A day in Ottawa

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Our packed 10 day itinerary in Canada only had time for a single day trip to Ottawa, Canada’s capital.

We were up at 6am after a late night out in Montreal and ubered down to the Holiday Inn Chinatown for our bus trip with Take Tours (US$28). We had a guide for the day but he wasn’t very helpful in giving guidance at each stop or an introduction to each attraction. I felt it was quite cheeky of him to ask for the service fee when we started the day as part of our payment for all the attractions.

We managed to grab a takeaway coffee and cake from Tim Horton’s before the bus departed at 7am. Somehow we managed to snag the front seat, not sure how as we didn’t pay the additional fee for it, and it probably wasn’t worth us being up their as we napped most of the drive.

After two hours we arrived in Ottawa and the first stop was Rideau Hall – Governor’s House. We were here for an hour and it wasn’t really worth the stop as it was being renovated so was surrounded by fencing. They also didn’t start guided tours of the house til 10am and we arrived at 9am. But we enjoyed the artwork and serenity in the gardens.

Rideau Hall – Governor’s House

Sitting in the gardens… just a little cold

Rideau Hall gardens

Rideau Hall artwork

The next stop was the Royal Canadian Mint (C$6) which resided in a beautiful historic building. We were guided through by Matheau who explained how the coins are made and the different coin memorabilia. As it was a Saturday, there was no production happening when we visited. At the end of the guided tour, there is a gift shop for souvenir shopping.

Canadian Royal Mint

As we finished in the Mint quicker than our departure time we walked up the street to outside the National Gallery of Canada and checked out the scary but kind of cool spider sculpture.

National Gallery of Canada

Next stop was an optional buffet lunch at Buffet Des Continents for C$22. It was a casual traditional buffet with a mix of cuisines and included non-alcoholic drinks, tax and tip. It was ok for the price.

After lunch it was time to visit Parliament Hill and admire the beautiful Parliament House building. There wasn’t enough time to go inside… sigh… but we walked around the perimetre which had statues of significant government officials, war memorials and a nice view over Ottawa.

Parliament House

Parliament building

Remembering the Canadians who served in WW1

View from Parliament Hill

We walked through the city mall which was having a poutine festival and grabbed a coffee.

The last stop of the tour was the Canadian Museum of History (C$14) which had exhibits on The First People – Canada’s Aboriginal people and their way of life. There was also a Children’s Museum with toys, activities, arts and culture to excite kids. During our time of visit there was also a visiting ice hockey exhibit which showcased history and memorabilia of the sport.

First People Exhibit

Children’s Museum

Ice hockey exhibit

Outside the museum was a nice view over Lake Ottawa.

View from the museum

Then it was back on the bus for another two hour drive back to Montreal where we arrived about 6.30pm.

The day tour was a great way to see the top attractions in Ottawa if that is all the time you have, but I would recommend a two to three day visit to see it properly and not have the time restrictions we had.

I am off to Hong Kong and Cambodia tonight so I will be back with my New York City post followed by these countries in two weeks time.

LWL xxx