Thursday 19 May: My second visit to Gatineau Park. This time to visit the Mackenzie King Estate which was now open and Meech Lake. One thing that is staggering is the number of trails and opportunities for sightseeing in this Park. There are plenty of other things to see and do which will have to wait for another visit.

The Mackenzie King Estate consisted of a Guest Cottage, Boathouse and the Main Cottage. The Main Cottage was built in three phases as funds allowed: 1903, 1916 and 1924. In 1917 the Boathouse was built in honour of Mackenzie King’s mother.

We had afternoon tea at Moorside which was quite pleasant, although I wasn’t sure about the blueberry scones. We plan on coming back here for lunch next week as a starting point for a trip to Wakefield.

Tuesday 17 May: The home of Canada’s government was originally built between 1859 and 1865, and overlooks the Ottawa River. It consists of three main buildings – the Centre Block of the Parliament, which houses the Commons and the Senate, the Library and the Peace Tower.

The Library was closed for extensive renovation when we visited. The Peace Tower is 295ft high and commemorates the 67,000 Canadians killed during World War One. Included throughout the Peace Tower are 53 bells weighing between 10 pounds and 11 tons. The original Centre Block burned down in 1916. It was rebuilt except for the wooden cladding which originally surrounded the stonework.

The Centre Block tour would usually be quite interesting. Except when we visited, the library was out of bounds for its renovation, both houses were in session which meant we couldn’t tour them, so all we got to see were a couple of corridors. However, we went up the Peace Tower and later sat in the public gallery of The Commons, which at the time only had about 8 members of parliament sitting.

The East Block holds the offices for the governing party, the West Block for the opposition and anyone who can’t fit in the East Block. There are little green buses which ferry parliamentary MPs and workers between the three buildings.

I did something on Tuesday, but I’ve not got around to blogging about it yet, so here’s:

Wednesday 18 May: Ottawa used to have a really tiny War Museum. This new one which opened earlier this month is a lot bigger, although it is still dwarfed by the Imperial War Museum in London. The Museum has the following exhibitions – words by the Museum itself:

1. Battleground: Wars on Our Soil, earliest times to 1885. The wars of the First Peoples, the French, and the British shaped Canada and Canadians.
2. For Crown and Country: The South African and First World Wars, 1885-1931. Canada’s contributions in these overseas wars led to a growing autonomy and international recognition, but at great cost.
3. Forged in Fire: The Second World War, 1931-1945. Canada’s fight against dictatorships overseas transformed the country and its place in the world.
4. A Violent Peace: The Cold War, Peacekeeping and Recent Conflicts, 1945 to the present. Canada became a respected international player through its commitments to Western defence and peacekeeping.
5. The Royal Canadian Legion Hall of Honour.
6. LeBreton Gallery: The Military Technology Collection.
7. Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae Gallery (Special Exhibitions).
8. Regeneration Hall: An Architecture of Hope. Rising up to the highest point in the Museum with a tightly framed view of the Peace Tower on Parliament Hill, Regeneration Hall is a physical representation of hope for a better future.

Of these, the exhibition on the South African and First World Wars was the most interesting. This and the other main exhibitions are presented in a chronological order, picking out the important events that involved Canada and Canadians. However, as the exhibitions were on both sides of a winding set of corridors it was difficult to know when to move over to the other side. Similarly, there was a lack of context for a lot of the events. For example, why did Great Britain fight in South Africa? You get some flippant introductory comment which does nothing to explain in full the rationale. Likewise some of the main events of the Second World War just appeared out of nothing.

Many of the exhibitions referred to items or displays that were not there which gave an overall impression that the museum was not ready for opening. But, of course, the museum shop was open and appeared to be fully stocked!

The biggest, jaw dropping moment was in the LeBreton Gallery. A lot of the technology and transport remained unlabelled. Essentially it was a car park you could wander around. Bang in the middle of the gallery was a sound desk, and a couple of people setting up tables, chairs and wine glasses mid-afternoon. This obscured full view of some exhibits. No apology or signage indicating what they were doing, and appearing completely incongruous with the surroundings. I almost took a photograph of this.

The exhibition closes with information on the United Nations peace-keeping activities and a plethora of magazine covers and a long-ish video of what’s happening in the world today that involves the UN. At the end of the exhibition there’s a place for writing postcards and one of these poem-boards that you can arrange to make words and phrases all about peace and harmony and love. Well I guess it pleases the liberals in Ottawa.

Regeneration Hall is the most bizarre construction I’ve seen in some years. Some weird Meccano influenced building populated by a dozen or so plaster sculptures of men in various poses. It’s a staggering waste of space

I visited one of my cousins for dinner last Saturday. She and her partner have a dog called Sam who is a springer spaniel. Sam has two main modes of behaviour:

1. The “hello I’m Sam and I want to lick you” mode: this basically involves Sam padding around, whining, licking any hand that comes to reach and wagging his tail
2. The “I’m so excited I don’t know what to do” mode: which involves Sam padding around the house, carrying his toy rabbit in his mouth, whining and wagging his tail.

As my cousin wrote in an e-mail to me, Sam thinks (despite his size) that he’s a lap dog. She’s right. Sam didn’t need much provocation to jump on my lap when I was sat on the couch and I think we’re now the best of friends.

Friday 13 May: The Science Museum in London has a lot of stuff to see. When I was a child it was one of my favourite places to go to. The Canada Science and Technology Museum is that country’s equivalent. Except it’s a bit on the small side.

As one would expect from a national museum, the exhibits emphasize the impact Canadian citizens have made to science, but refers to other related discoveries and inventions as necessary. There were a number of temporary exhibits including an incredibly dull one on health and beauty in the home – people used to wash clothes by hand! Of the permanent exhibits there’s one sponsored by Nortel Networks which explains the evolution of digital technology which is full of things for kids to do; one area set aside for the evolution of motorised transport; one for canoes (really); one for ‘Canada in Space’ – which includes the control center for the loading bay of the space shuttle. The museum also has 11 demonstrations which run at regular intervals throughout the day.

The best exhibit is the one of steam locomotives. There are 4 locomotives and a sleeping car. These are very big animals indeed – the biggest is 16.5 feet high.

The museum is geared towards kids and families. They run special themed birthday parties and outdoor observatories. They also have sleepovers for groups of children beside the locomotives which sounds like a really fun thing to do.

Wednesday 11 May: Two places to see in Ottawa. One is the Hog’s Back Falls which separates the Rideau Canal from the Rideau River. The Canal leads into Dow’s Lake which is a major attraction in the centre of Ottawa.

At the beginning of the 2nd World War, Dutch Princess Juliana and her family found refuge in Canada. When Canadian troops liberated the Netherlands 5 years later, the Dutch people sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Canada, with another 20,000 added by the Dutch royal family. Every year since then the Netherlands have sent another 20,000 bulbs to Canada.

Every May since 1953 the National Capital Commission flower beds hold a display of (now) nearly a million tulips in 50 varieties. The highest concentration of tulips – some 300,000 – are found in Commissioners Park which is on the edge of Dow’s Lake.

BTW, I wrote about the peculiar weather at this time of year in my last post. When we visited the tulips, two days’ later, it was a mere 48°!

Tuesday 10 May: The first trip to Gatineau Park in Quebec, about 20 minutes drive out of Ottawa. According to their website it’s 363 square kilometres of parkland which means you can easily spend a week here, exploring all of the lookouts, the trails, cycle paths, lakes. Culiminating in a visit to the Mackenzie King Estate, the summer residence of Canada’s 10th prime minister, which occupies 231 hectares. This is open later in May.

First stop for today was right at the top of the Park – the Champlain Lookout which overlooks the Ottawa River, St. Lawrence Lowlands, Eardley Escarpment and Canadian Shield. The Canadian Shield accounts for almost half the total area of Canada, i.e. 4.5 million square kilometres.

Our next stop was to be the Waterfall Trail, but we ended up going through the Moorfield Trail. This was a nice surprise as we eventually found ourselves at Moorfield Cottage. Mackenzie King moved here during his third term as prime minister. Again it was closed at the time, but I got some nice photos of the cottage and the ruins that he had constructed from remains of Ottawa’s Bank of British North America.

Turning back, we then found the right route to the Waterfall Trail. This is probably more spectacular during spring-time, but I wouldn’t like to walk it as it could be too slippery or icy. What do you find at the end? A waterfall, of course.

The Pink Lake is another must-see part of Gatineau Park. Except only half of it is open. The far side is closed due to rock falls and it could be some time before the area is secured and safe to allow visitors once again around the entire lake. If you want to, you can get further round simply by sidestepping the 20ft wide fencing. We didn’t.

The lake is 20 metres deep which is deep for a lake of this size (it would take around 1 hour to walk all the way around). It also lacks any oxygen below 13 metres as there are two layers of water which never mix. This is a meromictic lake. The separation of the layers of water are caused by the shelter of the surrounding cliffs and the millions of suspended particles which makes the water at the bottom heavier than that at the surface.

Tip for tourists: If you’ve visiting places with plaques and noticeboards, grab photos of them so you can read ‘em when you get back, blog about them and keep a record of what photos match with which locations.

For the record it was 82° when we visited Gatineau Park. But this area of Canada has funny weather until the jet stream gets stabilised.

Sunday afternoon: A whistle-stop drive around the Parkways in Ottawa. The parkways are acres of wooded areas with places for picnics, hiking, walking, skiing and cycling. If you live in Ottawa get a bike because there are miles of dedicated or shared cycle routes. Be prepared to share those routes with cyclists dragging their dogs for a walk and people on rollerblades.

Some of the parkways were closed due to the opening of the war museum that evening which meant a detour through downtown Ottawa. The Aviation Museum was also closed – must try to get there sometime.

The teaser photo on the right shows the view over to Gatineau, with the Lady Aberdeen Bridge over the Gatineau River. The water at the front of the view is the Ottawa River.

I think we’re at the dawn of internet tourism. This is where you dash round somewhere taking pictures at any opportunity. Then when you get home, you google on the internet to find out where you’ve been and what you’ve missed. Then you decide where to go next. We’re out Tuesday – probably a bit more organised this time. Must try to see the Rideau Falls and the Pink Lake (which is green). There’s also the Mackenzie King Estate, but that doesn’t open until 14 May.