After a few long days of driving I made it to Ottawa on November 10th. The next morning Charlie and I headed downtown for the ceremonies. I was super impressed with how many people showed up. It was so crowded that if you were along the road in the back you couldn't hear what they were saying at the cenotaph. I saw one Dad in front of me pull out his phone so he could watch and listen to the live broadcast with his kid.Â
The next day was the start of playing tourist. The first stop was at the Bank of Canada Museum where you could design your own banknote. I thought that was pretty interesting but I preferred the tour of the Diefenbunker the next day. Our tour guide was very knowledgable and had a very good humour. In the deep freeze (which doubled as a morgue) there was only enough fresh food for 7 days at full capacity before it was onto IMP's (Individual Meal Packets). Even though there were so many rooms in the bunker it was planned that 3 people would share the same bed so everyone slept in shifts.
On Tuesday I headed down to Parliament Hill by myself where I got to go on another tour. It was kind of funny as there was a family from Calgary in my tour group who was also in the tour yesterday. They seemed like a really nice family and I'm glad they were in my groups as they had good questions as well. The Parliament is pretty grand. My favourite spot was probably the library, the last untouched part of the original building after the fire of 1916. The tour guide here was also very informative.
My last tourist activity of this week was at the Canadian Museum of Nature. It's exactly as it sounds. When you get to the floor about insects they have actual live critters in Terrariums. On the top floor they had an exhibit designated just to the Arctic way of living. That was an important exhibit I believe as it touched a lot on Global Warming and the effects its having on our ecosystem. I'll be doing more touristy things soon but those will be in the next post. Be sure to check out the images in my 'Across Canada' Gallery and follow me on Facebook and Instagram.