Saturday, 5 January

Ottawa

Our last day in Canada. Caught a bus to the Pretoria Bridge which is the start of the part of the Rideau Canal that is open for skating. As the canal freezes they open a section at a time until the full 7km rink is open. Yesterday they opened another kilometre but because the temperature was above freezing it was deemed unsafe and closed again.

From there we went to Dow’s Lake to look for some ice sculptures but we were a month too early. Walked into Little Italy to look for our morning cuppa and then caught another bus back into the city centre.

We had some time so decided to visit the Ottawa Art Gallery which is right next door to our apartment. This gallery has modern art and we were particularly taken with the work of Karin Rashid, a designer of unusual chairs as well as perfume bottles, kettles and all sorts of luxury items.

By now it was time to wander up to the Chateau Laurier for high tea at Zoe’s Lounge. We started with a glass of bubbly which was actually pretty bubbly - a first for us in Canada. Enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon of sandwiches, cakes, tea and good company. Had a look at a gallery of photos of special moments in the hotel’s history, which included some very famous faces, and were sad to see that the man behind its building died on the Titanic.

On the way back to our apartment we just had to pop into Joey Rideau for a last drink, and we were stunned and touched when a couple of the waitresses we’d been chatting to this week brought over a postcard they had signed and a bottle of maple syrup. What a lovely farewell to Ottawa and Canada.

Tomorrow we begin the long journey home so this is probably the last entry for this trip. We’ve survived the cold, learned a lot and had a great time. Thanks Karyn for inviting me along on the adventure