I FORGOT HOW GOOD IT FEELS

WEATHER: Hot as an oven 29C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: SHOPPING

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Spending money is always a bummer

WORD OF THE DAY:  SHOPPING MOJO

Like clock-work I was awake at 8.30am and the sun was high in the sky and not a cloud to be seen.  You could already feel the heat of the day that early through the windows.  It was going to be another glorious day.  Things were still touch and go with Faron’s dad, so Amy preferred to be in the city and ready should a call come rather than be at the cottage we would be closer for her to make the dash to be there for Faron.  I hurt my back this morning as I was walking down the stairs at the cottage.  It just feels like a pinched nerve or something, but man it really hurt.  I didn’t mention it to anyone as I didn’t want to worry them and I am hopeful it will just fix itself over the next few days.  So after a cooked breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs and toast we were on the road at 12 noon.  With goodbye’s to Shaun’s parents and a very sincere felt thanks we hit the road.  I ended up sleeping the whole hour ride back and we decided to take a small detour and headed to a major shopping mall for the afternoon.  Well why not.  We were back in the city, so Amy felt better and I hadn’t hit any western shops since Caracas at the end of March and a lot of those shops were high end ‘no way I would find anything’ kind of shops. 

Amy was on a dress quest for a wedding that she was going to on the weekend and I was just after some new clothes after travelling with the same wardrobe since November 2011.  Even then it was a small change as I needed summer clothes as I was heading to South America and London was preparing for winter and didn’t have much summer stock left.  My saving grace was the 2 bags of clothes I had left in a London Hotel when I went to Africa in July, I stored them at the hotel for 4 months and opening those bags in November was like an early Christmas present to myself and an instant wardrobe renewal.  Walking into the shopping mall was like a kid in a candy shop.  If I found some new bottoms (skirts or pants) would be nice and probably the only thing I would like to have something new of.  My clothes are starting to look like backpackers clothes and I would love to get some new items to refresh it and give me a ‘flash packer’ look instead as I am now back in reality and not swanning around on some truck where it didn’t matter what you wore, people expected you to look backpack.  If you look like that here in Canada or the USA I am going to feel like a right old dag. 

The first shop we went into Amy was looking for a dress and I walked out with a new dress I would wear to shows and dinner in Chicago, Las Vegas and LA.  It was perfect, fitted well and a new colour I wouldn’t normally wear of a light grape.  As Shauna said it looks great with my tan that has been enhanced with the 4 hours we got in the sun yesterday.  We were in and out of shops all afternoon and I found a shop that had a lot if bottoms, and they fit, so I bought 2 skirts, a new pair of shorts and a new top.  Ahhhhhh I forgot how good a shopping high feels like.  The last shop for the day I purchased a new day dress and a knitted jacket to wear over the new dresses and also the dresses I bought in Easter Island.  I can think of 3 things I can toss out of my backpack to make room for the new purchases, the rest of the things I will have to make room, somewhere.  I was also able to buy the shampoo and conditioner that I used at Marc’s place that made my hair feel like a million dollars.  They were 2 different brands and I am normally a same shampoo and conditioner kind of gal, but really my hair felt fantastic so I am more than happy to not head that rule on this occasion.  The only other down fall was that they only came in 500ml bottles.  They are far too big for me to be able to pack for travel but Shauna pointed out I can use my current near empty bottles to refill them and then I will decide what I do with the rest.  So what a successful day at the shops and I was happy with the haul I had bought.  I had a smile from ear to ear.  The only bad thing was Amy left dress-less but she did buy some tops and Shauna was more than happy to just be our guide and voice as we tried on the clothes.

We were staying at Shauna’s tonight and then heading to Montreal in the morning.  We decided to have an early dinner and walked to Shauna’s shops just up the road from her apartment.  We dined at a microbrewery that made their own beers and we ordered 3 appetizers and shared them between the 3 of us.  I have to say that I enjoyed the artichoke and spinach dip as it was something that I would never have ordered myself, the perogies and the chicken wings were just delicious.  I washed all that down with a raspberry wheat beer with the sun on our backs and a small breeze as we sat on the patio it was a great way to finish our time in Ottawa.  As we were sitting eating dinner Faron sent a message that all was stable and that Amy should go to Montreal, so this was good news for all of us as Amy hasn’t been there before either so it would have been new territory for both of us.

We headed home to watch some TV and rest the weary feet after walking around the shopping centre for 4 hours and to just chillax.  Shauna was on the morning shift tomorrow, so she was going to be up at 5.45am and leaving the house at 7am.  I have a feeling that we may not be up that early and got the low down on how to lock up as we leave in the morning at our leisure.  After having a chat with Zeme on Facebook, Aimes headed to bed at 10.30pm and then was back down at 11pm with the sad news that Faron’s dad had just passed away.  So my condolences goes to Faron and his family and this also meant that Amy was now not going to Montreal in the morning and heading home.  The accommodation was pre-paid and also the tickets to the Cirque Do Soleil show.  It was a shame, but something that you would not wish on anybody.  So we checked the rail times and there was a 9.55am or a 2pm train to Montreal, as I was still going to travel and decided on the morning train and to just purchase the ticket at the station in the morning.    

Another life cut short and as I closed my eyes to go to sleep I had my mum in my dreams, Amy and Faron not far from my thoughts and again the affirmation that I have done the right thing with the direction of my life.  This is my story and I wouldn’t change a word.        

CONTIKI CHANGE OVER

WEATHER: Glorious and 29C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Arriving at ‘the Cottage’

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Goodbyes are sucky

WORD OF THE DAY:  Contiki

DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 120km

It’s a change over day today.  I say good-bye to my Contiki Spain Husbands and hello to my Contiki Scandi gals.  There are just some people you meet on your travels that you just know you will see again and I am happy to hope that I will see my Contiki Husbands again and get a tradition happening like my Scandi gals.  We have been able to catch up again 3 times since our Contiki Scandinavia trip in 2007.  We met in New York in 2009, at Amy’s hometown of Meaford in 2010 and then Amy met me in the Galapagos in 2011.  So this makes the 4^th time and both Shauna and Amy are friends that I can count on for life. This is the additional bonus of travelling and the best aspect, well after photography, which I love.  Making new and life-long friends. 

So Marc and Andy were up at 7am and out the door at 8am in a taxi to the airport.  Marc was off to Peru to start a Contiki Peru tour tomorrow and Andy was heading home to Boston.  It was great to see you both and I wish you both safe travels.  Thanks Marc for making the time, with you getting ready for your trip and finishing up the last thing you needed was the stress of guests, but hopefully we were worth it.

I was staying at Marc’s till Amy was to pick me up somewhere between 2-4pm.  She was driving from Meaford, so she had a big drive day today and after collecting me we were going to Shauna’s to pick her up and then head out to the cottage tonight.  This suited both me and Shauna fine, as she had come off night shift and I wasn’t going to interrupt her sleep and I had time to re-organize my bags to have a week-end bag for the cottage and not have to bring out my big backpack while I was there.  I also had an additional bag of stuff that I didn’t have to pack as we will be in Amy’s car for the next week, so I didn’t have to airline pack as such.  So my day was filled with watching season 5 of Nip Tuck, completing yesterday’s blog, packing and finally getting out of my PJ’s at 1pm.  I finished the dishes, unpacked the dishwasher, moved all the furniture back to where it belonged and threw out the trash.  Amy was keeping me up to date with her ETA’s via text messages and the traffic was terrible.  We all forgot that it is the May 2-4 long weekend, with Monday being a public holiday, so there was mass movement of holiday makers also on the roads. 

Amy arrived at 4.15pm.  It was so good to see her.  We had last seen each other only 6 months ago in the Galapagos, which seems only weeks ago and we are the type of friends that just pick up where we last left off.  We make great travel companions and it feels great to say hello to more friends after saying good-bye to Marc and Andy, it takes off the sad edge-ness if you know what I mean.  So with a final check of the apartment, I locked the door with a key we had cut a few days before and we left Marcs place heading for Shauna’s.  Shauna’s place was only a 10 minute drive, if that and she was all ready to go.  We got a quick tour around her pad and it was an amazing home over 3 levels. It is the type of home I would have wanted if I had been going back to Australia.

So we were back on the road again at 5pm.  We left the province of Ontario and entered into the province of Quebec not long after passing around the city.  You can notice the difference of leaving and entering the provinces straight away.  It isn’t like crossing states in Australia, the differences are quite noticeable.  Quebec is a province in east-central Canada and it is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level.  The signs were in French only, and if there was an English translation, by law, the French words have to be first and larger than the English words.  They have what they dub ‘the language police’ and if there is a sign that doesn’t comply with these rules they are fined and told to fix the sign or to pull it down.  Ummmmm are we in Canada or France?  We stopped at one of the general stores on the way to pick up some grog and I needed to get some cash out.  I tried both my visa cards in the small ATM machines they have in supermarkets but my card wouldn’t work, I hate that, especially when you know you have money in there.  I did use the card to pay for my 1.14L of vodka I got from the bottle shop and it worked, so maybe the link was down to access my funds in cash?  I still had 30 odd dollars in my purse, but I hate to not have money in my purse. 

After a further 20 minutes we arrived at the cottage.  I have heard a lot about this cottage over the years and to actually see it I can see what all the talk was about.  It was BEAUTIFUL.  STUNNING. MAGIC.  The McCormick’s have a cottage that looks onto Danford Lake and it really is a slice of heaven here.  We met Shauna’s parents Wendy and George and they gave us a tour of their home.  The original cottage is currently getting turned into a garage aka ‘man cave’ for George and was moved back and now stands the new cottage that was built 3 years ago.  With beautiful glass windows facing the lake and with the sun starting to set over the lake it was breath taking.  There is a feeling of family here.  George grew up in the area and his father’s place is across the lake.  Generations of families live in the area and it is like a big reunion each year as they all catch up with each other and with it being the first official public holiday heading into summer there are a lot of people heading to their cottages for the first time this year since winter and according to the weather forecast it looks like it is going to shape up to be a wonderful weekend of sunshine.

Dinner was around the kitchen table with chicken and ribs from the BBQ, salad and corn cobs and looked like a typical family meal.  This is what I didn’t have growing up and it feels nice to be included into some-ones family if only for the week-end.  I’m not knocking my mum, but with just her and I, you would never get the ambience you get with 6 people all talking and discussing things, life, trips and experiences.  It was a really pleasant evening with a visit from a long-time family friend, who grew up with George in the area, and her kids played with his kids and the generations and history continue on.  This is the things that we Australians don’t really have and I have to say I like the idea.  I know things will be different in Ethiopia as Zeme’s family is very important to him and in turn will be equally important to me and maybe I can start my own generation history.  After a few more vodka’s we were all tucked up in bed at 1am with the pleasure of knowing that there was no alarm call or anywhere to be in the morning.  We are now running on ‘cottage’ time. 

Welcome to the cottage.           

THE MINT, ROOTS, BEAVER, KALIMOTO AND POUTINE

WEATHER: Glorious 29C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Holding a 650,000USD bar of gold

BUMMER OF THE DAY: It had to end

WORD OF THE DAY:  Kalimoto

Mark left home at 8.30am for his last half day at work.  He was working till 1pm and then coming home to get Andy and I and then we were going to hit the Royal Canadian Mint as we ran out of time to do it yesterday and just enjoy what looked like was going to be another glorious day.  I got up around 9am, but sleepyhead Andy slept through to 11am.  Well he is technically on holidays, so this is what you do on holidays; I was just keeping an eye on the time as it would look a little bad if we both weren’t ready by the time Mark got home at 1.30pm.  When he did walk in the door, we started bacon and eggs to have on sandwiches for lunch and then we were out the door at 3pm.

Our first and most important ‘must see’ was the mint.  Traffic was a killer getting into the city, but we managed to finally make it and get a park just around the corner from the mint at 4.15pm.  At The Mint, you can visit the boutique for free which is on the second floor of the building or you can pay 6CAD for a 30 minute tour that leaves on the hour.  For 6 bucks you can’t go wrong, so we paid that and spent the 40 minutes we had in the boutique.  In the shop is where you will also find the bar of gold that weighs 15kg and costs around 650,000USD!!!  You are allowed to hold it and get your photo taken with it.  The gold is attached to a heavy chain and is guarded by security the whole time the shop is open to visitors.

The Royal Canadian Mint's headquarters occupy the historic building in central Ottawa where the Mint was founded in 1908. Today, the Ottawa facility produces hand-crafted collector and commemorative coins, gold bullion coins, medals and medallions. The actual monetary coins are produced at the Winnipeg Mint.  Ottawa is where the master tooling is done to create the dies that strike coin designs for both circulation and commemorative issues. The Mint's gold refining and advanced engineering operations are also located here in Ottawa. We started the tour by looking down at where the silver and gold are melted down and then rolled back and forth through machines to get it to the correct thickness and then where they are cleaned and then finally stamped. We saw the massive strips of metal meet 50-ton presses to produce over 1000 coins per second in silver and gold on the work floor as we passed by large panoramic windows that looked over each of the workshops.  As this mint currently only produces the commemorative coins and medals it is a lengthy process and each coin has to be individually checked and approved.  People are pretty much buying the metal at the end of the day, but the stamping and markings make the coin a collectable, tells people where the coin came from and the year it was made.

In saying that there was a replica of a coin made with a face value if 1 million dollars.  There is one stored in the basement and it was the world's first million dollar coin! It is about the size of an extra-large pizza. Produced In 2007 and weighing 100 kg, it’s 99.999% pure gold and although the face value is $1,000,000 its actual sale value is considerably higher. Although its home is in the basement of the Royal Canadian Mint, it has gone on tour for special events such as the Olympics.  When created, the intention was to mint just one, but interested investors came forward and four more were created and sold for around 2.5 million and now today they are worth around 6 million dollars.  Nice investment return that is for sure. 

We also saw the famous Vancouver 2010 athlete medals on display that were also made at the Mint.  It was the first time that the able bodied and disabled Olympic medals were created the same size and each medal was unique, featuring part of an image cropped from two large master artworks.  When you matched up the medals each medal included its own signature elements of the orca and raven artwork to make a full picture. 

We also learned that the Mint has made over 55 billion coins for more than 75 countries around the world including Australia.  Apparently the Australian Mint is Ottawa’s number one enemy in claiming the title of ‘the world best Mint’ and we keep each other on their toes.  There was one time that Australia took on too many foreign coin orders and we couldn’t keep up with our own demand, so we had to outsource some of our coin production to Ottawa.  The longest continuous contract for producing foreign coins is with Barbados – more than 30 years. The Mint has the capacity to produce over 2 billion circulation coins or blanks per year for foreign governments. They get contracts from countries that either don’t have their own Mint’s; they don’t have the capacity to keep up with their own demand or the resources. 

Gold and other bullion products from the Royal Canadian Mint are universally recognized for their quality and purity. The Mint refines and produces Maple Leaf bullion coins, gold kilo bars, trade bars and gold wafers - all struck with their weight and purity. Our bullion coins are also recognized as legal tender in Canada.  The Gold Maple Leaf coins are the world's most popular pure gold coin. Since their introduction in 1979, over 20 million troy ounces have been sold. As the first bullion coin to achieve the heightened standard of 9999 fine, the Gold Maple Leaf is available in five weights from one-twentieth of an ounce to one troy ounce. Also of special interest are the one ounce gold bullion coins celebrating the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games and our 99999 Gold Maple Leaf.  Encouraged by the success of the Gold Maple Leaf, the Mint introduced Silver Maple Leaf Coins in 1988. The Silver Maple Leaf is minted with one troy ounce of 9999 fine silver. The coin has a face value of $5, the highest face value of any comparable silver bullion coin. Also of special interest are the one ounce silver bullion coins celebrating the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.  Introduced by popular demand in 1988 are the Mint's one troy ounce Platinum Maple Leaf coins with a face value of $50 and lastly introduced in 2005 were the Palladium Maple Leaf coins with a face value of $50. This popular one troy ounce coin is made with 9995 pure palladium. 

The Royal Canadian Mint operates one of the most technically advanced and respected gold and silver refineries in the world, producing bars, wafers and custom products. In operation since 1911, our refinery services are among the largest in the industry. The Mint refines gold and silver from a variety of sources including primary producers, industry, recyclers and financial institutions. This is unusual to have the refineries on the same site as a Mint.  The Royal Canadian Mint began refining gold to 9999 fine purity in the mid-1960's. In 1982, our refinery became the worlds' first to produce 9999 bullion coins, an achievement surpassed in 1998 when we reached "five nines" purity levels. Today, we are even able to produce granulation gold that is 99999 fine.  I would definitely recommend a visit to The Mint with the tour finishing at the souvenir shop.  I was so glad we came and definitely worth the 6 bucks.

Back out in the sunshine we walked past The Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica.  It is a beautiful church with silver topped spires that were just glinting in the sun.  It is ecclesiastic basilica and was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1990.  The site was originally home to the small wooden St. Jacques Church built in 1832. This structure was destroyed in 1841 to make way for a larger church.  The Basilica is the oldest and largest church in Ottawa and the seat of the city's Catholic archbishop. Its twin spires and gilded Madonna are easily identifiable from nearby Parliament Hill and the surrounding area. The church was recently renovated and restored in the late 1990s. Services are held in both French and English.  It really was beautiful. 

We then walked by the National Gallery of Canada which is one of Canada's premier art galleries.  The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The Gallery was first formed in 1880 by Canada's Governor General John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll, and, in 1882, moved into its first home on Parliament Hill in the same building as the Supreme Court. In 1911, the Gallery moved to the Victoria Memorial Museum, now the home of the Canadian Museum of Nature. In 1913, the first National Gallery Act was passed outlining the Gallery's mandate and resources. It moved into its current building on Sussex Drive in 1988.  

Passing the gallery is a MASSIVE spider as outdoor artwork.  Known as Maman (1999) it is a sculpture by the artist Louise Bourgeois. The sculpture, which resembles a spider, is over 30ft high and over 33ft wide, with a sac containing 26 marble eggs. Its abdomen and thorax are made up of ribbed bronze. The title is the familiar French word for Mother.  It is disgusting and interesting to look at all at the same time.  Maman is amongst the world's largest and most impressive sculptures. Maman was first displayed outside the Tate Museum of London in 2000. The sculpture picks up the theme of the arachnid that Bourgeois had first contemplated in a small ink and charcoal drawing in 1947. 

“The Spider is an ode to my mother. She was my best friend. Like a spider, my mother was a weaver. My family was in the business of tapestry restoration, and my mother was in charge of the workshop. Like spiders, my mother was very clever. Spiders are friendly presences that eat mosquitoes. We know that mosquitoes spread diseases and are therefore unwanted. So, spiders are helpful and protective, just like my mother” — Louise Bourgeois….. A little weird....

We walked to Nepean Point which is a hill overlooking the Ottawa River, Parliament, the Museum of Civilization, and other features of downtown Ottawa and Gatineau. It is located between the National Gallery of Canada and Alexandra Bridge and gave us a phenomenal view with the blue sky and beautiful backdrop.  At the peak of the hill is a statue of French explorer Samuel de Champlain holding his famous astrolabe upside down. It was made by sculptor Hamilton MacCarthy in 1915.  There is also a small amphitheater on the point is known as "Astrolabe Theatre", presumably a reference to Champlain.  I also saw my first squirrel running past us as we walked up.  The boys were non-plussed but we don’t have these critters in Australia and they are so cute.  He was a fast little bugger and was running across the lawns and jumping like Tiger or a kangaroo. 

We made our way back to Byward Markets and I stopped into a French bakery that had advertised that they sold Obama cookies and they had pictures of him visiting the store.  It took only a few words from U.S. President Barack Obama and the Moulin de Provence bakery in Ottawa's Byward Market is still selling cookies at the rate of 2,000 a day, somewhat more than the 200 or 250 cookies they used to sell each week.   With Obama asking "I understand you've got some Canadian cookies … in the shape of a maple leaf," The baker, Claude Bonnet, obliged Obama, presenting him with a maple-leaf-shaped sugar cookie with red and white icing.  Ever since his employees have been working overtime and by noon Friday they had sold 3,000 cookies.  Since then, orders have been coming in even from Europe and the United States. What a way to get a product endorsement.  The sign said 6.95 for the cookie, but that was just for the tin, you needed to add the cost of the cookie AND the damn sales tax making it a grand total of 10.62!!!  For a cookie!!!! BUT it is an Obama cookie.  It looks too good to eat, but for 10.62 I will be consuming that sucker in the next few days. 

I wanted to get a Canadian jumper (aka sweater in ‘Canadian’) and there was a Roots store in the market and I was told this would be the best place to get one.  They were quite expensive, but apparently worth the cost.  I didn’t quite fit into a women’s size, so I got a men’s size in red and I love it.  It was on the expensive side to start with and then I forgot about the damn sales tax again that gets added to all your purchases at the register.  Ahhhhh, why they don’t include the sale tax in the advertised price is really annoying, but I still bought it anyway.  I LOVE it.  Roots Canada Ltd. (commonly called Roots) is a Canadian clothing and lifestyle products retailer. The retail stores sell Roots' own brand of products in Canada, the United States and Asia. Roots was founded in 1973 by Michael Budman and Don Green, formerly of Detroit, Michigan. The store concept was based on their experiences at a summer camp called Camp Tamakwa in Ontario’s Algonquin Park during their childhood.  The company originally sold footwear at a single location in Toronto. Its first product was the Roots Negative Heel Shoe (also called the Earth shoe). It has since expanded its line of merchandise to include items such as jackets, bags, watches, luggage, sweatshirts and fashion accessories.  Roots was the official outfitter of clothing for members of the Canadian Olympic team from 1998 to 2004. The same line was sold at Roots stores in Canada.  Roots also clothed the United States (2002, 2004) and British Olympic (2002) teams.  In 2009 A Roots Leather Bag "The Satchel" was famously worn by the character Alan in the 2009 movie The Hangover leading to increased publicity of Roots leather bags. So I am definitely leaving with something typically Canadian and with it being a men’s size, Zeme will also be able to wear it.  Maybe I could gift it to him, as the days are so hot, I am not sure how much wear I am going to get out of the ‘sweater’ anyway!

Our last stop of the day was to get an original Beaver Tail.  Beaver Tails are a Canadian-based chain of pastry stands operated by BeaverTails Canada Inc. The chain's namesake product is a line of fried dough pastries, individually hand stretched to resemble a beaver’s tail. The chain originated in Ottawa and now has franchises and licenses in three countries, Canada, the United States and Saudi Arabia.  BeaverTails Canada Inc. through franchising currently operates 33 stores and 43 BeaverTails stands worldwide.  BeaverTails pastries began when Grant and Pam Hooker decided to turn their family recipe for fried dough into a corporate business. In 1980, the Hookers opened up the first BeaverTails stand in the Byward Market in Ottawa two years after they had formed BeaverTails Canada Inc.

The company expanded within Canada and then internationally in the 1990s. All that from fried dough!

We were running on a time constraint as we had to get back home and get some washing done before the laundry closed at 10pm.  So we raced home, put on a load of washing and made our way to the local chicken restaurant for a quick dinner (chicken, sangria and poutine) before having to jet back and get the clothes in the dryer.  This was the first time I have done my own washing, with a machine for the first time since April last year when I did my own washing in London and then realized that for an additional 5 bucks I could get some-one else to do it and have had someone else do my washing ever since.  Not including the hand washing of my underwear, not lie, first time in over 12 months.  I do love the smell of freshly washed clothes and it is just one of those things you take for granted when at home.

So this was my last night with the boys and we had to drink the red wine and coke concoction that the Spaniards from the Basque region drink called Kalimoto.  Like I have mentioned before don’t knock it till you try it.  So with a few of them under our belts, a movie and some more chatting we were all tucked into bed at 1am, with the boys having to get up and out the door by 8am and a travel day for both of them it is funny how 1am was an early night!!!!

OUR DAY IN BEAUTIFUL OTTAWA DOWNTOWN

WEATHER: Rainy in the morning 18C and sunny at 3.50pm and 23C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Seeing the beautiful city of Ottawa

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Cold and rainy was not on the cards

WORD OF THE DAY:  Poutine (Poutsine)-yes yes yes

We were heading into the city today and from the pictures I have seen I can’t wait.  It looks like a beautiful city.  As we had a late night, we didn’t end up leaving home till 11am, but that was okay as we had the whole day ahead and as we got to Rockcliffe Lookout.  It’s where the Rideau River joins the Ottawa River with Ottawa City Hall and the National Research Council in the background.  From the look- out Ontario is on one side and Quebec is on the other.  The Ottawa River for most of its length, it now defines the border between these two provinces.  The Ottawa River drains into the Lake of Two Mountains and the St. Lawrence River at Montreal. The total length of the river is 1,271 kilometers and it drains an area of 146,300 km2, 65% in Quebec and the rest in Ontario, with a mean discharge of 1,950 m3/s.  It was beautiful here.  By the time we were ready to leave the weather had really started to turn and it was getting a little cold it had started to rain.  Man, where is all the sunshine from yesterday gone?  

It was Marc’s mum birthday today, so we then made a run to the suburb where baby Marc grew up and we stopped off at his mums work to wish her a happy birthday.  She told is that she had heard all about us, all good of course and then instead of driving the car into the city, we decided to park at the shopping center where Marc worked 5 minutes away and to park and ride the public bus into town.  20 minutes later we hopped off the bus at The Rideau Centre shopping complex.  We walked through the center as we were on a mission for lunch and Marc had the perfect place.  Way back in Spain 12 months ago I mentioned to him that I loved poutine and he said you haven’t had poutine till you have had Smokes poutine especially the triple pork poutine.  Well how much better could it be?  But this is where we were headed and I will tell you now that I was not disappointed. 

Smoke's Poutinerie is the first of its kind in the World offering a broad menu exclusive to Poutine. The goal of Smoke's Poutinerie is to bring the authentic Quebec classic to the rest of the World.  What is poutine?  Well you take piping hot fries hand tossed in Smoke's Poutinerie secret seasoning blend, add a handful of fresh curds and pour the steaming rich gravy over top. It is then up to the customer to be patient, allowing it to sit for a minute, and stir it all together. Now indulge and experience the stringy curds, the crisp and sweet potatoes, the rich sauce that smothers the dish and your ingredients and toppings of choice.  Smoke's Poutinerie has taken the Traditional Poutine of fries, curd and gravy, and has added fresh toppings making unique, custom Poutine meals for everyone. Whether your preference is beef, chicken, veggies, pork or simply just a different type of sauce, Smoke's Poutinerie has the recipe for you. Choose from over 20 core Poutine.  After hearing about the Triple Pork Poutine I didn’t even have to look at the menu that was the flavor I was going to have.  Triple Pork was Chipotle Pulled Pork, Double-Smoked Bacon and Italian Sausage.  There were 2 sizes regular and large and with the cost difference only 2 bucks, I just ‘had’ to get the large right!?  We decided to eat in and it was just a like a small diner and we hoed into the poutine like we hadn’t been fed for days.  The boys also got the same as me but Andy got a small whereas Marc and I pigged out.  It was SOOOOOOOOO GOOOOOOOOD.  I gave it a good crack but couldn’t quite finish the box.  But I did pretty well……

With a full, well over full bellies it was now time to walk around town and work some of it off.  The rain had stopped but it was quite windy and a little on the cool side once it whipped up.  Out of the wind it wasn’t so bad.  So on foot we set out to see what the city had to offer.   It is nearing the end if the Canadian Tulip Festival, so there are a lot of these beautiful flowers everywhere, in flower pots, flower beds and there are 1.5m high tulips out the front of all the shops throughout the city.  The Tulip Festival is held annually in May.  The festival claims to be the world's largest tulip festival, displaying over one million tulips, with attendance of over 500,000 visitors annually. Large displays of tulips are planted throughout the city, and the largest display of tulips is found in Commissioners Park on the shores of Dow's Lake, and along the Rideau Canal with 300,000 tulips planted there alone. As well as tulip displays, the festival also includes music performances, speakers and exhibits of international cuisine.

In 1945, the Dutch royal family sent 100,000 tulip bulbs to Ottawa in gratitude for Canadians having sheltered Princess Juliana and her daughters for the preceding three years during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, in the Second World War.  The most noteworthy event during their time in Canada was the birth in 1943 of Princess Margriet to Princess Juliana at the Ottawa Civic Hospital. The maternity ward was declared to be officially a temporary part of international territory, so that she would be born in no country and would inherit only her Dutch citizenship from her mother. In 1946, Juliana sent another 20,500 bulbs requesting that a display be created for the hospital, and promised to send 10,000 more bulbs each year.  In the years following Queen Juliana's original donation, Ottawa became famous for its tulips and in 1953 the Ottawa Board of Trade and photographer Malak Karsh organized the first "Canadian Tulip Festival". Queen Juliana returned to celebrate the festival in 1967, and Princess Margriet returned in 2002 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the festival.

Our sightseeing included:

ByWard Market (sometimes called By Ward Market, Byward Market or simply The Market, Marche By in French) is a district in Lower Town located east of the government & business district, surrounding the market buildings and open-air market on George, York, ByWard and William Streets.  The name refers to the old 'By Ward' of the City of Ottawa ('By' deriving from the surname of the engineer, Colonel John By, who was the area's original surveyor). The district comprises the main commercial part of the historic Lower Town area of Ottawa.  The market itself is Canada's oldest continuously operating farmers' market, regulated by the City of Ottawa's Markets Management group, which also operates the smaller west-end Parkdale Market. The market building is open year-round, and open-air stalls are operated in the warmer months offering fresh produce and flowers.

The Rideau Canal.  It is the oldest continuously operated canal system in North America, and in 2007, it was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The canal connects the city of Ottawa, Ontario on the Ottawa River to the city of Kingston, Ontario, on Lake Ontario. The canal was opened in 1832 as a precaution in case of war with the United States and is still in use today, with most of its original structures intact. The canal system uses sections of major rivers, including the Rideau and the Cataraqui, as well as some lakes.  It is operated today by Parks Canada as a recreational waterway. The locks on the system open for navigation in mid-May and close in mid-October.  The construction of the Rideau Canal was a preventive military measure undertaken after a report that during the War of 1812 the United States had intended to invade the British colony of Upper Canada via the St. Lawrence, which would have severed the lifeline between Montreal and Kingston. The British built a number of other canals (Grenville, Chute-à-Blondeau and Carillon Canals, all along the Ottawa River) as well as a number of forts (Citadel Hill, La Citadelle, and Fort Henry) to impede and deter any future American invasions of Canadian territory.

The Centre Block is the main building of the Canadian parliamentary complex on Parliament Hill containing the Commons and Senate chambers, as well as the offices of a number of Members of Parliament and Senators, as well as senior administration for both legislative houses. It is also the location of several ceremonial spaces, such as the Hall of Honor, the Memorial Chamber, and Confederation Hall.  Built in the Gothic Revival style, the present Centre Block is the second iteration of the building, after the first was destroyed by fire in 1916; all that remains of the original building is the Library of Parliament, at the rear of the Centre Block. Though construction began immediately after the blaze, sculpting work on the interior continued through the 1970s. One of the most recognizable buildings in Canada, the Centre Block is depicted on the Canadian $10 bill (the Library of Parliament), $20 bill (the main entrance), and the $50 bill (the Peace Tower).

The Library of Parliament is the main information repository and research resource for the Parliament of Canada. The main branch of the library sits at the rear of the Centre Block, on Parliament Hill and is the last untouched part of that larger building's original incarnation, after it burned down in 1916. The library has been augmented and renovated a number of times since its construction in 1876, the last between 2002 and 2006, though the form and decor remain essentially authentic. The building today serves as a Canadian icon, and appears on the obverse of the Canadian ten-dollar bill.

The Peace Tower (officially the Tower of Victory and Peace; is a focal bell and clock tower, sitting on the central axis of the Centre Block of the Canadian Parliament buildings.  The present incarnation replaced the 55-metre Victoria Tower after the latter burned down in 1916, along with most of the Centre Block; only the Library of Parliament survived. It today serves as a Canadian icon, and appears on the obverse of both the Canadian fifty-dollar and twenty-dollar bill. 

Located at the back of Parliament Hill was a magnificent view of the Ottawa River and also located there is the Canadian Police And Peace Officer's Memorial.  The murder of Ottawa rookie Cst. David Kirkwood, on July 11, 1977, launched a response that, today, has become the nationally recognized ceremony honoring police and peace officers killed in the line of duty. Ottawa police officers vowed to keep his memory alive and to ensure that the magnitude of his sacrifice, and that of others like him, would never be forgotten by Canadians.  Accordingly, on Sunday, September 24, 1978, a special service and tribute was held. The site selected was Parliament Hill, the place where laws are made that directly impact on police officer safety and, ultimately, the quality of life for us all. Following that first ceremony, a number of features have become tradition and, at the same time, some modifications to the event have occurred as well.  The ceremony was expanded to honor other police officers murdered in the line of duty and this criterion of inclusion was itself modified years later to include all officers killed in the line of duty. This current criterion has been applied retroactively, and names of officers killed in the line of duty, from years gone by, are now being added to the Memorial stone. The original ceremonies were limited to police and correctional officers killed but that criterion was expanded, in 1995, to include all peace officers so that all areas of law enforcement are now included in one single ceremony.  On March 22, 1994, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien joined the more than 700 police officers and relatives of slain officers at a site behind the Parliament buildings. When the granite stone was unveiled in 1994, it displayed the names of 227 police officers killed in the line of duty since 1879. Two other stones were also erected; one for peace officers who died in the line of duty and another explaining the pavilion’s history. In 1995, the memorial honor roll was expanded to include the names of slain officers from other Canadian law enforcement agencies, including, Ministry of Natural Resources, Customs and Excise, Fisheries and Oceans, and Conservation.

From here we made our way past The Supreme Court of Canada which is the highest court of Canada and is the final court of appeals in the Canadian justice system. The court grants permission to between 40 and 75 litigants each year to appeal decisions rendered by provincial, territorial and federal appellate courts, and its decisions are stare decisis, binding upon all lower courts of Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada is composed of nine judges: the Chief Justice of Canada and eight Puisne Justices. The creation of the Court was provided for by the British North America Act, 1867, renamed in 1982 the Constitution Act, 1867. The first bills for the creation of a federal supreme court introduced in the Parliament of Canada in 1869 and in 1870, were withdrawn. It was not until 8 April 1875, that a bill was finally passed providing for the creation of a Supreme Court of Canada.

We them looped back up Sparks Street in downtown.  It was a converted into an outdoor pedestrian street in 1966, making it the earliest such street or mall in North America. Sparks runs from Elgin Street in the east to Bronson Avenue. The Sparks Street Mall, that contains a number of outdoor restaurants and also a number of works of art and fountains, only runs from Elgin to Bank Street. The pedestrian only portion continues for another two blocks westward, with the final two blocks west of Lyon Street being a regular road. 

We then turned left onto Elgin Street located in the Golden Triangle of Ottawa.  Originally named Biddy's Lane, it was later named after Lord Elgin.  In the center of Elgin Street for the first two blocks is Confederation Square, home of Canada's National War Memorial. To the south of this on the east of Elgin is the National Arts Centre; to the west is the British High Commission. Continuing south the street becomes mainly a business area, home to a number of stores, restaurants, and bars and then steadily becomes more residential, home to low rise apartment buildings. Elgin ends at the Queensway, where it turns into Hawthorne Avenue before turning east and going over the Rideau Canal.   

We walked this route all the way to the River and then followed that for around 30 minutes that got us back to the bus station for our trip back to the car.  The weather had miraculously turned to rays of sunshine as we left Sparks Street, which is bloody typical after I had taken all my photos earlier in the day.  It was peak hour in regards to the bus, so we had to stand the 20 minutes back to the car, but it was worth it cause if we had of driven ourselves we would be stuck in the traffic where the busses here have dedicated bus lanes. 

We were in a quandary on what to do for dinner and after going through all our options we decided to head to Chinatown to a place that Marc knew did great Vietnamese.  I haven’t thought about Vietnamese food since leaving home.  There was a great little place back home where we got a good feed for 10 bucks, I miss that place.  But we went for Pho and I ordered the medium shrimp (prawn) and pork and the bowl was HUGE and Marc ordered the large which was MASSIVE!!!  Seriously I haven’t seen such a big bowl of soup ever in my life!  No exaggeration.  It was good if not a little spicy for my liking, I have to say Andy’s bowl of chicken noodle looked amazing.  After such a Big lunch and a Big dinner you could have rolled the 3 of us home after all that. 

Once back home, for good times sake we cracked open the bottles of pre-made sangria that we had bought from the bottle shop.  You know in celebration of our Spanish Reunion.  We had also bought bottles of coke and red wine to make the Kalimoto which is a drink consisting of approximately 50% red wine and 50% cola-based soft drink originating from the Basque Country in Spain.  Now it sounds disgusting, but don’t knock it until you try it.  It is delicious.  This is the back-up if we drink all 3 bottles of sangria tonight.  We watched movies and talked and drank our sangria till 2am when Marc had to call it a day as he had to be at work at 9am.  Unlike the bums, um I mean, holiday makers that we are, Andy and I get to sleep in tomorrow…. Sorry Marc……  Another great day in Ottawa.

TWO CONTIKI HUSBANDS AND A CONTIKI WIFE REUNITED

WEATHER: Beautiful and 24C

HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Contiki Husband REUNION

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of a single thing

WORD OF THE DAY:  CONTIKI

I seem to last on little or no sleep these days.  Gone are my Tucan days when Kate and I were tucked up in our tents by 9.30pm.  After getting to bed at 3am this morning I was up at 9.30am.  Marc didn’t have to go into work till 12 noon and then he was going to come back and collect me at 2pm for us to head to the airport to collect Andy at 2.55pm. 

So with a wave to Marc at 11.30am as he set off to work, I had a few hours to kill.  Marc only moved into his apartment 3 weeks ago and doesn’t have cable hooked up yet.  Lucky for me, he has a squillion DVD’s and most seasons of all the major TV shows.  So I pulled out some seasons of Nip Tuck and watched that till Marc got home just after2pm.  I haven’t seen Nip Tuck in years and I must admit I really like the show.  It is so risqué, graphic and controversial and I love it.  It helps that Julian McMahon is a bit of a looker as well. 

Marc was back at 2.15pm to collect me and he hooked it to the airport to collect Andy.  We didn’t want to park and pay, so we cut a few laps until a drop car park became available where you aren’t allowed to leave the car.  So with a text message that Andy was at the baggage carousel I ran in as the welcoming party and only waited 5 minutes till I got a tap on the shoulder and there was Andy.  I was waiting at the international arrivals where he had come in as a domestic passenger as he had arrived into Canada via Toronto.  Welcome to Ottawa and now our little reunion was complete.  It has been nearly 12 months since we all first met on our Contiki Spain tour and we were inseparable.  They looked after me in my darkest Sangria hour and we had plenty of stories and tales to recount over the next few days.

We stopped for a late lunch at Wendy’s and then Marc had to get back to work to finish the late shift for the day.  Our visit probably wasn’t the best timing for him as he goes on holidays on Friday to Peru where he is doing a 14 day Contiki tour.  It will be interesting to see what he thinks of their South America product.  So between getting his stuff organized for the trip, finalizing work files and now 2 visitors staying for 3 nights, I have to say he is taking it all really well.  He can be a bit is a stress muffin at times, so maybe having us here maybe a blessing in disguise.  Either way, I do thank him for letting us stay at his pad and I can’t tell you how good it is to spend time with friends and just how much I have missed socializing.  I have a smile from ear to ear.

So Andy and I wiled away the afternoon catching up, watching TV and internetting till Marc got home at 9.30pm.  It is still daylight here till around 8-8.30pm and we couldn’t believe at one point we looked at the clock and it was 7.30pm, where the hell did the time go.  In bed at 3am this morning, looking at my watch at 7.30pm and it is still bright as day (literally).  Time seems to travel so quickly here.  Maybe because I am now accountable for my own time.  No more schedules to meet, group dinners, departure times and people organizing things for me.  Well in saying that all my next destinations people have things organized for us to do and it is quite nice to have other people looking after me and showing me around their home cities.  Pizza was on the menu tonight and then we were up gas-bagging again till 2.30am.  I’m telling you we aren’t even aware of the time until we looked at our watches and figured we better get some shut eye as we planned to head into Ottawa and get some sightseeing done tomorrow.  Marc had bought in a few tourist information brochures and after having a read through them the main thing I wanted to do was to get to the Royal Canadian Mint where you can hold a gold bar worth 500,000 USD!!!  Now that sounds cool right!

So welcome to Ottawa. 

Ottawa is the capital of Canada. It is the second largest city in Ontario and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, located on the north bank of the Ottawa River; together they form the National Capital Region (NCR).  Founded in 1826 as Bytown and incorporated as "Ottawa" in 1855, the city has evolved into a political and technological center of Canada. Its original boundaries were expanded through numerous minor annexations and ultimately replaced by a new city incorporation and major amalgamation in 2001 which significantly increased its land area. The name "Ottawa" is derived from the Algonquin word adawe, meaning "to trade".  Initially an Irish and French Christian settlement, Ottawa has become a multicultural city with a diverse population.

Mercer ranks Ottawa with the second highest quality of living of any large city in the Americas, and 14th highest in the world.  It is also rated the second cleanest city in Canada, and third cleanest city in the world. In 2012, the city was ranked for the third consecutive year as the best community in Canada to live in by MoneySense.

Étienne Brûlé, the first European to travel up the Ottawa River, passed by Ottawa in 1610 on his way to the Great Lakes. Samuel de Champlain three years later on his trip wrote about the waterfalls of the area, and about his encounters with the Algonquins, a people who have been using the Ottawa River for centuries.  These early explorers were later followed by many missionaries.  Philemon Wright, a New Englander, created the first settlement in the area on March 7, 1800, on the north side of the river, across from Ottawa in Hull. He, with five other families and twenty-five laborers’, set about to create an agricultural community called Wrightsville and Wright pioneered the Ottawa Valley timber trade(soon to be the most significant economic activity) by transporting timber by river from the Ottawa Valley to Quebec City. 

Bytown (Ottawa's early name) came about because of the Rideau Canal, on which preliminary work began in 1826, the year of Bytown's founding. Its construction was overseen by Colonel John By, and was intended to provide a secure route between Montreal and Kingston on Lake Ontario, bypassing the stretch of the St. Lawrence River bordering New York State. Colonel By set up a military barracks on the site of today's Parliament Hill. He also laid out the streets of town with its "Upper Town" and "Lower Town" separated by the canal. Bytown's population grew to 1,000 as the Rideau Canal was being completed in 1832. Bytown was renamed Ottawa in 1855, when it was incorporated as a city.  

On December 31, 1857, Queen Victoria was asked to choose a common capital for the Province of Canada and chose Ottawa. The Queen's advisers suggested she pick Ottawa for several reasons: Ottawa's position in the back country made it more defensible, while still allowing easy transportation over the Ottawa River. Ottawa was at a point nearly exactly midway between Toronto and Quebec City (500 kilometers), and that the smaller size of the town made it less likely that politically motivated mobs could go on a rampage and destroy government buildings, as had happened in the previous Canadian capitals.

Starting in the 1850s large sawmills began to be erected by entrepreneurs, known as lumber barons, and would become some of the largest in the world. Rail lines erected in 1854connected Ottawa to areas south, and to the transcontinental rail network via Hull and Lachute, Quebec in 1886. Between 1910 and 1912, the Chateau Laurier, and a downtown Union Station would be constructed. Public transportation began in 1870 with a horse car system, overtaken in the 1890s by a vast electric streetcar system that would last until 1959. The Hull-Ottawa fire of 1900 destroyed two thirds of Hull, including 40 per cent of its residential buildings and most of its largest employers along the waterfront. The fire also spread across the Ottawa River and destroyed about one fifth of Ottawa.  The Centre Block of the Parliament buildings was destroyed by fire on February 3, 1916. The House of Commons and Senate were temporarily relocated to the recently constructed Victoria Memorial Museum, now the Canadian Museum of Nature until the completion of the new Centre Block in 1922, the center piece of which is a dominant Gothic revival styled structure known as the Peace Tower.

Ottawa sits at the confluence of three major rivers: the Ottawa River, the Gatineau River and the Rideau River. The Ottawa and Gatineau rivers were historically important in the logging and lumber industries and the Rideau as part of the Rideau Canal system for military, commercial and, subsequently, recreational purposes. The Rideau Canal, connecting the Ottawa River and the Saint Lawrence River at Kingston, Ontario, by-passes unnavigable sections of the Rideau River as it winds its way through the city. Rideau is a French word that means 'Curtain' in English, and the Rideau Falls resemble a curtain, thusly named by the early French canoeists. During part of the winter season the frozen waters of the canal form the world's largest skating rink thereby providing both a recreational venue and a 7.8 kilometers transportation path to downtown for ice skaters. 

Bilingualism became official policy for the conduct of municipal business in 2002 and 37% of the population can speak both languages, making it the largest city in Canada with both English and French as co-official languages. Mother tongue was listed as 62.8% English, 14.9% French and 21.6% list languages other than English and French as their mother tongue.

The Federal government is the city's largest employer, employing over 110,000 individuals from the National Capital region. Ottawa is also an important technology center; its 1800 companies employ approximately 80,000 people. The concentration of companies in this industry earned the city the nickname of "Silicon Valley North." Most of these companies specialize in telecommunications, software development and environmental technology. The City of Ottawa is the second largest employer with over 15,000 employees.  In 2006, Ottawa experienced an increase of 40,000 jobs over 2001 with a five-year average growth that was relative slower than in the late 1990s. 

Ottawa's hosts a variety of annual seasonal activities — such as Winterlude, the largest festival in Canada, and Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill and surrounding downtown area, as well as Bluesfest, Canadian Tulip Festival, Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival, Ottawa International Jazz Festival, Fringe Festival and Folk Music Festival, that have grown to become some of the largest festivals of their kind in the world. In 2010, Ottawa's Festival industry received the IFEA "World Festival and Event City Award" for the category of North American cities with a population between 500,000 and 1,000,000.  As Canada's capital, Ottawa has played host to a number of significant cultural events in Canadian history, including the first visit of the reigning Canadian sovereign—King George VI, with his consort, Queen Elizabeth—to his parliament, on 19 May 1939. VE Day was marked with a large celebration on 8 May 1945, the first raising of the country's new national flag took place on 15 February 1965, and the centennial of Confederation was celebrated on 1 July 1967. Elizabeth II was in Ottawa on 17 April 1982, to issue a royal proclamation of the enactment of the Constitution Act. In 1983, Prince Charles and Diana Princess of Wales came to Ottawa for a state dinner hosted by then Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. In 2011, Ottawa was selected as the first city to receive Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge during their Royal tour of Canada.

So this is Ottawa and I get to spend 13 glorious nights here with FRIENDS.  Amy and I head to Montreal for 4 of those nights, but I LOVE Canada, this is my 4^th trip to this massive and beautiful country and it will be great to explore the French/East side culture of this diverse country.