drag you into another art gallery.  And No, I did not walk under that creepy spider!!