This is a very long day – we are travelling overnight back to Toronto.
Our Airbnb host has offered to take us to the Bus station at 10.30am to put our luggage into storage till our bus at 12.45am next morning.
Worked out well for us – C$3.00 for all day storage – good value.
So now we are ready to explore again but we now need a bus 6 to get from the Greyhound bus station back into downtown Ottawa.
Today we head to the National Galley of Canada and the Canadian Royal Mint – throwing another church into the mix.
So on our way back thru the Majors Hill Park – we have some lunch. Ruth is great for always having prepared snacks and things to eat for lunch.
The Gallery had a special exhibition of Impressionist paintings from the 19th and early 20th centuries. Paintings by Eugene Delacroix, Thomas Couture, Honore Daumier, Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin, Camille Pissarro, Paul Cezzanne, and Henri Matisse. It was great seeing these famous painting. The gallery had a lot of other local artists work too.
There was one that the subject looked so like my lovely wife.
Just down the road is the Canadian Royal Mint. You would think from the name that this is were all the Canadian money is made – but no it is not. This building only makes special and investment coins to a very high and pure standard – using Gold and Silver of 99.9999% purity.
The common coin used daily is minted at another secret location. (They also make our NZ Coins)
Current value approx. Can $7,500,000.00
From here to another Cathedral-Basilica again called Notre Dame ( Our Lady in French). The big difference with this one is that it is all wood inside – the pillars are painted to look like marble but when you knock them – they are wood. Because of this – the roof was make with tin sheets – resently replaced with stainless steel. So outside you have a nice bright shiny roof – not the grey slate tiles the others have. We arrived in time for a tour so was interesting to get all this extra info. I had a good rest here because we still had a lot of time to go before the bus.
Back to Parliament Hill about 6.30 pm to get our place to watch a special display by the Royal Canadian Military Bands and a large group of Scottish bands and a group of old time US army playing their tin whistles.We were in front of the Parliament building looking into the setting sun – so was a bit hard to see some of it but no problem hearing.
The highlight for me was the “1812” just picture this – you have a full band, and the Military with their canons and a group of soliders dressed in early uniforms with old time rifles. And the Peace Tower in front of the Parliament has a set of bells (which play from 11.00 to noon each day)
As the music starts to hot up – the soldiers advance firing their rifles and the canons fire and the bells start playing – the only thing missing was the fireworks we usually have. Loved it.
So by the time this display finished it was 9.30 and we still had time to kill before the bus.
Into Sparks street ( which is walking only) to find somewhere to eat – the first two we pass are full and nosy but the 3 Brewers looked good – busy – so we had a meal there. It was good and their beer went down a treat – even Ruth enjoyed a few mouth fulls.
We still had time so walked the 17 blocks back to the bus station.
Good walk and wait for the bus. Now they do not give out seat numbers on the bus – first in – best seats. I jumped into the line when I realised that was what was happening. We ended up in the front seats – not good for sleeping but I never can and Ruth had no problems dosing off.
Half way between Ottawa and Toronto we stopped for a break and changed drivers. The Toronto driver taking us back to his home and the Ottawa driver returning back to her home.
Very uneventful bus ride and was a good way to return to Toronto without wasting daytime.