“Travel far enough. You meet yourself.”
In late 2017, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau inaugurated Ottawa’s Holocaust Monument. Up until then, Canada was the only allied nation without a Holocaust memorial in its capital.
The Monument is in downtown Ottawa, outside of the Canadian War Museum, which was my next stop on Wednesday afternoon!
Wednesday started with yet another attempt at a Parliament tour… I arrived at 9:10 AM, and they were booked until 5:30! I got a ticket and decided to do a few other activities on my to-do list for the day.
First, I went to the Supreme Court of Canada. They have three levels: the trial courts, the Federal Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court. The SCC also offers free tours (check on the dates and times because some require a reservation) which was great. The Court was in session, so we were not able to view the chambers. The public gallery was also full, so we couldn’t watch the case directly, but we were able to watch it from the lobby. We learned a lot about the history of the SCC, its creation in 1875, and how it functions today. I will write more about social and political differences between the US and Canada later on! Stay tuned for the Parliament post, too!
After, I decided to walk aimlessly around and explore this part of the city. I found a place to have lunch, stopped into a LASIK clinic for a consultation (whoops, impulse decision anyone?), and then found myself suddenly near the Ottawa Locks! This was beautiful, and I took a few moments to just be mindful by the water before I headed to my next stop….the Canadian War Museum, one of Ottawa’s highlights!
After going to the Royal Canadian Mint and the Bank of Canada, I didn’t do any other major activities for the rest of Tuesday. I went to lunch and then decided to do another loop on my Hop On-Hop Off bus tour from Lady Dive Tours. It was worth going through again because there were some lovely sites of the river, and we also drove by houses of many ambassadors and even Justin Trudeau’s!
I finished around 4:30 and decided to wander around until my Parliament Tour. I decided to go and get a piercing….surprise surprise! I did this and then was pretty wiped out from a long day and decided to post-pone my Parliament visit until Wednesday.
And then I was off to some Netflix and sleep after a busy Tuesday!
After the Royal Canadian Mint, I was off to the Bank of Canada Museum!
The Museum is situated next to/attached to the actual Bank of Canada; the guide explained it like that glass triangle next to/above the Louvre!
This museum was free, which was really cool! Upon entering, you go down to the basement and get a digital bracelet which allows you to interact with various exhibits and displays.
I really enjoyed looking at Canada’s economy, particularly how their government goes about borrowing money. It was interesting to see how they also included a lot about economies and monies from other countries.
This video is sideways and I’m not tech savvy enough to know how to flip it….sorry.
Tuesday, May 22, started with a trip to Parliament Hill to pick up free tour tickets at 90 Wellington. Well, despite arriving an hour after they opened, they had no more tours until 6:30! So, I picked up a ticket and went on my way to other activities.
The first being the Royal Canadian Mint! Now, if you remember my post for yesterday, I had already tried to go to the Mint….and landed myself confused and lost in the National Gallery of Canada!
I was only able to take photos outside and in the gift shop, so I don’t have a lot to show, and there’s not a lot online either! The tour was really interesting and lasted about 45 minutes. It only cost $6 CAD (about $4.65 USD), which was also really great. This is definitely a tour I recommend!
There are mints located in both Ottawa and Winnipeg. The Ottawa Mint makes collection coins and investment coins, while the Winnipeg Mint makes circulation coins and oversees the production of bills. While they do change the inside as technology changes, the outside is preserved in its castle-like form.
The first photo is the outside of the Mint, the second photo is just a moose from the gift shop, and the bottom photo is me holding 28 pounds of gold, worth $650,000!
Also look at this cute and kinda weird Canadian maple leaf doll I got:
So, I guess when I was dropped off outside the National Gallery, I didn’t realize that the Mint was behind me — I walked away from it and kept looking and looking, when it was only three minutes behind me! Eh, it’s funny to laugh about now. Wasn’t so funny when I was lost and didn’t know why!
Next….onto the Bank of Canada!
Next stop was the National Gallery of Canada, but the funny part is I wasn’t actually trying to visit the Gallery. I thought I had gone to the Royal Canadian Mint (more on that tomorrow), and it took me a little longer than I’d like to admit to realize I wasn’t in the right place. After quite a few walls of art, I realized I had ended up in the wrong place and just decided to go with it. Art museums aren’t high up on my list of favorite things in the same way they are for some people, but I did enjoy it and walking around. Click here for a detailed floor plan from their website.
After I finished exploring the Gallery, I decided to walk around and see if I could find the Mint. No such luck, but I did land upon the Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica! I took a few minutes to explore this, which was really interesting seeing as I recently went to the Notre Dame in Paris.
Next, I took a very brief stroll through ByWard Market, which is a tourist hub filled with shops, restauarants, and farmers’ markets. This was not my favorite place because of how busy it was and because I wasn’t really in the mood to window shop, but it was still interesting to walk through. I can definitely attest to the “tourist hub” part.
After crossing the Ottawa River and entering Gatineau, Quebec, I took my first stop at the Canadian Museum of History. This place was huge, which makes sense as Canada’s natural history museum. The museum used to called the Canadian Museum of Civilization, and its purpose, past and present, has been to collect and study objects regarding the history of Canada and its cultural diversity.
Special Exhibitions
Canadian History Hall
Lower Level and Outside
Whenever I travel to a new city, I like to do one of their very tourist-y attractions right off the bat: a bus tour. Why? Because it gives you a layout of the city immediately, you do a big loop through major parts of the city and get some background and history. You also get transportation between the sites that you might be going to anyway. I’ve never regretted it, and I usually do a 2-day pass. I take the first day to do their tour and learn, and then the second day I usually use it more for transportation between sites.
I bought a two-day double decker tour from Lady Dive for Monday, May 21, and Tuesday, May 22. Here is the route that they take:
On the other side of the Ottawa River is the city of Gatineau, Quebec. So, on the map you’ll see the tour crosses into both (and my next post, the Canadian History Museum, takes place in Gatineau). For today, I only stopped at the CHM and then later at the National Gallery. My next two posts will be about those experiences. Check out some photos from around the city as we took the tour!
DAY 1
My last few trips I’ve used Airbnb and had overall good experiences, but I spent a lot of time researching and picking the right place (a blog post for another time).
I didn’t take any photos of the room, but here are the photos they took for their listing:
I really enjoyed this place and the hospitality of the two hosts. The room was $29 USD a night. It was about 10 minutes from downtown, and I usually took an Uber (which was about $10-$14 USD). I liked that they provided a continental breakfast and also a lot of travel tips for me!
If you’re headed to Ottawa, I do suggest checking this room out!
So my Snapchat was obsessively updated, so I’m just going to share the story because it’s pretty thorough and includes details I don’t feel the need to repeat. So enjoy the merging of social media and also my lame humor on Snapchat.
