Ottawa

I'm getting lazy again!

After Montreal, we hopped on the Trans Canada Highway and headed west a few hours to the national capital, Ottawa.  We stayed at a nice municipal campground just outside of town, a lovely spot in the woods but close to town.  We did a lot of running around, country drives, sitting outside and enjoying the weather, but no touring downtown.  I know they have some cultural attractions downtown, but the traffic getting down there always seemed daunting.  Plus, I had a lot of work to do on the laptop, so we stayed closer to "home" on the west side of town.  Laurie did find a really cool attraction outside of town that was right up my alley.  During the Cold War, Canada built a doomsday bunker outside of town (near us) for the government to operate out of.  It was decommissioned in the 90's and turned over to a private conservancy.  Very interesting tour and reminder of what things were like back then.  Hard to believe it's been almost 30 years since the wall came down.  Only a couple pictures:

The entrance to the Diefenbunker, jokingly named for the PM at the time, John Diefenbaker.

The entrance tunnel through the blast door.  They built the bunker by excavating a hillside, building a 3 story concrete structure with 3-foot walls, then burying the whole thing.  Reminded me a lot of the entry tunnel to Cheyenne Mountain, one of our own "DiefenBunkers."

3 Days in Montreal

Wow, what a cool city.  We camped 4 nights at the Montreal South KOA, an easy 15 minute drive to the nearest metro station.  Montreal is full of history and culture, we might need to come back some day.  On each of our 3 days, we'd park for $10 a day (conversion rate made that $7.60 USD) and ride the subway into town.  It was $19 each for a 3-day ride pass, so pretty cheap transportation.  We were able to tour Old Port Montreal, the Point de Calliere history museum, Jardin botanical garden, the Olympic center (site of the 1976 summer games), and take a river cruise.  We also did a lot of just walking around checking out the city.  It was really beautiful, and we had decent weather.  Too hot though, close to 90 degrees every day in late July, too much like Florida!  Here are some pictures from our days spent sight-seeing:

Lots of sidewalk cafes, just like Paris!

The Olympic Stadium from 1976, back when Bruce Jenner was the world's greatest male athlete.  We took a ride up the tower that holds up the roof of the stadium.

Fountains at the Jardin Botanique

You know you're in a tourist town when identical rental rigs start lining up

'76 was Nadia's year, so they erected a monument to her gymnastics performance

They had a small petting zoo at the KOA with goats and chickens.  Missy got along just fine, no barking or anything

More identical rental rigs, different company

The view from the Olympic Stadium tower. 

Montreal City Hall

Canada and Quebec flags

Intrepid travelers on a boat tour of the Saint Lawrence River

An original sewer from a few hundred years ago.  The Pont de Calliere museum preserved and lit it up for our walking pleasure.

Duck ramp at the city park

Skyline from the Saint Lawrence

The museum had Egyptian artifacts on loan from an Italian expedition that unearthed a few tombs about a hundred years ago.  The artifacts were from about 1200-1500 BC.