Ottawa Canada

John is staying at an RV park near Minneapolis while I fly to Ottawa for a convention. I found time to wander the city. There’s a lot to see downtime. It is a mix of old and new.

The National War Memorial.

The Rideau Canal is wonderful. It was built back in the 1820’s. Along the sides are paths for walking, running, or biking.

The canal itself is used for canoeing, sculling, and pleasure boats.  There is a lock that takes boats to the level of the Ottawa River. During the winter people can skate on it. Pretty cool!

The Parliament has several buildings that are all interesting looking. Unfortunately, there’s lots of construction in the area.

Eternal flame along with a protester.

Of course I like weird. Outside the National Gallery of Canada is a great and creepy sculpture.

I’ll try to shorten this story, but John used to visit Canada back in the 1980’s and 90’s for his job. He’d take home a few Canadian bills and change and sometimes forget to bring them back on the next trip. He ended up with a bag of coins and bills. Some of them are still legal tender but EXTREMELY hard to change to recent currency. I visited several places to get rid of $2 and $1 bills. Finally the Royal Canadian Mint gift shop took pity on me and changed them. The good news is that I talked to a lot of locals as they gazed in fascination at my old currency.

My favorite spot was Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica. It was built over time but started in the 1830’s. The outside is pretty cool with a stainless steel roof and steeples.

But the inside is spectacular! By the way, the green ‘marble’ columns are just painted to look like marble. But the work is still incredible.

Lots of sculptures.