Ottawa’s Hop-on Hop-off bus doesn’t start until 10am so we had plenty of time to get up the road to the first stop. On the way, we had to visit that Canadian institution, Tim Horton’s, for a bit of breakfast.

With that very important step out of the way, we wandered up to the end (or the start?) of Spark St Mall, to get on the bus. It’s right near a fancy, and somewhat pointy, Post Office.

All aboard! Well due to the weather being a bit grey and cool (not cold – about 13 degrees) – we had the top of the bus all to ourselves, and only 3 or 4 other passengers in the downstairs section.

We learnt a few interesting things – there are lots of tulips planted in Ottawa. That’s a result of the Dutch royal family staying in exile in Ottawa during the Second World War. During this a time one of the princesses was pregnant – but to maintain the lineage of the monarchy, the child must be born on Dutch soil. So, Lo and behold, the hospital room in which the princess was staying was declared as Dutch soil, so all the rules were maintained. When the royal family were able to return home, they sent a gift of 100,000 tulip bulbs as a thank you. Nowadays, there are about 2-3 million tulips planted at this time of year. I guess it’s a tiny nit warmer here than Montreal, as a number of them have started to bloom.

We also learned that the huge Rideau canal which we followed for much of the bus route, totally freezes over in winter and they turn it in to the worlds largest naturally frozen ice rink. It is 7.8km long and becomes a bit of a community hub, not to mention a commuter corridor for people who are keen enough to skate to work.

Here are a bunch of other things we saw from the bus.

After we did a lap on the bus we took a walk down one of the shopping streets, which had some nice shops and restaurants. After a while we hopped back on the bus to get us back to Byward Market, near where we’re staying.

Byward Market is full of eateries and some Knick-knack market shops. We had a quick wander around and opted for dumplings. Delicious! Even the ‘peanut butter pork’ ones were good despite sounding a bit interesting. It mightn’t look too appetizing but it was all delicious.

Another thing we went past on the bus was all the setting up for a very important event – Poutine-fest! Surely that’s about as Canadian as it gets – so definitely gotta check that our tomorrow if we can.

For dinner we didn’t wander very far, back to ByWard Market, this time for ‘Meltwich’ – good burgers and great fries. And followed it up with Fro Yo because of course you have to have Fro Yo now and then.

Aaaand that’s about it for this quiet day. More tomorrow.