Ottawa!

What a spectacular place to be! We are docked right downtown Ottawa, with the Parliament buildings shown below as a backdrop when we look out the back of the boat.

In 1841, Lower Canada - now Quebec, joined with Upper Canada - now Ontario, to form the Province of Canada. It’s seat of government moved from town to town for many years. In 1857, Queen Victoria chose the rough and tumble lumber town of Ottawa for the Capitol over other more established cities. Ottawa was a political compromise. It sat on the border of Quebec & Ontario, and lay a more secure distance from the American boarder.

The original Parliament buildings were built between 1859 & 1866. Their wood structures were destroyed by fire in 1916.

The new buildings, built with limestone, were completed in 1922, and still stand today.

The main building has what is referred to as the Peace Tower at the entrance. It was built in 1927 to commemorate the 118,000 war deaths from Canada. 

We toured the main Parliament, and were able to go to the top of the Peace Tower.

There is a crypt, and a book with all the names of Canada's war dead. A page is turned in the book daily, so that all names are displayed each year.

The construction of these buildings is absolutely spectacular! I was told by our guide that all the limestone was mined in Manitoba, underwater! Each hand carved detail is a symbolic reference to somewhere in Canada.

The Senate chamber is decorated in red to signify where their Head of State meets Parliament.

The House of Commons chamber is decorated in green in the tradition of the British House of Commons.

Separating the Commons from the Senate are the Confederation Hall and the Hall of Honor.

At the end of the Hall of Honor is the round Library of Parliament. 

The library has a massive domed ceiling, and three levels of hand carved wooden bookcases. 

I had noticed that the walkway floors for access to the book cases were glass. This lets the natural light from the large windows above flow down over the book shelves. 

On Tuesday morning, we walked over to watch the Changing of the Guard.
We also took a bus tour of the city, and saw some of both the new and old.

This Basilica is known for its hand painted interior. The ceiling has 12,000 stars painted in gold!

We also toured the Mint, where all of Canada's money was made. There is now a new mint in Winnipeg that makes the money, but this mint stays busy making collector and investment coins. It also mints money for many other countries. They would not allow any photos inside, so all we got was Pat with the Royal Canadian Mounted Patrols mascot, and the two of us trying to break the chain holding a gold ingot!

This coming Monday is Canada Day, their equivalent of our 4th of July. We have seen many crews working to ready the City. There will be a Jazz festival, fireworks over Parliament Hill, and many other activities. As we now have a ring side seat, we considered staying. However, we feel we can not spend that much time here, so we will leave tomorrow (Wed.), and continue down the Rideau Canal.

See you all next time!

Captn Ken