Sunday 9/28 – Monday 9/29/2008
Ottawa
We pulled into Ottawa late afternoon on Sunday and had time to take a quick walk around our neighborhood before dark. This is our first visit to Ottawa and we had done a little research into the basics of the city. It is, of course, the capital of Canada and boasts about 800,000 people, or about 1 person for every million dollars in the banking rescue plan. It was selected by the Queen of England as the capital because she was fed up with the bickering between Montreal and Toronto. It was a logging and trapping center at the time and was strategically located on the border between Ontario and Quebec and a good distance away from the pesky Americans.
Because there was no real basic industry at the time of it’s founding, the city of Ottawa was built around the emerging government and now the economy of the city is fully reliant on the business of politics. The Canadian military felt that there could be some strategic and commercial benefit to have a waterway connecting the Great Lakes to the Ottawa River and constructed the Rideau Canal which bisects the city. It is primarily a recreational amenity now with canoeing, bicycle and walking paths, and serves as the world’s largest skating rink in the winter.
Our hotel, the Novotel, was a couple blocks from the canal and near the By-Ward Market which is a dozen square blocks of shops, restaurants and outdoor market stalls. Everything was still rolling pretty well as we made our way around and we were able to book a reservation for dinner and pick up some fresh berries for breakfast in the room. There was a reasonable mix of young and old shoppers strolling around with a good dose of your urban “individualists.”
Our dinner was at Luxe Bistro which came highly recommended. John had the shrimp and scallops with terrific fresh veggies and Mary had a beet soaked salmon on a mashed potato-leek mixture. We found a bottle of Barossa Valley Shiraz and all was well. A very odd season debut of Desperate Housewives put us to sleep early.
Our principle plan for Monday was a tour of the Parliament. We got there for a guided tour at about 10:30 and took a quick trip up to the Peace Tower before our guide was ready. The most recent Government has been disbanded and the Prime Minister has called for new elections which will take place in two weeks. In the meantime all of the members are out campaigning so nothing is going on here. The good news was that allowed us access to all of the corners of the joint and we were able to spend some time in both houses.
The Government consists of a lower house made up of representatives elected at a rate of about one per hundred thousand of population. The Lower House is usually where the ministers and ruling party introduce legislation and influence policy. The Senate, or upper house, consists of about 105 members who are appointed for life (or age 75) by the representative of the Queen at the recommendation of the Prime Minister. They were formerly the monied class (like the English House of Lords) but now are appointed allegedly to represent minority issues. These positions often go to former ministers and other political types who have earned favor with whoever is in power at the time. Apparently there are always bills presented to revise or eliminate the Senate but nothing ever gets through. What a surprise.
We grabbed lunch at an English Pub on the canal (John the Guinness Stew and Mary the French Onion soup) followed by a walk along the canal. We seem to be between ice skating and canoeing at this time of year so not much going on.
We made an about face and strolled down Sussex past the U.S. Embassy and the Canadian Center of the Arts and Notre Dame Cathedral. The Cathedral was not overly impressive from the outside but very ornate inside and worth the visit. We walked back and made a shop-by-shop inspection of all of the streets of By-Ward Market. There were sausage shops, cheese shops, little cafes, kitchen shops and every type of point and eat food imaginable. We booked a dinner reservation for tonight and hustled back to our hotel for a little nap.
We decided on Italian at the almost redundant Vittoria Trattoria. We shared a great salad of sliced beets topped with honey mustard and goat cheese on Arugula. John had a penne pasta with chicken, mushrooms and greens and Mary had a salmon pasta with a lemoncello cream sauce. We also found one of our favorite Chiantis to wash it all down.
The stupid White Sox whipped the more stupid Tigers tonight and now the very tired Twinkies have to win one more game. We have no money left after the market meltdown today but we can still worry for the Twins.
Ottawa
We pulled into Ottawa late afternoon on Sunday and had time to take a quick walk around our neighborhood before dark. This is our first visit to Ottawa and we had done a little research into the basics of the city. It is, of course, the capital of Canada and boasts about 800,000 people, or about 1 person for every million dollars in the banking rescue plan. It was selected by the Queen of England as the capital because she was fed up with the bickering between Montreal and Toronto. It was a logging and trapping center at the time and was strategically located on the border between Ontario and Quebec and a good distance away from the pesky Americans.
Because there was no real basic industry at the time of it’s founding, the city of Ottawa was built around the emerging government and now the economy of the city is fully reliant on the business of politics. The Canadian military felt that there could be some strategic and commercial benefit to have a waterway connecting the Great Lakes to the Ottawa River and constructed the Rideau Canal which bisects the city. It is primarily a recreational amenity now with canoeing, bicycle and walking paths, and serves as the world’s largest skating rink in the winter.
Our hotel, the Novotel, was a couple blocks from the canal and near the By-Ward Market which is a dozen square blocks of shops, restaurants and outdoor market stalls. Everything was still rolling pretty well as we made our way around and we were able to book a reservation for dinner and pick up some fresh berries for breakfast in the room. There was a reasonable mix of young and old shoppers strolling around with a good dose of your urban “individualists.”
Our dinner was at Luxe Bistro which came highly recommended. John had the shrimp and scallops with terrific fresh veggies and Mary had a beet soaked salmon on a mashed potato-leek mixture. We found a bottle of Barossa Valley Shiraz and all was well. A very odd season debut of Desperate Housewives put us to sleep early.
Our principle plan for Monday was a tour of the Parliament. We got there for a guided tour at about 10:30 and took a quick trip up to the Peace Tower before our guide was ready. The most recent Government has been disbanded and the Prime Minister has called for new elections which will take place in two weeks. In the meantime all of the members are out campaigning so nothing is going on here. The good news was that allowed us access to all of the corners of the joint and we were able to spend some time in both houses.
The Government consists of a lower house made up of representatives elected at a rate of about one per hundred thousand of population. The Lower House is usually where the ministers and ruling party introduce legislation and influence policy. The Senate, or upper house, consists of about 105 members who are appointed for life (or age 75) by the representative of the Queen at the recommendation of the Prime Minister. They were formerly the monied class (like the English House of Lords) but now are appointed allegedly to represent minority issues. These positions often go to former ministers and other political types who have earned favor with whoever is in power at the time. Apparently there are always bills presented to revise or eliminate the Senate but nothing ever gets through. What a surprise.
We grabbed lunch at an English Pub on the canal (John the Guinness Stew and Mary the French Onion soup) followed by a walk along the canal. We seem to be between ice skating and canoeing at this time of year so not much going on.
We made an about face and strolled down Sussex past the U.S. Embassy and the Canadian Center of the Arts and Notre Dame Cathedral. The Cathedral was not overly impressive from the outside but very ornate inside and worth the visit. We walked back and made a shop-by-shop inspection of all of the streets of By-Ward Market. There were sausage shops, cheese shops, little cafes, kitchen shops and every type of point and eat food imaginable. We booked a dinner reservation for tonight and hustled back to our hotel for a little nap.
We decided on Italian at the almost redundant Vittoria Trattoria. We shared a great salad of sliced beets topped with honey mustard and goat cheese on Arugula. John had a penne pasta with chicken, mushrooms and greens and Mary had a salmon pasta with a lemoncello cream sauce. We also found one of our favorite Chiantis to wash it all down.
The stupid White Sox whipped the more stupid Tigers tonight and now the very tired Twinkies have to win one more game. We have no money left after the market meltdown today but we can still worry for the Twins.
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