First, it is always going to take us longer than we think to get from one place to another.
Second, attempting to find parking for our RV in the middle of a city will also take you forever.
Third, Ottawa is a nice city. But definitely one in which you spend either a few hours or a few days. We did the former…
So instead of the hour and a half that we envisioned, it took us three hours to get around Montreal and into the National Capital of Canada. Then it took us another hour or so to find parking for the RV… Finally we parked semi-legally in a 2 hour maximum lot that seemed to be a million blocks away from the National Parliament, the main attraction we were there to check out. But we have our trusty bikes, so in no time we found our way to the center of Ottawa, Ontario.
On such a short timetable, we weren’t able to do the Parliament tour this time around but we made a nice big loop around the buildings while Megs read the walking tour brochure and told me about the interesting parts…
The Canadian National Parliament has three main buildings. The Central, East, and West Blocks. And I made snide comments about the brochure pointing out that they were designed in the gothic style. See for yourself… Duh.
The Library in the back was pretty sweet though…
You may have noticed that the massive tower in the front doesn’t really fit the rest of the building proportionally. And you’d be right, the original tower was destroyed when the bell broke loose and took out most of it. Then they built what they have dubbed, The Peace Tower…
But don’t worry, they found the bell a nice little spot on the grounds.
The Supreme Court building was next door…
And of course, Parliamentary Hill would not be complete without the cat sanctuary…
That’s right. A cat sanctuary. A hotel for random cats that walk around as they please. I can’t make this stuff up…
And from the hill we could see several of the 20 or so museums that Ottawa has to offer…
This is why it is best to just come for a few hours and see the city, or spend several days and check out all the museums.
The rest of the city was nice as well. Felt like a huge university basically. Took a couple other cool pictures...
But we had places to go and things to see so it was back on the road again. We said goodbye to Ontario and hello to upstate New York!! Back on our native soil! Feels, well, the same as before…
What we saw of the “1000 Island Region” crossing the border was pretty sweet though. May need to go back some day and explore that further.
We then tried to take the scenic route along Lake Ontario, route 3. But it turns out we Americans like our privacy and our waterfront property… Aka, not many views of the lake to be seen along the road. Oh well, can’t win them all…
What was a big win, however, was our first indulgence of the trip! Dinosaur BBQ in Syracuse, NY. Yum. We had to endure an hour wait because it was a Friday night and all but the food was well worth it. I’m sure the BBQ in the south will be amazing, but this will definitely do for now! Plus it was nice to just sit, relax, have a beer, and not have any place to be after a long long day of driving.
We found ourselves a Walmart and I am exhausted… Tomorrow we can sleep in a little, and then it is off across Upstate New York, checking out Geneva and Rochester along the way to Buffalo.
For all you Canada lovers out there, don’t worry. We’ll be back across the border before you know it!!
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