Ottawa Day Off Redux - Oh, Canada! - CycleBlaze

July 20, 2018

Ottawa Day Off Redux

Another day off with more touristy things to do. First stop, Parliament Hill and the Changing of the Guard.

Back at the Parliament Building and the parade grounds for . . .
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. . . the Changing of the Guard! Bagpipes required, of course.
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That, and lots of troops in red.
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And, of course, much marching around and parading. These are parade grounds, after all.
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And even some, what I would call, colonial costumes. They actually look more American than Canadian.
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After much parading around . . . and even more time standing around, off they went, in good order.
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Next, a little tour of the grounds to see what was what . . .

The Centennial Flame, a landmark dedicated in 1967 to honor Canada's 100th anniversary of confederation.
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A selfie in front of Parliament.
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Wandering to the back side of the building, a nice view of the National Gallery of Canada . . .
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. . . and (again) the Alexandra Bridge.
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We were hanging about because we were scheduled to tour the interior around 10:30 . . . which we did!

The door leading to the House of Commons. Rather unassuming if you ask me.
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And the interior, which is under renovation.
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We then visited the library . . . which is similar to our (U.S.) Library of Congress.
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The library is dominated by a statue of Victoria.
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And Jerry, when present.
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Next, on to the Senate.
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With a similar, but smaller, setup as the House of Commons.
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Next stop, the Peace Tower . . .

The original Peace Tower clock movement.
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From the tower, there are great views of the city in all directions.
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Including the bridge NOT crossed, looking downstream on the Ottawa River . . .
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. . . and looking upstream, and our route out of town tomorrow.
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And then down to the parade grounds and the Centennial Flame.
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The grand building to the front is the old railroad station, soon to be the temporary Senate when renovations start in that part of the building. The large, white-roofed building behind is the Ottawa Convention Center.
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And the Embassy of the United States.
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From the Peace Tower, we made our way to the Memorial Chamber and the Books of Remembrance.
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The Books of Remembrance memorialize the names of more than 118,000 Canadians who, since Confederation, have made the ultimate sacrifice while serving their country in uniform.
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While sad, it also is quite startling given that the U.S. lost 50,000 plus in Vietnam alone . . . a "war" that Canada did not participate in.
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Throughout the tour, I took pictures of the corridors and interior architecture, as it was very impressive.

Wonderful arches created large open spaces.
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Seen here along one of the corridors.
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A column detail.
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An impressive capitol, looking down from an upper floor.
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After the tour, we wandered around town a bit, stopped by the National War Memorial to pay our respects, and then headed for eats.

The National War Memorial also contains Canada's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
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Jerry with one of the ever-present and ever-friendly Canadian guides.
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The Changing of the Guard at the National War Memorial . . . with bagpipes, of course.
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Later, a late lunch near ByWard Market near Zak's Diner. There, we met two cyclists that we chatted up and exchanged stories with.
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And of course, I could not resist this picture . . .
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