Ottawa.

I visited a friend of mine in Ottawa twice before this trip, but because he’s from there, we didn’t really do all of the touristy things that Ottawa has to offer. This time, I went with my family, and we even brought along our cat.

Ottawa, along with Gatineau just across the border, is a culturally rich city with a large collection of beautiful architecture and interesting museums. Most of the points of interest are within walking distance of each other so we didn’t even need to worry about transit.

Pictured here is the interior of the Canadian War Museum during a heavy rainstorm. It seemed slightly odd to me that a country known for its peacefulness would have such a huge museum dedicated to the topic of war in its capital, but the exhibitions were very interesting nonetheless.

The city also has an impressive collection of Canadian art at the National Gallery of Canada. The intricate skylight of the grand hall designed by Moshe Safdie is pictured here. Last time I came here, I didn’t actually enter the Gallery but I did see the impressive colonnade linking the entrance to the grand hall. Unfortunately, that was under renovations this time around.

My friend highly recommended that we take a short trip across the border into Gatineau Park, an oasis of greenery where Canada’s elite used to take their vacations from the capital. Pictured above is flora growing in Pink Lake, a lake that is most certainly not pink but was named after the Pink family. In fact, the lake is usually green in the summer due to large algae populations.

The interesting thing about this lake is that because of the cliffs surrounding it, water at the bottom of the lake is sheltered from wind and is unable to circulate. As a result, the water near the bottom has not been in contact with air in 10,000 years and thus contains no oxygen whatsoever.

Back on the Ottawa side, we visited the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica, a remarkable piece of architecture with twin bell towers covered in shining tin and an interior that would fool anyone into thinking it was made of marble. In fact, the interiors were created by master woodworkers who created the intricate designs completely out of wood.

And that concluded our short family vacation to Ottawa. Hopefully I’ll have another chance at visiting during Winterlude to do some iceskating on the Rideau Canal before it all melts!