Blogs from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, North America - page 3

I woke early, after a surprisingly comfortable night in my top bunk, it was sunny so I got up to make an early start. I had a sausage and egg wrap and a very un-nice cup of tea in a cafe, before strolling around the main park in Ottawa (that is very small to me, no bigger than Phear Park), however it overlooks the river and a canal so it's in a very beautiful location. I had booked a 2hr walking tour, and was told to be at the Terry Fox satue at 10am, I was there early (horror of horrors) ?, So I started reading the plaque next to the statue, oh my god it was so moving I started to cry. He was a man born 2 years before me, an cross country athlete ... read more

Last day in South Africa. We have pretty much the whole day free, as our plane departs in the evening. The prospect of nothing on the itinerary for the day is liberating. For the first time in over two weeks, we are able to simply relax and enjoy the beautiful weather and surroundings. Oh, and repack everything, because our suitcases are in total disarray. We have breakfast included but not lunch or supper, so we strategically wait until 10:30 so we can get well stocked for the homeward journey. It is a simple but nice spread, basically American-style. We stroll the grounds of the Seasons resort, getting the lay of the place. There are a number of couples with young families staying here. The resort has lots of options for kids, including a couple of water ... read more

Monday, October 17th, 2016 Day 3: Ottawa and Gatineau: Raking in mint and history! This morning, Renata and I woke up early to make are way for our morning tour of the Royal Canadian Mint. The Royal Canadian Mint produces Canada’s official and collector coins. On the tour we learned about how coins and the Vancouver 2010 Olympic medals were made. The wavy face of the Vancouver Olympic medals evoke the Vancouver-Whistler landscape. No two Olympic medals are the same. If you place all the same coloured medals together they will form two large master artworks; an orca whale for the (Olympics) and the raven for the (Paralympic). The Orca symbolizes powerful and knowing no boundaries while the Raven symbolizes creativity and agility. After the tour we got the chance to hold a golden nugget worth ... read more

Après 8 heures d'avion nous voilà, enfin arrivés à Montréal (sous la pluie...) ! Nous retrouvons Méderick qui nous héberge dans son superbe appartement dans le quartier du Mont Royal à Montréal, une bonne nuit de sommeil avant de repartir sur Ottawa. Après un copieux déjeuner, Médérick nous fait découvrir les lieux principaux de la ville. Nous aurons ainsi quelques repères pour notre prochaine escale à Montréal, qui sera plus longue à la fin du mois. Dans l'après-midi, nous prenons le bus direction Ottawa ! (environ 2h00 de trajet). Larry nous accueille avec beaucoup de générosité et gentillesse pendant le week-end de l'Action de Grâce. On a alors l'occasion de découvrir le Parc de la Gatineau avec quelques stations de ski, beaucoup de lacs encerclés d'érables de forêt dense. Les couleurs sont éclatantes, on se croirait ... read more

Ottawa 14 to 16 August 2016 Arriving in Ottawa, I had booked an AirBNB apartment, the address of which we had no trouble finding. We found the apartment open and after a look around we found it very unsatisfactory, particularly from a cleanliness perspective. I contacted the owner through email who told us we were a day too early!!! He was right. While we were there, the rightful 2 couples who had booked it, arrived. We vacated it after booking into the Hotel Indigo in central Ottawa. I told the owner we would not be coming back to his unsatisfactory apartment and would complain to AirBNB – which I have. Hotel Indigo was very central and a lovely place to stay. For the next day and a half we explored this beautiful city. Ottawa is the ... read more