Today was a slow drive up through the lakes and rivers of the Rideau Canal.
We drove north on the Route 10 out through Inverary, Perth Road, Buck Lake and Westport. This whole area is just lake after lake after river. It was a really nice drive with great scenery on all sides, though it would have been better with some sunshine. I can image that this area would be really busy in Summertime. We arrived at the little town on Perth just before lunch and after a quick stop at the local distillery headed into town. One of the first things we saw in town was a Cheese shop so we had to stop and have a taste, at which point we decided that a picnic lunch featuring cheeses was our way to go. This then resulted in a browse up and down the main street collecting bread, salami etc to complete our meal.
It was rather cold out so it was a quite short picnic, but it was fun!
Back on the road following the Rideau River, through Smiths Falls, Merrickville
And Kemptville, then right beside the river and into Ottawa. It was a beautiful drive, the houses beside the river just kept getting bigger and fancier the closer we got and river kept getting tamer and tamer with more evidence of the canal coming though.
We went right through the center of Ottawa, past the Chateau Laurier.
The rather magnificent Angence Revenu Canada,
And out to a much seedier side of town to our Home for the night - the Holiday Inn Downtown Ottawa East. It was a nice hotel, but the surroundings left a lot to be desired. A homeless shelter across the road and run down townhouses all around.
Rather than try and walk to dinner we decided to head out to the Clocktown Brew Pub across the river in Kingsview Park. A much nicer place to walk around after dark.
Day 4 - Around Ottawa
It was raining again this morning which wasn't great - I had planned to walk around Ottawa today seeing all the sights. Instead we decided to take a drive out to the Rideau Falls where the Rideau River meets the Ottawa river.
From there we headed along the river.
To the home of the RCMP. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police - The Mounties. We were really hoping to see some of the horses but unfortunately none of them were around this morning so we spent an hour or so browsing the museum before heading back into town. We decided we may as well try booking into our room even though it was still early. We are staying at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier tonight.
The only problem was trying to get into this place. Now normally you would just drive up to the front entrance, but the entrance was blocked off with a whole bunch of construction - we drive around that place 4 times before finally finding the tiny little sliver of opening that allowed you to drive in....
Thankfully we were able to get straight in. Our room for the night.
We took ourselves on a tour of the hotel. Its beautiful, but also quite old.
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| Hallway to our room. |
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| Elevators in the lobby. |
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| Main Lobby |
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| Main Lobby |
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| Mezzanine Level |
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| Original Pool from 1912 |
Its a beautiful Hotel. But I wanted to see some more of the city too - Thankfully it had stopped raining so we went out for a walk.
First order of business was lunch. We walked down into the main shopping district and found a little place that did build your own pizzas (or Subway for Pizza as we nicknamed them). We then headed back past the Chateau
And to the locks on the Rideau Canal.
It was so strange to see them without any water in them. They had been totally drained for the winter.
We walked down to check them out up close.
They are such stunning buildings - unfortunately they are under reconstruction at the moment so a lot of them was covered in scaffolding.
We walked back through the downtown area but it was getting cold so we headed back to the hotel.
For dinner we walked back into the downtown area and went to DÁrcy McGees Irish pub. Again shared a bunch of Apps. Then since we could we walked back down to Byward Market and got a beaver tail each for dessert - Yum!
And OK I know I've gone overboard with the Chateau Photos but this is the last one I promise.
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