At the beginning of April, we were several thousand feet in the air flying to Boston after what felt like a whirlwind stopover in Ottawa. Why Ottawa? Well, why not? Plus it worked out to be the cheapest way to get to the US...
Saturday evening we arrived in Canada’s capital and felt a bit underwhelmed by it all at first. Here I was, thinking that this major world capital would have a bustling city, plenty to do, and the streets would be packed. I thought it would be just like Wellington on a weekend. It turned it out where we ended up was a bit like Wellington, but more the Parliament end of Lambton Quay on a Sunday afternoon.
It turned out the area we stayed in near City Hall wasn’t that bad at all. There were plenty of bars and restaurants, a few convenience shops, and it was all relatively busy. It was almost like being in suburbia, but only a couple of blocks away from the political centre of the country.
After a relatively early night, we set out fresh on Sunday morning for a look around town. Ottawa is a very beautiful place at the end of winter with its frozen rivers and snow covered fields, and the view from Parliament Hill really shows it off in all its splendour. Not to mention the parliamentary building itself looks like they carved off a slice of the Houses of Parliament in London and shipped it over.
About a 20 minute walk down Wellington St past the many Government buildings, you get to the National War Museum. With just a morning in Ottawa, we really only had time to do one activity before we needed to get to the airport, and this was highly recommended by my sister. She was not wrong. The museum is absolutely massive, with permanent exhibitions about the early wars of Canada right through to more recent conflicts, a large hall filled with old tanks, vehicles and various weapons, as well as short-term exhibitions. It gave us a real insight not only into Canada’s involvement in the world wars, but also early wars on Canadian soil, including how England and France effectively exported their conflict across the Atlantic. Highly recommend it and spending a whole morning or an afternoon here.
Next thing you know, it was time to head to the airport to board a plane to head to Boston for the next leg of our adventure. In fact we were lucky to get on the plane at all – when we checked in I was allocated a seat but Rebecca was told she was on standby as they had oversold the flight by two. Crisis averted, with new boarding passes printed just 45 minutes before takeoff. Phew!
