Ottawa: Bus & Boat Tour

Our Fulbright Orientation was in Ottawa, Canada's capital city, one of the most beautiful cities I've visited.

Jeff, Cameron and I went on a bus & boat tour of the city with the Lady Dive tour company.   Cameron was very eager to pick this tour company in particular since the bus turns into a boat to go on the Ottawa River.

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Here are some views of Ottawa.

Occasionally there are signs of American franchises.  Below is a photo of a Starbucks in Ottawa.

The Parliament Building (below)

 

The Bank of Canada (below).  The tour guide said this is where they set the interest rate for the country and Canada's gold bars are stored below the building.

 Here's a photo driving into Ottawa on the highway, coming from the Rail Road station.

I loved how there were interesting sculptures scattered throughout the city (see photo below).  It makes it an interesting city to walk around.   I had heard once when I was in Quebec City that part of the reason there is so much art there is because the Quebec government requires 1% of all space in new publicly funded buildings to be art.  

The Museum of Civilization (below) was a terrific place to visit for all ages.  

I'll be doing a blog entry on our museum visit there.  

Jacques Cartier Park was said to be the first Trading Post
between Champlain and the First Nations.

 The Parliament building from the water.

The Ottawa River has the Quebec province on one side and the Ontario province on the other.  Cameron and Jeff went exploring on Friday when I was in my Fulbright training, and Cameron later reported that they did something amazing:  They walked to Quebec (i.e.,  they went over the bridge, walking five miles roundtrip... a pretty long trek for an 8 year old!)

Below is a photo of the 'iceberg', an art installation at the National Gallery of Art.  The art work crackles and rumbles like real icebergs sometimes do.  Here's a link if you want to read more about the iceberg: http://www.gallery.ca/en/about/1454.php

 There's a great bike path that runs along the Ottawa River.

 The Rideau Canal, in the background, above, is a World Heritage Site.  (I'll do a blog entry on that soon.)

 Here we are on the bus.

                                     Here's our tour guide: 

Our Guide said the entire tour in English and French,
alternating which one he said first at each stop. 

There are more than 130 foreign embassies in Ottawa.  Above is the Saudi Embassy.

 The U.S. Embassy (below)

 The Embassy of Kuwait:

 Side view of the National Gallery:

 Views from Rockville Park:

Our guide said Winston Churchill used to have secret meetings
at this building during WWI.

All in all, we thought this was an educational and entertaining tour and a great way to get some highlights of the city in just an hour and a half, with wonderful views from the water.