Ottawa is a large
city that is the national capital of Canada. It was founded in1826 as Bytown and incorporated in 1855 as
Ottawa. The name Ottawa is derived
from the Algonquin word adawe meaning “to trade”. It
was initially an Irish and French Christian settlement. It is the fourth largest city in Canada
with a population of almost 900,000 residents. The Convention Center is an
unusual looking building very near the canal.
There are tons of
people walking, jogging, bicycling and skateboarding on the sidewalks close to
the boat by the canal. You can be
assured I will be walking.
We walked to the
ByWard Market after we tied up. It
is the oldest open-air farmer’s market in North America. There was a ton of fruit, vegetables
and flowers but everything seemed to be priced the same. There was no competitive pricing that I
could see.
We got up this
morning and walked to witness (I like the way they used this word in one of the
brochures.) the changing of the guard at 10:00 a.m. with about a thousand other
people. Do you see a face on the side of this building we saw on the way?
The Ceremonial Guard performs the ceremony on the lawns of
Parliament Hill during the summer months.
Every guardsman, musician and member
of the support staff is a trained soldier of the Canadian Forces on regular or
reserve service. Here they come.
The Scottish
pipers, Color Guard and old guard paraded in first from the drill hall.
Then the Drum Major led in the large
band followed by the new guard.
There is one sergeant-major for each group with some gold trim on his uniform.
I think the extremely tall guy in the very tall bearskin hat with the white feather and a lot of gold trim was the Company Commander. He marched around swinging his arms constantly between inspecting each soldier’s uniform and then each rifle. I’m not sure I’d want to look down the barrel of each rifle like he did.
Every part of the traditional ceremony was
executed with military precision. The soldiers wore full dress uniforms of
scarlet tunics and bearskins (hats).
The standard bearskin is about 18 inches tall and weighs 1.5
pounds. It is really made from a
bearskin hence the name. The event lasted about 45 minutes and everyone exited
the way they came in with the old guard bringing up the rear this time. Thankfully it wasn’t extremely hot that
day.
On the way back to
the boat, we walked down Confederation Boulevard. There were hundreds of banners. Some represented events in Canadian history, national
anniversaries or important occasions.
Some were floral banners that pay tribute to Canada’s provinces and
territories. Each flower is
indigenous to the province or territory it represents.
We passed The
Valiants Memorial of statues and busts that pays tribute to the men and women
of Canada who have served in time of war.
We also passed the
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. It is a memorial erected to honor Canadians who
died serving their country.
Remember the towers that we saw over the bridges yesterday. We found out that they belong to a 100-year-old, limestone hotel called the Falmont Chateau Laurier Hotel with original Tiffany stained glass windows and hand-molded plaster decorations. The 429 room turreted hotel cost $2 million to build in 1912. Then each guest room was priced at $2.00 per night. This hotel that is right by the Ottawa locks was built to compliment the adjacent Parliament buildings.
I went back to the
boat and Gary took off on one of his walks that was too long for me. He took pictures of the back of the
Centre Block of the Parliament Building,
the American Embassy,
and the National
Gallery of Canada with the 1999 statue of Maman in front of it. Maman is a 30-foot tall bronze sculpture of a spider. This 33 foot wide mother has a sac
containing 26 marble eggs.
Here is a picture of TRAVELLER from the other side of the canal and two more by the wall taken from the nearby bridge.
There is a light show
tonight at 10:00 p.m. Hopefully we
can stay awake that long.
Don't ask me why some of the print is blue and some is black. I'm just glad to get it done.
Don't ask me why some of the print is blue and some is black. I'm just glad to get it done.
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