Four Hours in Ottawa

Four Hours in Ottawa – Parliament Hill

In the morning, the hotel let us buy croissants and lattes by picking our own individual pastries from their buffet, which was unusual and also inexpensive. For our four hours in Ottawa, we decided to Uber multiple times instead of trying to park our rental car repeatedly on our planned one way tour through the highlights of the city. So we headed by Uber to the Memorial Arch, which was the perfect drop location to begin a walk eastward down pedestrian-only Sparks St. We stopped at the Terry Fox statue on Sparks St and then were quickly drawn to Parliament Hill by all the magnificent architecture just a block away.

We started our walking tour of Parliament Hill from the west side, passing the Confederation Building and the House of Commons. They we took the pathway behind Parliament along the river, passing statues of Lester B Pearson and Queen Victoria. Some of the other statues, such as John A MacDonald, we almost consumed by the ongoing construction everywhere. At the East Block on this trail we arrived at the 1812 War Memorial. We then proceeded directly in front of the Peace Tower to see the Centennial Flame. A ceremony was just getting underway for the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.

Next we walked a very few steps to the National War Memorial and admired the numerous statues nearby. Across the street and directly in front of the Fairmont Chateau Laurier, we really enjoyed Famous Five Statues. You can walk among these 5 female statutes, as if you are visiting them instead of feeling like a tourist. We covered the entire Parliament Hill area in about an hour, but we didn’t tour inside the Parliament buildings.

Notre-Dame & Tavern by the Falls

After gazing down at the Rideau Locks, we headed north through Major’s Hill Park to Kiweki Point. Then we walked to the Maman, giant spider, in front of the National Gallery of Canada. Across the street we entered Notre-Dame Ottawa, which was a lovely church. After Notre-Dame we were ready for lunch. A quick and easy Uber ride led us to the Tavern by the Falls just as they opened for the day. We really enjoyed this location. They had more beer on tap then food menu items. Tacos and hot dogs were their mainstay. The poke bowl was good, but the draft Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc was what made my day. Luckily using an Uber instead of our rental car made having a beer worry free too.

King Eddy & the ByWard Market

After our pleasant time at the Tavern by the Falls, we took another short Uber ride to the King Eddy to see this popular tourist spot. We loved the decor and enjoyed a couple milkshakes on the baby blue counter stools, which was perfect. We then strolled through the ByWard Market, passing the famous Obama Cookies on display at the Le Moulin de Provence and passing the ever popular BeaverTails mandatory tourist stop.

From the ByWard Market it was a short walk back to the Fairmont Chateau Laurier, where we descended the stairs to the Rideau Canal. This area is a lot of fun, because you are allowed to walk across the locks. I had to make several crossings over the locks in order to sufficiently enjoy the experience.