We stayed just outside Ottawa and took an Uber to ByWard Market, which was pretty cool. Lots to see and do, including a suspended cloud sculpture called McClintock’s Dream.
We also talked to a nice lady in her shop and we were happy to hear that at least from her perspective Canadians were not hostile to Americans, despite recent threats by the American president toward the good people of Canada. I mean, the U.S. could not have asked for better neighbors, eh? We agreed that the citizens of our two countries needed to maintain a friendly relationship.
ByWard Market, then, is an indoor public marketplace in operation since 1926. It features “farmers’ market stalls and specialty food shops selling Canadian cheese and maple-infused chocolate. It’s also known for its colorful street art and hip stores filled with crafts and clothes by local designers.” Definitely worth the visit.
On Day Two, we Ubered to the Ottawa art gallery. It was nice enough, but to tell the truth we found it difficult to navigate. There were lots of big heavy closed doors and we weren’t sure which doors we could go through and which might be service doors, so it was a lot of trial and error, which was curious for an art gallery. We did actually open a service door by mistake. So we just kept opening doors until we found the exhibit. It just didn’t have very good flow. Better signage would help and perhaps any employee offering assistance.
One of the exhibitions there was the Firestone Collection of Canadian Art which according to the website is a “significant art collection that spans the modern period (1900–1985). Originally established by the Firestone family in the early 1950s, the collection contains approximately 1,600 works by influential Canadian artists, including A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, Lawren S. Harris, Franklin Carmichael, A. J. Casson, Emily Carr, Jack Shadbolt, Alfred Pellan, Paul-Émile Borduas, Rita Letendre, Ghitta Caiserman-Roth, and Marian Scott.”
That was very cool and well worth the visit. They had an entire room dedicated to AY Jackson, including his sketch box.
From there we went to Majors Hill Park. It was hot so we were looking for some shade but we wandered through the park and came to an unbelievable View.
If you look toward the left to the immediate left you could see Parliament Hill which is in Ottawa Ontario Canada but if you look straight ahead you see the Canadian Museum of History.
As I was doing my research for this trip, I learned something interesting. If you zoom in on Maps, you’ll notice that there is a boundary running straight down the middle of the Ottawa River that separates Ottawa from Gatineau. On the Ottawa side–the Ontario side–the official language is English. On the Gatineau side–the Quebec side–the official language is French. Good to know!
Anyway, Majors Hill Park offered gorgeous view and we took a bunch of pictures. We continued from there to the National Gallery of Canada and we loved it.
National Gallery of Canada
Directly outside The National Gallery of Canada is the world famous Maman giant spider artwork.
Inside, we say such exhibits as Nadia Meyer’s “Waves of Want,” which features indigenous beadwork and “Things which are per se continuous” by Michael Nesbitt. Brilliant stuff.
We enjoyed the National Gallery and highly recommend.
Next, we hopped into an Uber and went across the Alexander Bridge, over to Gatineau.
The bridge over the Ottawa River is a steel grate so it was a bit unnerving being that high over the river and being able to see everything below. Not a fan.
But we got to cross and went to the Canadian Museum of History and I think that out of all three:
- The Ottawa Art Gallery
- The National Gallery of Canada
- Canadian Museum of History
the Museum of History was my personal favorite. Perhaps for me it was a real opportunity to fill out and more fully understand Canadian history, up close.
And I have to tell you, I was happy to verify my credentials as one of the few Americans who knows real stuff about Canada. Haha.
The influence of Canada that came across Lake Erie to my home as a child is more profound than I had ever thought. The faces and names and reference points were largely familiar to me. Especially as they involve sports. But I know a lot of the politics and I know a lot of the music and the various celebrities who have come South to the states and done good things.
One of the exhibitions was retro popular music in Canada from the ’60s ’70s and ’80s.
Music was a big part of our Canadian travel. We started the trip listening to The Guess Who and it continued from there. I drove through Algonquin listening to The Tragically Hip (“Three Pistols,” of course). We also listened to French Canadian rock and roll on our drive up and down the Bruce Peninsula.
Near the end of our trip, Jackie found a playlist of top Canadian music and she found it interesting that certain big songs were written by Canadian artists.
On Saturday, we went to the Royal Canadian Mint, which was really interesting. This facility focuses on specialized products, not mass production, like they do at the Winnipeg Mint.
No post on Ottawa would be complete without reference to the Rideau Canal, which, according to Wikipedia is a “202-kilometre long canal that links the Ottawa River at Ottawa with the Cataraqui River and Lake Ontario at Kingston, Ontario, Canada.”
The canal is famous in the winter for ice skating. The Rideau River runs parallel Rideau Canal, so since we were staying south near the airport, our Uber rides would feature great views along the canal and river. Both were beautiful. There were walking paths and people were jogging and biking. It was all very cool.
We also went to the Canadian Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica, which is right across the street from the giant spider Maman at the National Gallery
My Writing Wanderland 