Day 15 and 16 - Ottawa and Canada Day!

Ottawa was awesome! So awesome in fact that ware thinking of going back and spending some more time there.

On Saturday, the day before Canada day we drove in to Ottawa and walked up Elgin Street to Parliament Hill. We took a free tour of the ‘centre block’, the main building. 

Being mature in the legislature

The tour was in French as all the English tours were full. When the tour guide asked how many people spoke absolutely no French more than half the people raised their hands. I guess we were not alone! However, ‘since we had signed up for a French tour’ said the guide’ the tour will be conducted in French and please do not translate while I am speaking’ We got the gist of most of what she said. I’m just kidding. I picked up about 2% of it and I think that was only when she told us something in English as it was safety or security related! 

After our tour we were famished so we wandered down to York Street, the market area and got ourselves some bagels with cream cheese. After that we were exhausted and started our long walk back to the car. We stopped off in Brittania Park and had another swim in the Ottawa river before heading back to the Afghanistanian restaurant for another delectable meal. What can I say?  We love ethnic food, and this is the best around!

July 1st

Canada Day! We had a rather lazy start to the day considering what was about to happen. The mass of people, unable to move this way or that. We took the bus from a park and ride near the campground and had a relaxing half hour ride into the chaos. 

Snow Birds over Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Canada Day, 2012

Rideau Canal Locks, Ottawa

Too tuckered to walk!

The atmosphere was amazing Everyone dressed in red and white. Peoples faces painted and tattooed. We couldn’t really see much. I think there was a trooping of the colour. Then the fighter jets flew over followed a few minutes later by the snow birds. That was awesome! So loud!

We managed to move sideways towards the Rideau canal locks where there was some space. We generally meandered around the festivities until 3:00pm when we were so exhausted we hopped back on the bus and went back to the camp site for a nap.

Jenny and Jemma went back in at 8:00pm on the bus to see the fireworks but Ryan and I stayed behind and had a quite evening together and watched a movie.