ON TO OTTAWA

 Hello everyone, Just a quick couple of lines before I begin my main entry.  I took this photo of Roman yesterday.  Hasn`t he got chubby?  I went with Kerry to the baby clinic today and he now weighs 10lbs 7ozs, not bad eh?!

As for the mouse, Jim has put a humane trap behind our washing machine, hopefully this will do the trick as we really don`t want to hurt it, but it really cannot share house space with us!  Now back to Canada.........

Our train to Ottawa

OTTAWA  Tuesday 16th August

This morning we took our leave of Toronto and were taken by coach to Union station where we caught the train bound for Ottawa.  We were in the first-class carriage where we were wined and dined in suitable fashion for top paying passengers!  It was so nice to travel in luxury like that and as we got out of the city and into the country we started to see what Canada really looked like.  The surrounding countryside was so picturesque my neck started to ache where I was turning it to look out of the window!  This journey is where we first became aquainted with some of the other tour travellers.  We sat opposite a couple called Lynn and Pete and we started chatting.  We ended up sharing a meal here and there with them on the tour,  we got on well and enjoyed a good laugh together.

We reached Ottawa at about 2.30pm and our coach, driven for the duration of the holiday by John, a friendly Canadian, arrived just after us and took us to our hotel for the night.  When we were settled into our room we went out to explore, and we were in for a treat too, the parliament buildings were just around the corner so we made our way there.

Parliament from across the Ottawa River.

The Houses of Parliament are accessible to the public and are set in beautiful surroundings.  It was a very hot day so we walked around the outside of the buildings and down to the Ottawa River.  I would apologise for the overuse of the word `beautiful` but I an`t think of any other word that would describe it all so well!

I was very impressed that tourists are allowed to get so close to the seat of power in Canada, of course it would be unthinkable in England, but then again I don`t think I`d particularly enjoy getting so close to our own parliament buildings, which are not, by any stretch of the imagination, beautiful!

In the evening we went out for a meal with Lynn and Pete at an Italian restaurant while we were there street entertainers performed for us.

Our restaurant is in the left-hand corner. The whole area is known as The Market.

We stayed on in The Market just to have a nose around and while we were there we saw a few horses and carriages and we decided to go for a city tour by night.  The weather was still very warm and it seemed like fun so we jumped in.  Our guide was a cheery French-Canadian called Alain and just for the record his horse was called Dan! 

The four of us sightseeing by carriage.

Our tour by night took in many of the sights we were going to see in the morning on our city tour.  But seeing it all by night was amazing and was certainly great fun.  Alain spoke very quickly and we had to keep asking him to slow down, but he was very patient and tried really hard for the four of us who spoke nly a few words of French between us.  We went past the Embassies that are in Ottawa, all forty odd of them, the biggest being the US Embassy that is designed in the shape of a battleship.  We couldn`t get any photos of it though as it was so big and our camera isn`t very good at night.  In thegrounds of the Embassy there is a statue, Alain told us it is made out of girders from the World Trade Centre, and that every US Embassy in the world has one.  I`m not to sure of the truth in this but it does seem very feasible to me, do any of my American friends know the answer to this?

After our tour around the city Alain took us back to the parliament buildings where there was a light show about to start.  He drove the horse and carriage right up the pavement and took the photo of the four of us.  He actually stopped the traffgic to take it and we were sure he was going to get run over.  Just after he took it Dan decided that he would take us for walk without our driver until Alain shouted at him to stop.

Parliament with the light show.

The show lasted an hour and I wish you all could have seen it.  Jim took a video of it but this was the best photo I could get.  The show celebrated the history of Canada starting with First Nation People ( Indians) right through to the present time and at the end many famous Canadians had their names emblazoned on the parliament building.  When the show ended we went for a drink before going back to the hotel and a good nights sleep.  In the morning we were on the move again, a city tour and then on to Sainte Adele in the afternoon.  So it was bags outside the door for 8am and on the coach for 9am.....here we go again, round 3!

To be continued.