Eastern Canada ( days 38-41) Toronto and Ottawa

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In the last few days we have traveled to Toronto and then to Ottawa, the capital of Canada. Toronto is the largest city in Canada located on Lake Ontario with a population of almost 3 million people - it is a very busy city with buildings of condominiums taking place all over the place- it has the vibrancy and buss of a large city as well as the signs of homelessness and street vandalism that are inevitable. Toronto provided a base for us to visit Niagara Falls- one of the 7 natural wonders of the world - it truly is. The other highlight was a visit to a shoe gallery in downtown Toronto- over 13,000 shoe displays, the history of footwear across the world and a whole floor dedicated to sneakers- Nike Air Jordans being the highlight.

Ottawa is a smaller city, about 900,000 people and the seat of government- like Canberra it has a lot of national attractions and facilities and has a similar feel to Canberra but on a larger scale - we really liked Ottawa, it is a very walkable city with the highlights being the visit to the Parliament House for a presentation of the history of Canada by illuminations at night time using the parliament house building as the screen - "Misokia" as it is called was an excellent presentation of high technology light works and informative as well. We also visited Gatineau Park, a national park just to the north of Ottawa, a place I have always wanted to visit- some 360 sq km of trees , lakes, and a diverse flora and fauna eco system- Visiting this in summer was great but to visit this in autumn and see the colour changes of the deciduous trees would be "awesome" ( a very common word used in both the US and Canada). We also went to the movies in Ottawa and it cost only $5.50 for an adult ticket !- no concessions involved.
We have driven today to Montreal and the first thing that is clear is that french is the first language of the majority of the people - street signs and public information and facilities- we will see how we go- talk to you again soon - photos attached to support the information.

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Photos

Niagara Falls-1
some 134 million gallons of water pass over these falls every minute - a few glasses of water!

Niagara FALLS-2
The beauty and power of running water.

Toronto
everywhere you go in Toronto they are building apartments.

shoes-1
interesting boots with leather studs

shoes-2
the original Air Jordon Nike shoes from 1985

Shoes-3
elegant native sneakers

Shoes-4
Eskimo boots

Night illumination show
the best show of this type I have seen

Changing of the guard
Every day at 10 am from July to Sept there is a formal presentation of changing of the guard at the Canadian Parliament house

East Block of Parliament House
Built in 1864, the Canadian Parliament house consists- the center, west and east blocks

Gatineau Park-1
a beautiful park for everyone to enjoy

a view of the parkDSCN2867
an effort to show the beauty of this park.