Canada – Ottawa

Ottawa, Canada

See the Monster spider facing the Cathedral ready to attack like an alien invader! It’s a modern sculpture in the garden of the nearby Museum but what a fantastic outlook. Nip down to Bytown to pick up artisan food from the market, buy flowers and have a drink in an historical café. Then take a trip up the famous canal and view over all of Ottawa from the Parliament clock tower. Finish it all with a relaxing drink or meal at the fabulously iconic Fairmont Château Laurier Hotel, for a spot of luxury after a great day sight seeing !

This trip was part of a Canadian 5 city tour of Toronto, Niagara, Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec before I flew to a friend’s wedding in Chicago. Click on links for reviews on these locations.

My trip to Ottawa was going to one of the highlights of my 2 week Canadian tour. I had always wanted to visit this capital city, as I had seen so many pictures of its lovely setting and amazing historical buildings …….and the fact that you can go inside the picturesque Parliament building, (you can’t do that in many countries), was going to delight me. Sad I know, but there you are !

How to travel from Toronto to Ottawa

I had previously explored Toronto and Niagara and now it was time to move on to Otaawa as part of my Canada trip.

So, how to get there from Toronto, I hear you ask. Well, several options again as I looked them all up online. I had the advantage of being able to pre-book any of these and download tickets in advance from the UK several months ahead. Details may be different if you are doing this last minute though. I looked at bus, train and plane.

– Bus $43 for 5 – 8 hours depending on which scheduled bus (longest journey time of all three options), see the scenery en route, arrive in the city centre and in reasonable comfort.
– Train $40 for 4.5 hours journey, see scenery on the way, very comfortable seat and train, arrive in the city centre, cheapest but still not the quickest.
– Plane $152 for 1 hour journey (plus 3 hours for security and getting to/from airport), reasonable comfort, quickest, but most expensive.

So for the sake of an extra half hour journey (in comfort) but also the cheapest price I chose the train – VIA Rail Canada, (click here for info).

Train was fabulous, biggest seats I have ever seen on a train, big windows to see the passing countryside, wifi and at seat recharging, great refreshments trolley at reasonable prices that came by many times, not crowded and left/arrived on time …..I felt chuffed that my choice made months ago had turned into such a great journey experience.

Where I stayed in Ottawa.

I stayed at Alt Hotel in central Ottawa. I wanted to be near the main sites and they are all pretty much in the central area. So staying further out would be an inconvenience, especially as this time I would need to take a train, from the central station, rather than plane for my next leg of my trip.

This hotel was great. Check in was very fast and they also gave me a map and answered the many questions I had on getting around.

It felt very homely and I was loving the super modern stylish interior. There was a colourful, modern, Scandic/IKEA feel to the bar and restaurant area.  The room was high up, giving me views out over the city, unfortunately not towards the river, but it was pleasant anyhow. A funky lounge chair, cosy bed and a modern feel to the room meant I was set for a great stay.

By catching a early morning train from Toronto it meant I would have time on my arrival day to start exploring. So straight after check-in I went out into the city.

The first stop would be the place I had been longing to see for years. The pics I had seen of it gave the impression that it was a unique, historical building with its central tower, copper green roofs and chateau-esque style and I was dying to see it. It did not fail to impress and it looked taller than I imagined too.

Canadian Parliament, Ottawa

As I approached the lawns I wondered if you are allowed in as I am used to high security and grim looking guards stopping even pictures being taken but this was different. I saw two policemen nearby and decided to ask them, but as I approached them I got the surprise of hearing them speaking French to each other!

Then I realised Ottawa was in a much more bilingual Region of Canada and I had forgotten this in predominantly English speaking Toronto, (click here for Toronto review). They saw me and carried on speaking, so I thought it must be ok to go into the entrance. I realised many others were entering the front lawned area …… great to be able to simply walk up to the front of Parliament !

In front of the building is the Centennial flame. It is a round, low level design with shields of the provinces embedded around the inside.

It is a fountain – but has an amazing design whereby flames were also ignited and dancing in the water, so unique, I have never seen this arrangement before. It was placed here in 1967 to honour Canada’s 100th anniversary of confederation.

Looking at the Parliament buildings, built in 1866, you see a set of seperate buildings . The main building is ahead of you. In the central part of this building rises the tower now called the Peace Tower with its clock. Adjacent on each side of the tower are the actual Houses of Parliament – the Senate and Commons.

Seperately, to either side are the buildings housing the Politician’s offices and the impressive administration office of the Confederation Building.

Entrance inside, to see the Parliament House, is by guided tour only and you may have to wait for the next scheduled one. They can also be reserved for free online to avoid missing out on arrivai –  see info here These are really worth it as things are pointed out and explained that you may not see or be aware of otherwise, so I joined one.

Inside it feels very French chateau-ish but also strangely Victorian and I saw a lot of similarities in design to the Houses of Parliament in London, along with various portraits of Kings and Queens of England.

Peace Tower

You can go up the Clocktower (Peace Tower) for amazing views across the city from there and I indeed did. There is a lift to take you to the top of the Peace Tower and it is a must if you want to get spectacular views over the whole of Ottawa. You then get a perspective of the layout of Ottawa which is not huge but so historical

Behind Parliament is a wooded area with cycle and walkways with great views over the Ottawa River behind. There was a stairway down from the left side of the main building. If possible take it down and walk along the trail towards the metal framed Alexandra Bridge, with a view of the Atrium of the national Gallery of Canada ahead of you, and the Canadian Museum of History across the river.

Look back and you will get splendid views of the Library building and the back of Parliament. Joggers, cyclists and walkers abound here so it can be an invigorating walk !

Rideau Canal

The walkway brings you to the entrance of the famous Rideau Canal, completed in 1832, as it enters the river. This canal way is over 202 km long and connects Ottawa via other rivers to Lake Ontario. Originally built as a military route for supplies and communication, it is now used by pleasure craft.

The many locks near the river provide great backdrops to photos and there is a cute small museum on the quayside opposite. It flows next to the well known white stone and turreted Fairmont Château Laurier 5 star hotel…… guess where my next coffee stop was ?!

Ottawa’s Fairmont Château Laurier Hotel

Completed in 1912, this beautiful chateau designed hotel was built as one of many high class railroad hotels for travellers and today still keeps it old world charm. The lobby has comfy sofas with atmospheric lighting, many windows are Tiffany glass stained and the lift area is gloriously straight out of the period …. and it serves great coffee and cakes too ! Click here for info.

Across the road from the hotel is the National Arts Centre and the impressively large National War Memorial. This city is full of large national monuments which grace the city at every corner. I walked down the main shopping street of Rideau and glanced at the shops and big Mall there but my next stop was to be elsewhere. Turn left after Chateau Laurier down Sussex Drive and going down on your right will be the artisan old town area of Byward

Byward Market area

This area is full of restaurants, flower shops, bars, old residential blocks and craft shops and has a feel of a large town’s working/social centre, rather than part of a capital city.

Le Moulin de Provence (see here for info), was the cake shop to head for. It is an indoor café/takeaway that has been there for decades and sells such a huge range of cakes that I had to get a photo of the counters and its wares – it was busy too !

Just wander the many blocks here and pick any sight that attracts as there is so much to gander at here. I headed straight for the Byward Market itself. It’s been here since 1826 and is a big indoor market of shops, carftworks, food stalls and liitle artwork shops. Outside in the surrounding streets are market stalls with the most delightfully displayed fruit and veg, colourful and enticing.

Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica

A church was first built here in 1832 for the workers building the Rideau Canal and the town of Byward grew up around it.

Are wondering why there is a giant spider in one of the pics ?…… it is part of the external display of the National Gallery of Canada across the road ……but what a great shot, eh?

The congregation became so large that a bigger church was needed.  The church, after many building alterations, was finished in 1847 and consecrated as a cathedral. Twelve years later the two tin plated gothic spires were added, then 29 after this it was designated as a Basilica.

National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.

And here the spider is again in all its glory !

This glass and granite gallery was opened in 1988 and has a varied but massive collection of international art – paintings, drawings, sculpture and photographs. Its focus is on Canadian art, and in particular has a large section on native Inuit art and outdoor sculptures in the next door park. See here for gallery info.

A surprise for me ! …. I was admiring some English paintings by Stanley Spencer and read a little description on the wall. One of the paintings was of trees in the grounds of the Odney Club in Cookham in Berkshire, UK …. I worked at the time for the Company that owned this club and had visited it several times ….. coincidence or what !

It has an atrium more akin to the nave of a Cathedral. Massive, gloriously light filled, tall and such a surpise

My stay was very short and the next day was spent just wandering its streets and taking in the atmosphere.

It is clearly a very affluent city and it did leave me with a very positive impression of a small capital  with much history.

Next day, I was to travel onwards again, this time to Montreal. i had a bucket list of places, pe-planed, that I wanted to tick off there!

Sept 2016.