Friday, 4 January

Ottawa

This morning saw us wandering through the Byward Market area. It’s not a big market under one roof, rather an area with a variety of delis, bakeries, pubs and touristy shops. Not nearly as interesting as the great market in Montreal. We did find a bakery that I had read about in The Age’s travel segment. Its famous for Obama cookies because Obama stopped there and bought some. We had our morning cuppa and bun there and the cuppa was served the French way, in big bowls.

From here we went to the National Gallery of Canada, another huge edifice, with some wonderful exhibitions. I was impressed by “Anthropocene”, a collection of enormous photos showing the impact of human activity on the planet and its ecosystems. They were both beautiful and worrying.

There was also a special exhibition of the work of Paul Klee and I was surprised how tiny some of his pictures were, especially the ones with blocks of colour. I liked the whimsical ones too.

We had been told that one of the “must do” things in Ottawa is to eat a beaver tail, so we ticked that one off this afternoon. It’s a deep fried pastry in the shape of a beaver tale and you choose from an assortment of disgustingly sweet toppings. We opted for apple and cinnamon, unlike the man near us who had Nutella, smarties and caramel sauce!

Back into town for a quick drink (the tonic in my gin and tonic was flat) while we waited for it to be time for the light show on the Parliament building. Walked up there with a number of other people and thoroughly enjoyed the magical projections on the building. It was a beautiful, mild evening with lots of families, a snow covered lawn, music and lights.

Missed my Bellini tonight but we thought we should patronise a different place. Another lovely day.