|
|
|
|
| Home - Destinations - Special Interest - Search - Editor Bios - Favorites - Kudos - Travel Shop - Feedback - Advertise |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Capital Celebrations“Canada’s Capital is 150 and the Rideau Canal is 175”By Jamie Ross
The drone of the bagpipes echos off the neo-Gothic stone buildings which sit high on a bluff above the Ottawa River. Their distinctive green-copper-clad roofs shine in the morning sunshine. It is a splendid setting for a very regal ritual, and enforces the opinion that Ottawa is unquestionably one of the world's prettiest capitals. It's well endowed with pretty parklands, waterways, and well-preserved historic buildings. If that is not reason enough to visit, this year Ottawa is celebrating its 150th anniversary as Canada’s Capital, and also its distinction as the northern terminus of the Rideau Canal, the oldest continually operating canal in North America.
Summer or winter, the Rideau is the life-blood of the Capital. Parks and trails line its banks for biking, walking, or running. When winter hits, 7.8 kilometres of the waterway are transformed into the longest ice rink in the world. With ice the farthest thing from my mind on this warm afternoon, I hop a tour boat from Paul’s Boat Lines, a specially built craft that can navigate under the low canal bridges, for a 1 ½ hour tour from the Fairmont Chateau Laurier to Dows Lake and back. It is a relaxing float down the picturesque canal, taking in the beauty and history. Shaded with century old trees, the waterway runs like a spine through the heart of the city.
Colonel John By, the mastermind behind the Rideau, decide to build locks and canals and flood the rivers and valleys between them. The enormity of the project in the middle of the Canadian wilderness was unprecedented. The canal was never really used for military purposes. Instead, it quickly evolved into a commercial shipping artery between Ottawa and Lake Ontario. The paddle wheelers are long gone today, and the canal has been re-incarnated once again as a beautiful and interesting recreational boating channel, great for a sunny afternoon cruise. The Byway Museum flanks the first eight locks on the Rideau. Built in 1827 as the canal commissariat, the museum now tells the story of the 100's of workers who died during construction after contracting malaria. A guide decked out in the splendid uniform of a Royal Engineer sapper of the time, tours me around the upper locks. Parks Canada manages the Rideau Canal as one of Canada’s National Historic Sites.
Minutes from the historic market is the stunning National Gallery, which houses the world's most extensive collection of Canadian art. The gallery’s award-winning architecture, featuring the luminous Great Hall, spacious galleries, and interior gardens and courtyards, is in itself worth the visit. Outside in the plaza, I come face to face with one of the gallery’s latest acquisitions, an iconic landmark, and my greatest fear - Louise Bourgeois’ Maman, a mammoth 9.25 metre bronze spider, complete with 26 marble eggs. The Canadian Museum of Civilization is Canada’s largest museum, offering over a thousand years of history. It houses the world’s largest indoor collection of totem poles and the magnificent First Peoples Hall, as well as an IMAX Theatre, Canadian Children’s Museum and Canadian Postal Museum. My favourite is still the Canadian War Museum, now housed in a new bunker-like building just west of downtown, it is a proud memorial to Canada’s military history, from the earliest days of New France, through the two world wars, to current operations. I never seem to have enough time to take in the well presented exhibits, and the large artifacts such as tanks and airplanes. Not having enough time seems to be a common theme when enjoying Canada’s Capital. Where not long ago the city was thought to be about as exciting as a parliamentary debate, now it is vibrant and beautiful, and worthy of capital celebrations. If you Go ... Overlooking downtown, Parliament Hill,
and the Byward Market, the Westin Hotel is connected by indoor walkways to the
Rideau Centre shopping complex. Capital Cuisine ... Metropolitain Brasserie - Modelled on
the grand Parisian brasseries of the 1920's, the Metropolitain is one of
Ottawa’s swankiest new restaurants, at 700 Sussex Drive in the Byway Market. Stella Osteria - I enjoyed watching
people from the restaurant patio as they wander through the Byway Market. I
also enjoyed Stella’s own wheat beer and a Tuscan salad for lunch. Information ...
www.ottawatourism.ca Photography by Jamie Ross |
|
|
|
|
|
Join us on Facebook Copyright 1995-2010 TravelLady Magazine |
On a beautiful morning in Ottawa, I
stake out my spot on the spacious green grounds that sweep down from the
Parliament buildings south to Wellington Street. Crowds are gathering for a
daily morning ritual, the colour, pomp and very English pageantry of the
Changing of the Guard ceremony. In a tradition that dates back to the 19th
century, more than 100 scarlet-coated soldiers wearing traditional tall black
bearskin hats are put through precision marching drills.
The Rideau canal is the reason that
Ottawa exists. The canal works brought workers and settlers into the area in the
late 1830's, and the canal commerce kept them there. Slicing through Eastern
Ontario, connecting the gloriously tiered locks that rise from the Ottawa River
and the canals of the capital with Old Fort Henry in Kingston, the 202 kilometre
Rideau Canal is celebrating it’s 175th birthday. Not only a birthday, but also
celebrating its designation this summer as Canada’s 14th UNESCO World Heritage
Site.
Scenic as it may be, it was not the
beauty of the waterway that first attracted UNESCO, but the genius of it. All
the Rideau’s locks, 45 of them on the full route, were built by hand 175 years
ago, a near unimaginable feat at the time, and they work just as they did back
then. After the War of 1812, the British feared American attack on Upper
Canada’s main supply route, the St. Lawrence Seaway. The way around it was a
detour through what is now Ottawa.
Nearby, the colourful Byward Market is
one of the oldest and largest farmer’s markets in Canada, for browsers, diners,
and night owls. The eclectic neighbourhood is Ottawa’s entertainment district,
with great restaurants clubs, bistros, coffee shops, boutiques and food
retailers, showcasing French Canadian architecture, and hundreds of farm-produce
stalls amid exquisitely restored heritage buildings.