Touring Ottawa and Traveling to Montreal

Tonight's post took a little longer to prepare since Dave can access the web, but not his home or work email (maybe a blessing).  The phone does not work either.  It took awhile, but I figured out how to upload to Facebook and then download them to put on the blog.

Today was a delightful day.  After checking out of our hotel, we took a tour of Ottawa with a student guide Braedon (a Ben look alike) from Manitoba.  He guided us through the sites of Ottawa telling us about the government, some historical figures and some of the more important buildings.

We had a chance to watch the Ceremonial Guard marching to and from Parliament where they hold a Changing of the Guard Ceremony every morning.  The Ceremonial Guard is drawn from two regiments - the Governor General's Foot Guards and the Canadian Grenadier Guards. They are accompanied by their own regimental band and pipers who provided musical support for the ceremony.



We visited the War Memorial again, but this time Braedon told us of the symbolism of the cenotaph which was very touching and we were told of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier which was recently added to the front of the site.

Video of War Memorial

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

On Sparks Street, We learned the history of Thomas D'Arcy McGee, an Irishman who was a leader of the movement of Confederation for Canada.  He was one of only two political leaders in Canada to be assassinated.   At our last spot on the tour, we would see where his assassin was hung, the last public hanging in Canada.

Returning to Parliament Hill, we were surprised to learn the starting this September, the main Parliament Building and the East Block Building will be closed for renovations for 10 to 15 years.  They need to completely rebuild the interiors and are going to take out and inspect every individual brick on the exterior.  The House of Commons is moving to west block and the Senate is moving to their former train station.

West Block

Train Station Building

Across the street from Parliament is the Prime Minister's Office.  The current Prime Minister is Justin Trudeau.

Emily Murphy

Henrietta Edwards & Louise McKinney

The statues of the women pictured here are part of what's known in Canada as the Famous Five.  They were five women who brought a legal case in 1929 to determine the meaning of the word, "Persons" in the Canadian Constitution.  Prior to the legal case, the word had been interpreted to mean men and women were not allowed to vote.  The women won their case and the rest, as they say, is history.





The statues to the left are of Robert Baldwin and Sir Louis Lafontaine, English and French leaders who secretly met to help lead the way to a united Canada.  Their collaboration is something that our legislative bodies could learn from.

Canadian Museum of History 

Samuel Champlain Statue

Parliament Hill has some spectacular views of the river and the nearby city of Gatineu, Quebec.  Pictured here are the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineu and the Samuel de Champlain Statue.  De Champlain is the father of "New France" founding Quebec on July 3, 1608.

Ida at Major's Hill Park

We visited Major's Hill Park where they have the Tulip Festival each year featuring over  1 million tulips.  In 1945, the Dutch royal family sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa in gratitude for Canadians having sheltered the future Queen Juliana and her family for the preceding three years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands in the Second World War. The most noteworthy event during their time in Canada was the birth in 1943 of Princess Margriet at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. The maternity ward was temporarily declared to be extraterritorial by the Canadian government, thereby allowing Princess Margriet's citizenship to be solely influenced by her mother's Dutch citizenship.^[In 1946, Juliana sent another 20,500 bulbs requesting that a display be created for the hospital, and promised to send 10,000 more bulbs each year which they have done each year since.

Across the street from the park is the large U.S. embassy which the locals her think looks like a submarine.

US Embassy

We headed back to the Bywood Market area where we learned that this lovely outdoor dining area was the courtyard where they had the last hanging. Good thing we did not eat there.

























We had lunch outdoors on the second floor restaurant, the Pour House which has lovely flowers handing from its railings.

Rue St. Paul

It was an easy drive to Montreal since there is nothing between Ottawa and Montreal but farms.  We checked into our awesome suite at the Embassy Suites and went off for dinner in old Montreal which is literally a block from our hotel.   Best of both worlds, new modern spacious hotel and steps from the old city.

We had dinner on the terrasse of the Epik Restaurant on Rue St. Paul.  Its a very small restaurant in a boutique hotel that has a good reputation.   We loved our meals and we're practicing our french already.  Most of the people we have encountered are bilingual so that helps too!

The outdoor Terrasse of Epik