FROM MONTREAL TO OTTAWA

28 JULY 2022 – OTTAWA, ONTARIO, CANADA

The past two weeks have been filled with more wondrous adventures and interesting experiences. The more time we spend in this part of Canada, the more we appreciate its rich history, its culture and its variety of art and architectural treasures. Above is the spectacular skyline of Parliament Hill in Ottawa.

We enjoyed our stay in Montreal—a large, modern city of 1.5 million people with many older well-preserved historic buildings including the Notre-Dame Basilica where we spent time with dear Looper friends, listened to a special organ concert and took in the sacred beauty of its stunning stain glass and awe-inspiring interior.

As we approached Montreal from Quebec City, we were particularly fascinated by a very tall and unusual tower jutting out at a very odd angle…and realized later that it is part of the Montreal Biodome created for the 1956 Olympics, which we saw from atop Mount Royal on our 2-hour Gray Line Bus Tour.

 From our boat on the St. Lawrence River From Mount Royal

FUN FACT:  Hockey was invented in Montreal. It is said that two enterprising students at Montreal’s McGill University not only invented the hockey puck but the general rules of the game of hockey as it is known today. It was March of 1875 that the first “organized” game in hockey history took place and a national passion was born. By the time the National Hockey League was formed (1917), the 8-year-old Montreal Canadiens franchise was already the pride of Montreal.

We also discovered that the metropolitan area of Montreal is made up of over 380 islands and that Mount Royal is the city’s center. It has an altitude of 233 meters (764’) and no building in Montreal may exceed this height.

It wasn’t until we left Montreal that we realized how large Montreal is. It took us four days by boat to navigate around it onto the Ottawa River! That in itself was quite the adventure as we passed (or were passed by) several large cargo ships and tankers who were making their way to and from Lake Ontario.

We then found ourselves in a very large St. Lawrence Seaway Lock (big enough for these big commercial ships) with over 30 other pleasure boats! We were rafted together in rows of three or four and it took nearly two hours to go through the loading, elevating and unloading. The first boats in are the first ones out, and each must carefully tie up (to the wall or to another boat) and then untie when it’s time to move on. Patience is obviously pretty important, plus some times it’s really fun to visit with those on boats tied up near us as we all work together to make sure boats are secure and well-fendered. Below you can see how boats are “rafted” up.

We went through two other locks on our way to Ottawa. The Carillon Canal Lock had a very unique guillotine gate that we had to go under as we entered. (That was kind of creepy!) We were the last boat in, so we watched it lower behind us so they could fill the lock with water. It only took about 40 minutes to get in and out of this lock as it was quite a bit smaller and there were fewer boats. 

Once we’d gone through several fairly large and wide lakes, cruising the Ottawa River toward Ottawa (97 miles) reminded us a lot of the Upper Hudson River and Lake Champlain Channel… lots of trees, scattered homes of various sizes with large lawns sloping down to the water’s edge…all very beautiful. The only surprise is that we’ve seen very few birds…only occasional seagulls and cormorants. We did see one kingfisher and they are very fun to watch as they hover like a helicopter over the water before diving for small fish!

Our stay in Ottawa has been filled with sightseeing, relaxing, provisioning and some extensive planning for the next leg of our journey. Once again we chose to take a two-hour Gray Line Tour of the area and that was great fun! Ottawa is the Capitol of Canada, and it was exciting to see the Parliament building (below) on Parliament Hill, “the home of Canadian democracy and a symbol of national pride.” There are many statues and monuments surrounding it, including a Centennial Flame and Peace Tower. We drove along the Rideau Canal (our next big adventure), popular shopping and eatery neighborhoods and lovely parks, and passed many embassies as well as the home of Prime Minister Trudeau at 24 Sussex Drive perched above the Ottawa River.

A favorite stop was at the Canadian Museum of History. The building itself was a marvel both inside and out and, even though we didn’t see all of the exhibits, we especially enjoyed an animated movie called “The Seven Laws of Life” in which a young man goes on a vision quest and is introduced to the Seven Laws: Respect, Love, Courage, Honesty, Wisdom, Humility and Truth. There was also an amazing collection of totem poles.

We’re really glad we chose to spend time in three of Canada’s biggest cities–Quebec, Montreal and Ottawa–and we did enjoy each of them, but we are now very ready to get back to places more remote and less traveled.

As mentioned before, our next big adventure is cruising down the Rideau (Ree’doe) Canal from Ottawa to Kingston, Ontario. It’s supposed to “one of the most beautiful places on the Loop,” so we’re very excited to begin. We’re not sure how many stops we’re going to make–we may go slower; we may go faster. One of the best things about the Loop is that we don’t have to be in any hurry and, if we want to change our schedule, we can! It’s a pretty nice way to live and we continue to enjoy this wondrous boating lifestyle. We hope you’re enjoying it too as you cruise along with us. Blessings always!