It is in two halves, one is English speaking and the other, known as Gatineau, over the river Ottawa, which is French speaking. Interestingly Kingston was the original Federal Capital but it was far too close to the US - in the days of border skirmishes - and it did not really have a French dimension - so, from the alternatives offered to her, Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as a replacement. We hopped off the bus for lunch, which turned out to be a small mistake, because getting back on another later one turned out to be very time consuming, and we waited in the heat of the day with the sun beating down.
Off next to the Parliament building, based on our own, to have a tour of the grounds and inside. This was very interesting and the guides did their jobs well.
We even had time to go to the top of the Peace Tower, a clock tower a little like St Stephen's tower, to get the panoramic views over the city.
There is a canal, the Rideau, that was constructed in the 19th century from Kingston to Ottawa, joining up a number of lakes. It is no longer used commercially and like our own canal system is mostly used by pleasure craft. We could see some of the locks from the clock tower.
When we had finished the tour, time was marching on, so we split off from our other friends and headed back to Howe Island along the route of the canal, stopping off at Merrickville for dinner just across from the locks.
Then it was back to Howe Island using Bruce's second sight navigational prowess. The rest of us did not have clue where to turn at junctions mainly because the Canadians do not seem to have signposts, but Bruce just trusted his judgement and got us home safely.
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