For my first day in Ottawa I started out at the Parliament building. As you may have forgotten, Ottawa is the capital of Canada and its Parliament building owes more than a little in inspiration to that back in the UK. However, access to it is much higher. Whilst the summer holidays help make this happen, through a free tour I stood on the floor of both their House of Commons and their Senate and in the fantastic library of Parliament. There was also the opportunity to go up their clock tower (called the Peace Tower but looks a little like the Elizabeth Tower/"Big Ben" in the UK) which has a viewing platform at the top with some great views. The grounds were also well worth exploring.
Also underlining some of the access available was a trip to the Supreme Court int he afternoon where again you got onto the floor of the Court. Whilst the Parliamentary system is very much based on the UK, the justice system has more in common with the USA - like so much in Canada there is heritage from one or the other. I also called in to visit a Currency Museum at the Bank of Canada and came across a small art fair as well.
In the evening I returned up to Parliament so see a "son et lumiere" type show called "Mosaika" which was projected onto the side of the Parliament building. This was a fantastic show that covered Canada's history, their "Famous Five" key people, TV, music, sport and nature. It also used the building very playfully, at one time even making the windows look like they were going in and out from the building. All in all it was very impressive and made you proud to be a Canadian (what do you mean, I'm not...?)
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