Continuing on with my blogs from my Ottawa (Canada) trip in May, here's installment #2 of 3. You can read Part 1
here.
This segment features the Notre Dame cathedral and a boat cruise on the Ottawa River which shows:
- some of the locks on the Rideau Canal leading to the Ottawa River.
- the Canadian Museum of Civilization.
- the Parliament buildings.
pic # 1. Notre Dame cathedral
Ottawa's oldest standing and largest Church.
This is the seat of the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Ottawa and the Mother Church of all of the parishes of the Archdiocese of Ottawa.
The steeples are topped with standard French-Canadian tin and bells.
pic # 2. The locks on the Ottawa River
The Ottawa Locks, view from the Plaza Bridge (looking West - locks # 1-8 are in the picture).
These locks are the reason for the founding of Ottawa and represent an amazing engineering achievement in the middle of the Canadian wilderness of the early 19th century.
The locks connect the channel of the Rideau Canal in Ottawa to the Ottawa River, almost 24.4m (80 feet) below.
The Rideau Canal is operated today by Parks Canada as a recreational waterway. The locks on the system open for navigation in mid-May and close in mid-October.
pic # 3. The beautiful stone lockstation building can be seen, and farther down on the left side is the former Commissariat, now the Bytown Museum.
In 1925 the Rideau Canal was designated a National Historic Site of Canada (plaqued in 1926 and again in 1962).
In 2000 the Rideau Waterway was designated a Canadian Heritage River in recognition of its outstanding historical and recreational values.
In 2007 it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site recognizing it as a work of human creative genius.
Check the following links for more information:
http://www.rideau-info.com/canal/history/locks/h01-08-ottawa.html
http://www.rideau-info.com/canal/locks/01-08-ottawa.html
http://www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/on/rideau/natcul/natcul2/natcul2v.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rideau_Canal
pic # 4. The boat that we took for the cruise approaching the dock (you can see the Canadian Museum of Civilization in the distance).
pic # 5. The Canadian Museum of Civilization
The Canadian Museum of Civilization lets visitors discover the wealth of Canada’s culture as they travel across history through life-size reconstructions.
The history of this land and other lands is vividly brought to life in the many exhibitions.
The Museum of Civilization is the most popular and most visited museum in Canada.
With roots stretching back to 1856, it is one of North America’s oldest museums.
To compliment its permanent life-sized exhibits, the museum is also home to the Canadian children’s museum, the Canadian Postal Museum and an IMAX theater.
Containing more exhibition space than any other museum or art gallery in Canada, the Canadian Museum of Civilization boasts 25 000 m2 (269 000 ft2) of exhibition space.
In total, the complex houses more than a dozen exhibition spaces, 3 750 000 artifacts, two theatres, four boutiques, three restaurants, and over 500 employees.
Located just five minutes from downtown Ottawa, the Museum of Civilization boasts artifacts and life sized exhibits that will help you discover 20,000 years of Canadian human history.
With more than one million visitors each year, the Canadian Museum of Civilization is a destination of choice in the National Capital Region, and is an architectural jewel designed by Canadian architect Douglas Cardinal.
Cardinal's use of circular ritual space in his architectural style means that there is no preferred point of view for the building itself; instead there are many viewing points, determined by tangents on arcs of circles.
One perspective after another reveals itself as the viewer moves around and through the building, offering plenty of scope to photographers.
Did You Know?
- The Museum of Civilization is Canada’s largest and most popular museum!
- The Canadian Museum of Civilization has the world's largest collection of totem poles.
- The architectural design of the Museum represents the Canadian Shield, glaciers and their streams, and the Great Plains.
- The Tyndall limestone covering the Museum is embedded with fossils predating the first dinosaurs by some 250 million years.
Learn more about the Museum by going to the following links:
http://www.civilization.ca/home
http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cmc/architecture/tour01e.shtml
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/canadian-museum-of-civilization
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/articles/douglas-joseph-cardinal
http://www.djcarchitect.com/
http://dcardinalproject.tumblr.com/
pic # 6. Canada's Parliament buildings, as viewed from the Ottawa River.
pic # 7. returning to dock at the end of the cruise, with the Chateau Laurier in the distance.
I hope you enjoyed sharing my trip and thanks for visiting my blog. Please leave your comments below to let me know if you've been to Ottawa, or what you liked most about this article.
Judy
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