A Different Route Today

Today I decided to take a different route, and at first I had in mind to do a short walk.  The weather forecasts all called for rain and possible thunderstorms, so it seemed prudent to be closer to home base.  Well, as usual, after half an hour or so, my legs took me on a whole new itinerary, and the walk eventually took over three hours.

You'd think I would have learned by now!

Things started innocently enough.  Somehow I found myself in Landsdowne Park.

The area, Landsdowne, is actually a rather large urban park, comprising some 40 acres.  The building shown in the picture is an important landmark.  It's called the Aberdeen Pavilion, and originally was for military purposes, especially during WW1.  It then took on a new life as an exhibition hall, among other things.  On the other side of the building you can see a monument dedicated to the Princess Patricia Light Infantry, a very famous unit in Canadian army history.

Landsdowne is now a shopping and dining mecca, and offers a lot of fancier stores and restaurants.  Whole Foods, for instance, is there.  But it is also home to a sports destination.

The pictures above are of TD Place Stadium.  The original stadium was simply called Landsdowne Park, and for the longest while that was its name.  Then in the 1990s (I think) it got renamed Frank Clair (?) Stadium, and more recently, TD Bank bought naming rights and the stadium was renamed TD Place Stadium.  Notice the seats are red and black?  The local CFL (Canadian Football League) team is called the Ottawa Red Blacks.  I have no idea (nor interest) what that means.  It was called the Rough Riders in my day, and one of my favourite players (TONY GABRIEL) was on the team.  If you're reading this, Tony, you now know why.

Moving out of Landsdowne, I continued on and came across the Bank Street Bridge.  Yes, another bridge in Ottawa.  You shouldn't be surprised by now!

Quite a nice looking bridge, I think.  The current bridge was built in 1912, replacing previous wooden structures that collapsed.  The bridge crosses the Rideau Canal, which can be seen in the picture as well.

Further along, I saw this really nice cove.

At the southern edge of an area called The Glebe, this is Brown's Inlet and comprises two ponds.  It's quite a pleasant spot, and there are lots of rather expensive rooms (not surprisingly) in the area.

I had little idea of where I was heading, but I kept going forward, and next thing I knew, I was at a park!

Turned out this was a part of what is called Commissioner's Park (a much larger area than the little spot I show here).  And, Commissioner's Park is where the annual Ottawa Tulip Festival takes place!

In case you're wondering -- Ottawa, Tulips, huh???? --- after WW2 Holland gifted thousands of tulips to Canada for its role in liberating the country.  Yeah, I know, judging from Canada's military presence today, you would never guess, but during WW1 and WW2 Canada was actually a major player (e.g. One of the five Normandy beaches was assaulted by Canada, and after WW2 Canada had the world's fourth largest navy).  Anyway, so every year, around May, a massive tulip festival is held in Ottawa.  At Commissioner's Park.

And not far from there, in fact, right across, is this large body of water.

This is Dow's Lake, named after an early settler in Ottawa.  It's an artificial lake, which feeds into (or from?) the Rideau Canal.  There's even a railway tunnel underneath, which today is used as part of the Ottawa Light Rail system.  In winter, one can rent skates, etc., and in summer, canoes, kayaks, paddle boats, etc.  Pretty neat to have this right on the edge of the downtown core!  I took a short video of the lake as well, as shown below.

Spielberg I'm not, but hopefully it gives you a better idea about the lake.

Well, after that, I was homeward bound.  And running low on water too.  Till next time!

Oh, and the thunderstorms?  They didn't come.