Eating Art in Ottawa

Ottawa Ontario

We went to Ottawa because Corrine spent a four day holiday there with her Upward Bound group in the summer of 2003. She told us such wonderful things about it that we had to see for ourselves.

We were in luck because the time that we choose to go was called "Winter Interlude" in Ottawa. This is when the city celebrates winter with many different fun events for families.

The picture on the right shows the beginning of their 7km Rideau canal, frozen solid and the worlds largest skating rink, our hotel was just a block to the left of that photo.

Corrine is skating on the canal with the Parliament building in the background. There were many Ottawans using the canal to skate to work or to get some morning exercise in before work.

We visited during the week but it appears that on the weekend many food booths open on the canal that serve anything from sausage to pastries. It's probably a very festive time every weekend during Winterlude.

The Byward Market area of Ottawa was just a block north of our hotel which can be seen in the picture to the right, it rises up in the distance.

It is Ottawa's oldest commercial and residential neighborhood and the cradle of the city's French, Irish and Jewish populations.

The Original Byward Market Square, where the picture is taken from was built in 1848, the current one dates to 1926. It is a building filled with craft shops and eateries.

The whole district is loaded with fine places to eat and wonderful local shops.

The picture on the left is of the grand hall inside the Civilization museum. Six Native houses, connected by a Pacific coast shoreline and boardwalk, portray the rich cultural history of the First Peoples of the Northwest Coast. The displays focus primarily on traditional culture, while the exhibits inside the houses examine contemporary issues.

The Museum is home to the world's largest and finest collection of totem poles.

There are many permanent exhibits showcasing Canadian history and heritage as well as several large galleries reserved for traveling exhibits.

For the time we were there they had an extraordinary exhibition of some of the Dead Sea Scrolls and a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see a hundred extremely rare artifacts and manuscripts from the Biblical period, many of them never before seen outside Israel.

Unfortunately our time there was very short and the National Art Museum seen on the right was closed on the day we had scheduled to be there. But that's what it looks like.

For breakfast one morning we ate in an ethnic neighborhood not far from City Hall and had a meal with people getting ready for a day of work in the city. The bus line outside the restaurant was busy and it was fun to watch the hustle and bustle of city life.

With Ottawa City Hall in the background we viewed ice and snow sculptures in a park. As a part of Winterlude they had artists from around the world compete and there must have been about forty different sculptures to see.

I would like to return to Ottawa in warmer temperatures to see the city in a new way, but I would certainly return in winter as well, it was a very nice time.


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