visited Ottawa

By contrast to Montreal, we found Ottawa to be a beautiful city - clean, spacious and full of culture.

Ottawa
Our first task as we arrived into Ottawa was to find a room for the night - I spent what seemed like ages phoning as many places as I could - and just when I thought I'd found a 'nice' hotel for the same price as a hostel my hopes were dashed as they told me the last room had been taken.  We gave it up and walked the long distance into Ottawa to the Visitor Information Centre.  I don't know what made me call the same hotel again but our luck changed and this time they had a room available. This time, we were able to enjoy a swimming pool, hot shower, large comfortable bed, and we dressed for an evening of delicious food and each other's company.

The next day we awoke slightly worse for wear having consumed a litre of fine house red.  We had forgotten the potency of red wine and the prospect of raising our heads from our pillows was not pleasant. However, being travellers we had to make the most of the facilities and so by 9am we were blasting off a few lengths of the pool before relaxing in the jacuzzi.  We checked out at 11 and left our backpacks with the hotel for safekeeping, then began to explore the city.

We were impressed by the large government buildings: the House of Commons and the House of
Senates within the Houses of Parliament.  The British influence was visible everywhere - the building, the customs...and all because of our Queen Victoria who helped founder Canada back in 1867.  It was Queen Victoria, so we were told, that chose Ottawa as the nation's capital, a surprise apparently to many Canadians.  Our Queen Elizabeth II remains the Queen of Canada, so we felt proud to be the sole representatives of England on the tour.

The Peace Tower with it's clock and spire was based on Big Ben in London, and from there the views over the city were amazing.  We used the view to help us to choose where else we wanted to visit in Ottawa.

So leaving the Parliament buildings, we crossed a bridge over the River Ontario and temporarily left Ontario state and revisited Quebec, where we entered an art museum but the fee for two travellers was far too high so we moved on towards the Museum of Civilisation, in which we relaxed on their comfy chairs and enjoyed a few minutes of respite.  The rest of the afternoon and evening we wandered around the city, and then late into the evening we picked up our backpacks from the hotel and returned to the Bus Station to catch the overnight bus to Toronto.