Ottawa

I have just returned from a road trip which started in Ottawa, Canada taking me over the border to New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont before returning to Ottawa via Montreal. I was travelling with my Canadian friend M, who did all the driving. I was responsible for navigating but did get help from Brenda, the sat nav.

Ottawa, previously known as Bytown was made the capital of Canada by Queen Victoria in 1857. The inhabitants renamed it Ottawa after the river of the same name which runs through the city. Three buildings make up Parliament Hill. This one is the Houses of Parliament and the library.

On either side of the Houses of Parliament are the buildings which house the offices.

In front of the buildings is the Centennial flame, a fountain with a natural gas flame burning at its centre. It was lit in 1967 to symbolise the first 100 years of Canadian Confederation and has the shields of all the provinces and territories with the date each joined Canada.

2017 marks the year that the British North America Act was passed by the British Parliament, paving the way for colonies of Canada, including Ontario and Quebec, to join Nova Scotia and New Brunswick  in creating a single  Dominion of Canada.

Walking round the back of the Houses of Parliament you get a closer look at the 16 side gothic library. Built in the 1860s it survived the 1916 fire which destroyed much of the Parliament building which was rebuilt in 1920.
                       

From behind Parliament you get some wonderful views of the river and the rest of the City.


The Ottawa River marks the boundary between the provinces of Ontario and Quebéc,  the French speaking and the English speaking provinces.

We walked into the town passed the Chateau Laurier, a hotel built between 1908 and 1912 and enlarged in the 1920s. It was the first in a chain of Chateau styled hotels built by the Grand Trunk Railway to encourage tourists to travel its routes.

A little glimpse at the glamour inside the lobby of the hotel.

Next stop  was the market for some lunch.

The place was awash with pumpkins.

A little shoe shopping perhaps. Not one pair had a price tag. In other words 'if you have to ask the price then you can't afford them!'

This high rise caught my eye as the lines are not perpendicular. Not sure that the photo captured it though.

The war memorial.

The old and the new.

Some of the older houses in Ottawa. Unfortunately many have been demolished to make way for modern high rise blocks.

Many of these old houses had balconies just above street level.You can imagine people sitting there in  bygone days.