Sunday in Ottawa

In stead of raising our “Bible Study, Come and Join Us” flag we decided to attend a church that was just two blocks away this morning.  After church we walked about this beautiful sparkling clean city.

The view from the bridge we crossed was the Parks Canada Office for the Rideau Canal locks 1 through 8 with Parliament showing in background.

On the bridge were two darling little girls playing their violins and earning some $ as folks who stopped to listen placed coins in their music cases.

We have not yet found out what this building was but the top of it looked like a castle.

On the way to Parliament Hill we passed this outdoor restaurant. There is also seating under the trees on sofas!

This is a closer view of the Chateau Laurier Hotel at top of locks.

Then we started climbing up the side of Parliament Hill... beautiful grounds everywhere.

Here's a back view of this massive building.

This is one side of the clock tower on the Parliament building.

 There was a fire February 3, 1916 that destroyed the clock tower... the fire had raged for hours but didn't touch the tower until 11p and at the stoke of Midnight the bell “boomed out from the mass of flames” the hour of 12a! The people were awe stuck that were watching the fire... here is the bell...

For the country's 125 anniversary a monument was unveiled of Queen Elizabeth the II sitting on her horse, Centennial.  It took 10 workers two years to create this statue.

The most unusual building to us was the Library of Parliament.  It has flying buttresses all around it.  Contains 600,000 items (volumes, etc.) and takes 300 staff members to run it.

This is where we will be at 10a tomorrow watching the “changing of the guard”. It is a 50 minute ceremony that takes place every day. We also hope to tour Parliament later in the morning.