Day 9 : Touring Ottawa

We got up this morning and booked the room for another day then got ready to head downtown. The city is pretty easy to get around if you RTFM ( M for Map ). We parked in a parkade downtown and walked a block to the Parliament buildings. We walked around Parliament Hill and took a bunch of pictures before taking a tour on the Center Block at 14:30. I had a chat with a young Mountie who was out there on horseback. The tour was very good and we learned a bunch of stuff about the history of the place. We were in the House of Commons and the Senate Chamber and the Library. It's a very impressive building. Too bad it's wasted on politicians. We then took the elevator to the observation deck at the top of the Peace Tower. While we were up there I was talking to one of the security gaurds and a lady standing near by overheard me say I was a retired cop from Calgary. She asked me if I knew Paul Phibbs so I told her he was my first sargeant when I hit the street in 76. She was Paul's niece. We had a good visit. After the tour we walked around downtown and went for lunch then walked along the Rideau canal. We then jumped on the bike and rode around a bit. We went down Sussix Dr. past the PM's res and Rideau Hall where the Gov. General lives. We would have stopped in for a chin wag but we wanted to get back to the Hill for the lazer light show at 21:00. We watched that and then rode back to the motel....Another busy day.