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| Ottawa Vacations and Luxury Travel Packages |
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 Ottawa, Canada, Ottawa hotels, Inns, and romantic resorts, Ottawa tours
Most of Ottawa's main sights are conveniently located around what has come to be known as the Mile of History, which basically runs along Wellington Street and Sussex Drive and forms the oldest part of the city. The number of museums here is quite astonishing. The oldest house of Ottawa, the Old Commissariat, stands near the Rideau Canal Locks. Accordingly it displays exhibits relating to the "birth" of Ottawa. Nearby is one of the world's most unusual youth hostels, Nicholas Goal, which indeed served as a prison from 1862 to 1972. This stern limestone building can be toured on Tuesdays, and of course, if residing there, you will sleep in a cell.
Colonel By used to live on Major's Hill Park on the other side of the Canal. Where his house once stood is a statue of the Colonel. An old cannon from the Crimean War also found a resting place here, but it's not so peaceful, as the Ottawans fire it daily at noon and l oam on Sundays and holidays. If you head toward the river through the park, you will come to Nepean Point, which offers a fine view across the river. Champlain is here in effigy, holding his famous astrolabe, a precursor of the sextant, which he lost in the area.
Before running the mile along Sussex, however, take note of the Byward Market which is down York Street in the Lower Town. From a basic farmer's market back in 1840 this on-going event has spawned a wide variety of shops and stalls selling everything from scents to fuel, maple syrup to lettuce. Galleries, cafes, discos have also congregated here to partake in the fun. It's truly a place for day and night.
Back to Sussex Drive: The Canadian Ski Museum at number 457 reveals the past and present of one of Canada's great outdoor activities. Nearby on the corner of St. Patrick street is a superb collection of cartoons, some dating as far back as the 18th century. The neighboring church is the Roman Catholic Basilica of Notre Dame, which was built in the mid-19th century, and displays typically neo-Gothic features. The most interesting aspect of the interior is the large statuary around the main altar.
The National Gallery of Canada at 380 Sussex is one of the more interesting modern buildings in Ottawa, a tent-like structure built mostly of glass. Its main thrust is Canadian art, but one also finds American, Asian and European works on display. The reconstructed Rideau Convent Chapel, with its unique (for North America) fan-vaulted ceiling, constitutes one of the most important examples of religious art in the country.
Nepean Point, mentioned above, is accessible behind the Gallery, which also has three restaurants where one can take a break before going on to the next set of museums. These include the self-explanatory Canadian War Museum (330 Sussex Dr.), which coverss Canada's participation in World Wars One and Two, and the Royal Canadian Mint (320 Sussex Dr.), which still strikes special coins, medals, tokens and the like.
1 Sussex Drive was built by a Scottish stonemason named Thomas McKay in 1836. A humble beginning, perhaps, but the house became the residence of the Governor General of Canada, the direct representative of the King or Queen of England. The house stands in the midst of a beautiful park with well-tended paths. The hourly changing of the guards in summer is one of the spectacles not to be missed.
At the northern and eastern edges of the city are two more museums with considerable technical charm: the National Aviation Museum, presenting the history of Canada's air adventures, and the National Museum of Science and Technology, with a well-appointed Observatory.
Alexandra Bridge, behind the Gallery, leads across the river to Hull, where the first stop is the Canadian Museum of Civilization on Laurier Street. This expansive modern complex has enough exhibits to keep one occupied for several hours. The museum's pride exhibits are the six Indian long houses with totem poles that were transplanted from the northwestern coast, and the giant reconstructions of scenes from Canada's history. There is also a cinema which uses Imax and Omnimax technology for some impressively vivid projections. And the Children's Museum provides hands-on activities that certainly make the discovery of Canadian and foreign cultures a great deal more enjoyable.
Most Hull sights are near the river. You can stroll southwards on Laurier Street and drop in to the modern Maison du Citoyen, Hull's city hall, where there is a small exhibition of Canadian art. Further the old Sender de Portage steers a course along the river. This old trail was used by Canadian Indians for millenia and later by Europeans. If you go far enough you will come to Chaudiere Falls, which still bears many traces from the old logging days. The Mill, a restaurant nowaydays, once served as a saw and grist mill.
Laurier Street northward takes you through Jacques Cartier Park, a pleasant place to stroll about or have a picnic. The bicycle path that skirts the river leads ultimately to Leamy Lake Ecological Park, which offers further recreational activities including windsurfing. SaintFran~ois-de-Sales Church near the Gatineau Exhibition Center is a pretty Neo-Gothic building.
The MacDonald-Cartier Bridge connects Jacques Cartier Park with the riverside greenery of Ottawa. Green Island, which stands where Rideau River pours into the Ottawa, is a pleasant patch of nature. Rideau Falls on the northern bank is a double cataract that was once the hub of an industrial area, of which nothing at all is left. Ottawa's City Hall is on the island, a somewhat unimaginative modern building dating to the 1950s.
Among the more far-flung attractions of Ottawa is Dows Lake, another recreational area on an artificial lake formed from the Rideau Canal. A little to the west, in the city itself, is the remarkable Experimental Farm, a 1200-acre (485 ha) site, featuring everything from domestic animals to an arboretum and a tropical greenhouse. It is also an ideal place for a wagon ride, and those interested in the development of farming can also drop into the Agricultural Museum. A similar site is even further out in the Greenbelt area (off Rte. 417). The Log Farm is a traditional 19th-century Canadian homestead, and the interpreters who mill about are dressed appropriately to give the right atmosphere.
FESTIVALS
There are festivals throughout the year but no single Ottawa celebration is more eagerly awaited or more beautiful than the Canadian Tulip Festival in May when the city is set ablaze with more than 200 varieties of tulips. Ottawa in fact has the largest collection of tulips in North America. Each year, the royal family of the Netherlands adds new varieties to this already growd collection. This Dutch connection dates from World War Two, when Queen Juliana fled the Nazi occupation of her country and accepted Ottawa's hospitality. The first Dutch tulips were given to the city to celebrate the birth of her daughter, Princess Margriet, at Ottawa Civic Hospital in 1943. To ensure the princess was born a citizen of The Netherlands, the Canadian government proclaimed the Queen's hospital room to be part of Holland. The festival itself is set high on a bluff above the confluence of the Ottawa, Gatineau and Rideau Rivers with the Gatineau Hills as the northern backdrop. The Festival opens on a page out of the Olympics, with a colorful field of runners competing in the National Capital Marathon. It continues with nightly open-air concerts and performances at Major's Hill Park. The Rideau Canal Flotilla attracts fleets of creative boaters from Ontario, Quebec and the United States, who deck out their craft and sail their fantasies down the canal past picnicking spectators. At Dows Lake in the center of the city there are wet and wild motorized bathtub races, skillful and daring water ski shows, antique car parades, concerts, classical and modern dancers, hot air balloon rides and historical displays. Just steps from Parliament Hill the Outdoor Craft market displays of work by some of the finest local craftspeople and artists.
Of course, Ottawa citizens hold a winter celebration - to break up the long winter season and to enjoy a good party. It is the 10-day Winterlude, held every February. It demonstrates that cold is no detriment to fun and merriment. It includes a parade, ice sculptures, sleigh rides and harness racing on.
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