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32.81 miles, 2:18. Maximum 24 mph, rating: 9
Today is clear, cool, and windy. We rode separately, since the youth hostel doesn’t take reservations, and I wanted to be sure we got in.
Dave took off before 9, after picture taking. Then I left, followed by Harold. Donna and Marion chased me down with the bottle of vitamins I had left behind.
I came in via Kanata. There are lots of houses and companies where there used to be nothing. The bike path was alleged to extend to Kanata now, so I hunted it out and took it. It’s only partly paved, and all of it is covered with sand.
I rejoined the streets at Moodie drive, past BNR and NT Corkstown. I tried the path again west of Britannia, but the surface was wavy, and it just ended at a little footpath. So I came into town on Carling. Should have taken the river parkway, but didn’t think of it as a preferable alternative until later.
Strong tailwind until Kanata. I turned off Dunrobin road onto Carling. Saw Newbridge, Mitel, several others, Leigh, BNR central. Rode the bike path along the river. Several wonderful parks. Watched a sailboat race. Windy and cold.
At the Nicholas Gaol hostel, I couldn’t find my AYH membership card, so I had to buy a new one. I signed up for only one night at a time, so it’s easy to change our minds if we don’t care for it.
It turned out that Jacky had my AYH membership in her stuff. However, the hostel wouldn’t reverse the transaction, even when I offered to pay a processing fee. I talked with the manager the next day; he said they have to buy the validation stamps from the international organization, and there’s no way to claim credit for lost or voided stamps. Moomph!
We got what may be the only private room in the whole place, up on the top floor. $20/night. There were bars on our window, as on all the windows. The washroom on our floor had no shower, so we went down to the sex-segregated dormitory floors to shower.
On both sides of the Queensway, Preston street is a vigorous and explicit Little Italy (although there is a Moroccan restaurant at Preston and Gladstone). From Preston to Bronson, Somerset is a little Vietnam. East of Bank, Somerset is yuppie heaven, with restored red brick buildings, brick sidewalks, brick patios, and classy restaurants and shops.
Byward market is busier than ever, and seems to continually expand to swallow old slummy buildings, turning them into interesting funky little shops of one kind or another.
The town is much changed. I hardly recognize it from the days when we lived here. Being here on a sunny August day is a lot more pleasant than the last time we were here, a cold and blustery November day two years ago.
The market area is thriving. Bicycle Revival and the Byward market bike shops have good selections but high prices. We had lunch at a Polish place in Byward market. This evening, we met Diane and Pamela (Brian was away) at the Tandoori restaurant on Somerset that we always used to like. We followed up with hot apple goodies at the Mayflower on Elgin. Burp!
During the afternoon, we stopped at the Victoria museum and looked at the geology and ornithology displays. They helped me confirm some observations I’ve been making along the way, and left some questions open. A surprising note is that there is no mention whatever of the Niagara escarpment.
Rating: 9
Street noise woke us. Very cold on the street, so we went into the Rideau Centre for breakfast. We spent the morning strolling around, enjoying the sights. We went to Parliament and watched the changing of the guard until it became tedious – one more thing we never did during the years we lived here.
I’ve always liked the supercilious lions on the old Sparks street post office.
Doris joined us for lunch at a California restaurant in the market. Good funky food outdoors, with hard rock music – obviously authentic California. Browsed in clothing and book stores along Sussex. Doris wanted to see the mint, so we went there after lunch. Good film on gold mining, and an informed French Canadian guide. The mint is really a factory, with rolling mills, punch presses, coining presses, etc. Doris was disappointed – I don’t know what she expected it to be.
The Ottawa mint manufactures precious metal coins and collectors’ editions of the base metal coins. Ordinary circulating change comes from the Winnipeg mint. Paper money comes from the Bank of Canada.
The loonie dollar
Canada now has a dollar coin, popularly known as the loonie, partly because it has the picture of a loon on one side. But there’s more to the story. Apparently, the coin was originally intended to be of some fairly conventional design; the design was done at Ottawa, and master dies were to be shipped to Winnipeg for the minting of circulation coins.
The dies were entrusted to the tender mercies of Canada Post, believe it or not, and have not been seen since.
So there was a crash program to design a different coin, and the loonie is the result.
The loon woodcarving
Also on display at the mint was a loon woodcarving, done by a 14-year old Ottawa boy who had never before entered a competition. He won third prize worldwide. According to the display notes, he had put in about a thousand hours of work, including studying the skeletal structure of the loon and the colour and texture of its feathers.
The carving is hollow and weighted, so that it would right itself and float at the correct level and could be used as a decoy. He chose a roll preening pose.
We agreed to move to Doris and Lars’ place tomorrow. Tonight we met Robert and Gisela, Dewi and Eufron, and went to the Alilang Korean restaurant on Elgin. We ordered two large combo trays and ate 80% of them. Robert and Gisela invited us to fly to Quebec tomorrow in a rented plane. We declined on grounds that we can’t afford that much time.
Young street
Dewi told us about the Canadian engineers in England, building a road out to a troop-staging area prior to the invasion of France. Their commanding officer was named Young, and the Canadians, naturally enough, insisted that the road be called Young street. Thus it is that you’ll find a rural Street in England, with a Canadian name (though not a Canadian spelling).
Then we strolled up Elgin and had cognac at the Lord Elgin hotel. The hotel lounge was completely deserted. When I ordered cognac, the waiter asked how I wanted it! He’s obviously been subjected to too many declassé American tourists! The lounge looked like an English library, but the paneling was mac-tac.
We met a man on Elgin with two beautiful Akita dogs. He said one of them was show quality. They’re bred in northern Japan and have the look of Asian huskies. Even I enjoyed petting them and feeling their fur. Everyone on Elgin street was stopping, looking, asking, and petting.
17.22 miles, 1:25. Maximum 25 mph, rating: 9
Gave in to Doris’ invitation, and escaped from gaol after breakfast of cereal and coffee. It was warmer this morning.
11:30 AM, Fallowfield
Today is cool and clear. We took the Colonel By bike path along the Rideau canal past Dow’s lake and Carleton university as far as the Hogs Back. The scenery was great, but the path is poorly paved. We crossed over and took Prince of Wales drive to Fallowfield road. We saw two hot air balloons, watched one of them from the time we left the hostel until it landed near us, near Woodroffe. Its chase truck passed us and turned off toward it. We passed Greenbank and the sign to the Nepean Sportsplex, which is now named after someone, I don’t recall who. Past Barrhaven. Tailwind got us to Doris’ before 9. Doris and Lars have a pretty house on a large lot in the suburbs. Drank coffee and chatted for an hour, phoned Sorin, unpacked.
Doris and Lars took us to the Pinhey estate, aka Horaceville, west on the Ottawa river. A lovely scene, with some of the estate buildings ruined, and others fixed up. One is a restaurant (actually a tea room) where we had lunch of beef stew and dumplings. From there to the wildlife art fair in Pakenham, where all four of us showed near complete miserliness. The stone bridge is said to be the only one of its kind in North America.
I eavesdropped on a discussion between some railroad enthusiasts. One was saying that it costs $25k to run their steam train on an excursion, including $18k for insurance. He sells out 550 seats at $55 each. That gives him $30k revenue, not too shabby.
Doris and Lars dropped us off at Sorin’s apartment in a high-rise near Lincoln Fields. We drank espresso and ate cake to help celebrate his 45th birthday. Eugene and Dorcas came over to visit us back in Fallowfield at 6. They waxed so enthusiastic over the garden that they ended up taking home lots of produce. We went with them to Emilio’s Italian restaurant and discussed their China trip from last April.
