Ottawa

September 13–14, 2014

On Saturday morning I rode Via Rail to Ottawa. The business class cars are somewhat nicer than those I've ridden on Amtrak. There's even room beside the seat for a little wooden shelf that has places for two beverages and enough room underneath for a small bag so it doesn't compete for foot room. Lunch and beverage service (including beer and wine) are included. I had the salmon.

The train travels for a while along Lake Ontario. Otherwise the trip is not particularly scenic, just mostly rural area. The ride is very smooth and quiet. It took about four and a half hours. Ottawa is much further from Toronto than I had originally thought. Like everything else in Toronto it seems, the train station is under repair and renovation, so I never got to see the main part of the interior. I have heard it is very nice. At the station in Ottawa, my limo driver was waiting with a sign with my name, as expected. The station down town is now a conference center, so the trains stop at a small nondescript building away from town. The driver took me to the Hotel Indigo downtown, across from the public library, and a few blocks south of the Parliament building.

I had a hop-on-hop-off bus tour in Ottawa, also. The first run was at 10am, so I had a while to make picture in the area near the Parliament and main national office buildings before the tour. The season had ended for the big changing of the guard, but there was a smaller hourly one at the World War I monument. From my first vantage point near where the tour buses start, I saw the end of the 9am changing. The large building you see behind it is the Fairmont Hotel. Over the course of the day I saw parts of several changings from different spots. I've edited bits of them together into a video.

The next group of pictures were taken from the open upper deck of the bus. As in Toronto, I found that a good perspective for sightseeing and taking pictures.

The canal divides the city into an upper and lower part. In winter the water level is lowered so that the concrete walls and such are not broken by the ice as it freezes. The water left in the canal freezes to form an eight kilometer skating area.

The War Museum is much more massive even than it looks in this photo.

The bus crossed the Ottawa River into the Québec Province. Suddenly there were no longer bilingual street signs. Some of these pictures are looking back across the river at Ottawa.

Maurice Richard

The prime minister's home

I hopped off the bus back in Ottawa at the stop for the art museum and the cathedral. The music was wonderful in the latter, as expected. I photographed some of the architectural features of the museum as well as some of the art.

A Sermon in the Old Church in Delft. You can compare how it looks in the painting with my photo from the Holland trip.

 

Ottawa, Part 2 ->

<- Casa Loma

Second Day in Toronto

First Day in Toronto

Niagara-on-the-Lake

Niagara Falls Tour

 

Steve Lee's Home Page