Ottawa 2, Ontario, Canada

It was a most excellent day – fun, informative and interesting. And it was a nostalgic day for Peter as we were in the city in which he was born.  We left early this morning to drive into the city, find a parking space and locate our tour bus. (A double decker, hop on hop off.)  The tour guide was bilingual of course – English and French. I can pick up a few words that sound similar to Spanish. I’d like to learn French, lots of people speak it of course in eastern Canada. Apparently if you want a job in Ottawa, you better know how to speak French.

We started at the Parliament, House of Commons and Supreme Court. On the bus tour we crossed the Ottawa River into the province of Quebec. The city used to be called Hull, now it’s called Gatineau.

We passed by some tony neighborhoods in Ottawa and viewed several embassies. The most expensive to build was the U.S. one. The next most expensive was the Saudi Arabia Embassy. Then we went through another expensive neighborhood where the ambassadors and their families live. We heard the interesting story regarding the reason the Netherlands gifted thousands of tulips to Canada.  Ottawa just had their annual tulip festival last weekend. We passed through the By Ward Market which is lot like the Kensington Market in Toronto, but less crowded. All kinds of international products were sold there.

We ended up having lunch in the By Ward Market at an Irish pub. We could have eaten at a restaurant of just about any country. I had a smoked salmon sandwich and Peter had a bison burger.

We spent the afternoon at the Canadian Museum of History with a charming and informative tour guide whose family is from Cameroon. She is the second person we’ve met from Cameroon. We rented a room through AirBNB from Sidonie in Bilbao, Spain.

Two main themes in the museum were hockey and First Nation Peoples. We were more interested in the later. It was fascinating. I feel like I’ve learned so much more about Canadian and thus North American history.

So we are back “home” in our trailer and have new neighbors. The father is a farmer from Montreal. The family all speak French. The father, Allan (spoken with a French accent) speaks some English because he has been to University.  Allan was just here and gave us some maple syrup (Sirop d’erable Pur) manufactured on his farm.  He and his brothers own a large part of an island close to Montreal, Ille Perrot. We had a jar of jalapeno jelly which we gave him. We loved visiting with him but the mosquitoes were getting to us so we had to say goodnight (bonne nuit).

Canadians have been so friendly and generous.  Since I am married to a Canadian, I’m always trying to describe Canadian culture.  Friendly and generous are definitely words I would describe Canadians. I would also say tidy. Did you ever see the movie, “Canadian Bacon”? The US tries to start a war with Canada by rowing across Lake Ontario and dumping garage across the border.

Tomorrow we are driving back into Ottawa. This time we need to get up earlier to stand in line for (free) tickets for a tour of the Parliament. Then we are doing the Splash Amphibious bus tour.

The mosquitoes are driving us crazy. We’re going to bed now. Chow…  JY

Yesterday we booked a hop-on hop-off (hoho) tour of Ottawa.  This morning we arrived at the designated time and stayed on the bus for the first complete route to see where we wanted to get off and look around.  The tour was nostalgic for me as it drove by many of the places I frequented as a child.  I had a running dialogue with the tour guide as I knew a little more about the history of some of the places than he did.  In some of the places where we walked around I had to stop and absorb the nostalgia of the moment and the memories.

After the first tour on the bus we got off and went to the ByWard Market which is like a touristy farmers market.  We stopped and had lunch in the market on the second floor of an Irish Pub at an open air table overlooking the market.  We had a Corona and some nochos – after we had sandwiches we headed back to the hoho bus and decided to spend the afternoon at the Canadian Museum of History which is located across the Ottawa River in Quebec.  We hired a personal tour guide who showed us around the museum.  We were primarily interested in the history and culture of the First Nation people.  Our guide has worked at the museum for 18 years and really explained everything in great detail.

It was getting time to leave the museum as we had to catch the final hoho bus at 4:15.  We left the museum at 4:00 just in time to see the last bus drive off – I ran after it yelling and whistling to stop but away it went.  I called the tour office and told them the last bus left early and we were stranded.  They put me on hold for 2 minutes and then said they would send an empty double decker bus to pick us up – 15 minutes later it arrived.

Tomorrow we will return to Ottawa for a tour of the Parliament buildings first thing in the morning as that is when we are most likely to get an English speaking guide and then in the afternoon an amphibious tour of the Ottawa River – really like a Duck Tour.  We will also visit the Museum of Nature.  PRC