Mike Jutan's World: Ottawa 2010 Day 2: Parliament and Mosaika

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Ottawa 2010 Day 2: Parliament and Mosaika

Day 2 in Ottawa was great. I headed to the Parliament buildings and went on a tour inside, seeing both the House of Commons and the Senate which was super awesome. The architecture was really impressive. When the tour finished I headed outside just in time to see the changing of the guard. Then a wander through ByWard Market for a beaver tail (don't worry my American friends, it's not an *actual* beaver tail) :) and then to the Royal Canadian Mint.

In the afternoon I went to the National Gallery of Canada, they had an awesome pop art exhibit which had a few Andy Warhol paintings but was mostly about all the pop art that was influenced by Andy Warhol. There was some cool stuff by Keith Haring too.

In the evening we went to see Mosaika, a light and sound show projected onto the Parliament Buildings themselves. It was soooooo cool.

Norm along the Rideau Canal

Terry Fox statue and the Parliament buildings

Parliament

Entrance

Cool roof

Wall sculptures describing Canada's history

The "Prime Minister's Stairs" right outside of the House of Commons.

The House of Commons!! Whoooaa!!!!!! Pretty crazy to be there.

Beautiful stained glass windows

Weird roof that rocked

More cool arches

Another interesting tiled situation

Royal paintings

Coat of arms of provinces

The Senate

Cool archways

Changing of the guard 1

Changing of the guard 2

Changing of the guard 3

Haha, "tail + drink". I didn't know you could get all these crazy flavours. I went with the standard cinammon + sugar, but with added lemon juice. It was FREAKIN' AMAZING.

This was so good

Inside the Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica

Stained glass and silhouette

Royal Canadian Mint

I got to hold a gold bar worth $500,000! It was really heavy and there was a guy right near me guarding it. It was so heavy I pulled it up very quickly and the chain made a loud noise! I am laughing because I made a joke about trying to run off with it right in front of the guard. :)