Ottawa, Ontario

Ottawa was our second stopover in Canada and another one I (vaguely) remember from my DJing days.  I remembered it being much less French than Montreal, which suited me as I was getting nowhere fast trying to get hold of a pay-as-you-go SIM card when we were in Montreal.  My French is decent enough but Quebec French is very different:  different accent, different slang, words have different meanings.  For all I know, I'd just spent a week loudly telling the locals that "the cat is in the swimming pool".

Our research told us that the Robert Guertin Arena was an RV-friendly place to stay for a few days in Ottawa.  Little did we know until we got there that it was located in the middle of Gatineau, Ottawa's Québécoise neighbour just across the river.  Still, it was a great base so we just had to practice our French for a few more days.

I got my first opportunity when I had to break up a fight between two homeless people shortly after arriving.  I enjoyed Bumfights as much as anyone, but it's a bit different when it's happening on your own doorstep.  Besides, one of them was covered in blood and the last time I cleaned the RV it took me an entire day, so I was keen to diffuse the situation before any bodily fluids started being thrown around.  Anyway, it's interesting to note that some of the harshest swear words seem to be pretty universal; I definitely made out a few C-bombs being dropped as one of the protagonists slurred obscenities at me like some French version of Ozzy Osborne.  Welcome to Ottawa!

Crazies aside, we loved our time in Ottawa.  The city and surrounding areas are riddled with cycle-paths, giving us plenty of opportunity to explore on our own terms.

Ottawa is Canada's capital city, chosen by Queen Victoria for its location right on the border between the East and West Canadian colonies, as well as its defensible position surrounded (at the time) by dense forest, while allowing easy transportation via the Ottawa River and Rideau Canal.

No surprise then that Parliament Hill with its impressive architecture is a focal point of the city.

Our cycle trails guided us along the river, providing some amazing views of the city:

Several statues watch over the river, like Samuel De Champlain here, founder of New France and Quebec City in 1608.

Our route led us into nearby Parc De La Gatineau, and a gruelling uphill cross-country slog to Pink Lake.

There's nothing pink about the hue of the water, so I can only assume the name refers to the colour of my vision by the time we finished the blood-vessel rupturing 4 hour trek to the viewpoint.

We had planned to walk around the lake once we got there, but shortly after this photo was taken, I decided that collapsing in a heap and waiting for my limbs to work again would be more productive.

Fortunately the return journey was a lot easier, downhill all the way.  As a mountain biker, you'd struggle to find such a perfect mix of scenery, taxing uphill work and exhilarating downhills so I'd recommend these trails to anyone interested in biking.

After all that work, our evening was a fairly short one, featuring several well-deserved beers and some delicious but over-priced local tapas.

We very nearly skipped Ottawa and if you look at Trip Advisor and similar websites, you could be forgiven for thinking that there isn't much there to draw the casual tourist.  We found plenty to keep us amused for a few days though, in fact in many ways it was our favourite of the 3 major Canadian cities we visited (the other two being Montreal and Toronto).  It's also very clean and, despite our eventful welcome to the city, seems noticeably short on run down areas and crime.