Departing Montreal, it was an approximately two hour, somewhat uninteresting journey along the Trans-Canada Highway to Ottawa, the capital of Canada.

After a quick lunch upon our arrival into the city, our first proper stop of the day was to Parliament hill to visit the Parliament of Canada. As the timing of the full tour did not fit our schedule, we ended up only visiting the Peace Tower, which had fairly good views of the city. I did love the architecture of the buildings though, as they were reminiscent of the British Parliamentary buildings in London.

From parliament hill, we then took a stroll along the neighbouring Rideau Canal. The historical canal cuts through the city, and was constructed to allow boats to connect to the Ottawa River by bypassing two waterfalls on the Rideau River.

After our walk, we paid a brief visit to the nearby ByWard Markets, before going for a fairly nice dinner at Must Kitchen & Wine Bar, located adjacent to the markets.

Later that evening, we returned to the grounds of Parliament Hill for Mosaika, a nightly light show (For a few months a year anyway) that told the story of Canada's history. The show reminded me of how the Sydney Opera House gets lit up at Sydney's annual VIVID festival, but I'd say that this felt a little more interesting and educational.

Our second day in Ottawa began with breakfast at Art Is In Bakery, which was apparently one of Ottawa's top rated food places. It was located in a fairly industrial looking neighbourhood (We thought that we had gone to the wrong place when the GPS brought us to the address), and had a somewhat industrial ambience to it.

Ottawa, while situated in the province of Ontario, is separated from the province of Quebec by just the Ottawa River. This was where we headed after breakfast, for a visit to Gatineau Park (Parc de la Gatineau). It was quiet and relaxing while we were there, and very, very green; It would have been much prettier when the full autumn colours came around (A few trees where only starting to change when we visited). Gatineau Park is massive, and we only made several stops for short walks and viewpoints. While there, we also paid a short visit to the Mackenzie King Estate, a historical homestead within the park.

Pink lake, one of the scenic viewing areas that we stopped at

The grounds of the Mackenzie King Estate

We returned to Ottawa for lunch, then paid a visit to the grounds of Rideau Hall, the residence and office of the Governor General of Canada. We had another easy stroll while there, and found a beautiful red maple leaf. Very early in the season, this one.

Redest leaf that we found on the entire trip, on the grounds of Rideau Hall

From the grounds, we headed for an early dinner at a restaurant named Town for my brother's birthday. With its fairly unassuming name and equally unassuming exterior, one might think that it was just another restaurant. However, what we got instead was probably some of the best food that we had in all of Canada. If I could only make one food recommendation for this entire trip, it would definitely have to be this restaurant.

After dinner, we managed to squeeze in a sunset walk by the Rideau Falls, which marked the point where the Rideau River entered the Ottawa River, before we ended our day.

Rideau Falls and the Ottawa River at Sunset

We departed Ottawa the next morning, but made one last stop on the way out, at Hog's Back Falls, located somewhat upstream of the city on the Rideau River. A quick photo stop and a bit of a stroll, and it was off on the long drive towards our next destination.

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Till the next time,

Raylen