FRIDAY, 11 MAY 2012

A CHANGE IN PLANS

The plan for today was to drive to Montreal. Last night we told our friends we were going to go to Montreal and Quebec City before heading back to the states they told us Quebec is much nicer with more to do than Montreal. Hmmm. About an hour outside of Montreal Jim happened to see a sign for the Rideau Canal, a World Heritage site. The canal "...connects the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on the Ottawa River to the city of Kingston, Ontario on Lake Ontario. The canal was opened in 1832 as a precaution in case of war with the United States and is still in use today, with most of its original structures intact." Linda took the road north and we headed for the little town Merrickville where there is a set of locks. 

After Jim got done taking pictures we had lunch at a little bistro with a feisty owner who told us we really needed to see Ottawa, more than we needed to see Montreal. That's two locals telling us Montreal isn't that great to visit. Besides, Ottawa was in the middle of its tulip festival and is the capital of the entire country of Canada. Once we were done with lunch we stopped at a little shop that made specialty mustards then headed for Ottawa. 
The lady at the restaurant told us we needed to see the Parliament building, the locks at the beginning of the canal, and Dow's Park for tulips. We arrived in the late afternoon and the sun was perfect for Jim.

 

The library section located at the back of the Parliament building.

 The views from atop the hill were beautiful.

The first lock of the Rideau Canal is located just past the Parliament building.  

There is a parkway that follows the entire canal for 300 Km from Ottawa to Kingston. We walked along it around the river for about a mile before we returned to the hotel. It was a beautiful walk on a beautiful evening.

We asked the hotel clerk for a recommendation for a good Italian restaurant for dinner. She suggested the Pub Italia (we should have known better from the name!). It was near Dow's Park so we went there first and looked at the tulips. Pub Italia is a very popular place, but it has to be for the booze and atmosphere because the food was atrocious! It was so bad Jim didn't even finish his. 

This painted tulip was in the hotel lobby. There were many of them located throughout the city, each painted differently (it reminded us of the elephants we saw in London two

years ago. 

It was a great day!