Sonya's Blog - Day 53 - Tour Bus and The Parliament Buildings

Sonya’s Blog - Day 52 - August 13th - Tour bus and The Parliament Buildings

We headed off a little earlier this morning so that we could try and get tour tickets to the Parliament Buildings. When we were biking back yesterday, I noticed a parking lot that was closer than the one we had parked at. We headed over there, parked the truck and got on our bikes and headed over to Ottawa. It was much faster today, due to the fact that the parking lot was closer and we knew where we were going. Blake got in line for tickets with Isaac and Tash and I sat with the bikes. It took awhile, but we managed to get a tour for 1:50 PM (the tour is free, but you have to get tickets in order to partake). We decided to head over to the tour bus and do the city tour before our Parliament tour. We hopped on the next bus and off we went.

The tour was in both English and French so the tour guide had to speak very quickly in order to get all the information in at the right times. Most of the tour was in Ottawa, but some was in Gatineau as well. It was really warm when we were in the city centre areas, but once we got into the more open areas and on the bridges, it was super windy and chilly. We went all over the place and saw some of the main sights. We went past Rideau Hall, but you cannot see it from the street, it is too far back on the property, so we will have to come back to check that out. We only had time to do our tour and then get back for our Parliament Tour, no getting on and off for us. We learned some interesting facts, most of which I forget right now. We did learn why there was so much construction going on, it is for the celebrations that are going to take place in 2017 and they want Ottawa and area to be in tip top shape. What celebrations you ask, well in 2017 it will be 150 years since Confederation and they are going to party it up in Ottawa. Natasha and I think we will need to be back for that, better start booking now.

Near the end of the tour we went through the By Ward Market area, which is full of very trendy restaurants and shops and Natasha really wants to head back there to walk around and check it out.

We got back to the Parliament Building area, had time for a quick lunch and then headed over for our tour. We found our group and headed into the buildings, first we had to go through bag check and then airport type security. So not only do they look through your bags, they then scan them just to make sure. Blake’s bag was too big and Isaac had his first aid kit in his bag, which has a small jackknife in it. Blake had to run all the way over to the information booth (which is where we picked up our tickets, but it is all the way across the front lawns and across the street) to check the bags. He managed to make it there and back before our tour started. Our tour covered the main areas of Parliament: The House of Commons, The Senate and The Library. It also covered some of the sculptures, building designs and paintings that are in the building. It was a really good tour.

On Tour at The Parliament Buildings:

At the end of the tour we were allowed to go and explore the Peace Tower and Memorial Room, we were escorted up by security. The Peace Tower was really cool, we went up in an elevator past all the bells and then you came out into a small room that was right below the clock. It provided great views of the Ottawa Valley from all sides.

From the top of The Peace Tower:

We headed back down the elevator and visited the Memorial Room. There are Memorial books in the room, each one dedicated to wars that the Canadian Army has served in. At the very centre of the room is the book for WWI and then around the room are books for the other wars that Canada has been involved in. They have the names of each soldier who died in those wars listed in the book. They have a ceremony every day where the pages are turned, so that each page is opened at least one day per year.

The Memorial Room:

After we were done in the Parliament Buildings we were going to head down to the By Ward Market area, but decided it was too late. We wanted to come back later that night for the lighting ceremony, so we headed back to the campsite.

We were back at the campsite within an hour, but we had a nice surprise when we got back to our truck - a parking ticket. We didn’t read the signs in this parking lot properly and we had a 2 hour limit. So we now owe $38 to the Province of Quebec.

Once back at the campsite we got going on supper and gave Kizzy lots of love and walks. After supper we all loaded into the car, including Kizmet as she was allowed to experience the lighting ceremony as it was on the front lawn of The Parliament Buildings. I had found a parking lot that was not far from the buildings so we headed over there. It took about 10 minutes to get to the front lawn and get our chairs all set up. We had about an hour before the ceremony started. Tash and I head over to Sparks Mall to walk around (it is a 5 or 6 block area, a block over from the Parliament Buildings, that is Pedestrian only). There wasn’t much happening, except for an outdoor dance floor and DJ and some Salsa Dancing. We walked the whole length of it and then headed back over to our spot on the lawn with 15 minutes to go until the ceremony. Blake and Isaac had stayed behind and did some blog posting as there was free wifi on Capitol Hill. We have paid for internet at our campsite, but it doesn’t work very well, and hardly at all at our site. Furthermore, we have no cell service so we are having problems posting.

The lighting ceremony started and it was really good, even Kizmet was enthralled and watched most of the show. They were projecting images onto the front of the Centre Block. They started with the history of the Parliament buildings by showing us what the parliament buildings looked like prior to burning down in 1916.Then they showed the fire, picture here:

The show then went through various areas of history, government, war, the people of Canada, etc to illustrate how our country was shaped and the values that we hold to be truly Canadian. They ended with the singing of O’Canada. It took a second or two for the crowd to realize they were actually going to sing the whole anthem and then everyone started standing up and lots of people sang along. It was so patriotic and fantastic, without being over the top. After the fantasticness of this little presentation we think that coming back in 2017 is a must.

At the end of the show we packed up and headed back to the truck. It was pretty late by this time so we just headed back to camp and called it a night.

Sonya