June 21-30, 2019 Ottawa, Ontario, St. Anne de Bellevue and Montreal, Quebec

For the past ten days we have been surrounded by local citizens who are bilingual. “Bonjour-Hi!” has been the standard greeting. As soon as we respond with “Hi!”, the conversation continues in English. The University of Ottawa offers the largest bilingual program of studies in the world. We felt very much at home in Ottawa.  Following our usual plan, we started each of our city visits with an open-topped double-decker bus tour. In both cases, the tour guides gave their spiel in English and French. We found Ottawa’s architecture to be mesmerizing. The Canadian Parliament Buildings were castle-like. The Embassies were representative of most of the world’s cultural features. The museums and galleries were very inviting. They offered free admission on Thursday evenings… our arrival day. Our only disappointment at the National Gallery of Canada (Musee des beaux-arts du Canada) was that the visiting Gauguin Portrait Exhibit was only open to those paying a substantial admission fee. We are not premium price payers. ByWard Market offered lovely outdoor spaces in which to linger. Since our small spaces do not lend themselves to accumulating more “stuff”, we have replaced shopping with “cone-licking”. We treat ourselves to homemade ice cream, gelato, frozen yogurt or soft-serves.
Ottawa appeared to be a city of very young people. We stood out as “the older crowd”. After selecting a delicious Moroccan lunch at one of the ByWard Market food stalls, we were gently, but firmly, instructed to take a seat nearby and our plated meals would be delivered to us. Everyone else was expected to stand at the counter waiting for his or her meal to be plated. A few days later, during the subway ride in Montreal, a young-ish gal made every effort to relinquish her seat to me. I elected to stand, but I did take her seat when she exited the subway car. Apparently Wally and I look older than we feel!

Parliament building wrapped for a  10- year restoration

"Temporary" home of the House of Commons

Delightful wall detail

 Younger than the U.S., Canada is celebrating 152 years as a Confederation this year. Kingston was its first Capital, Ottawa is its fourth and final Capital with Montreal falling somewhere in between. Tomorrow, Monday July 1st, is Canada Day. It’s a grand day for Canadians.

In fact, the revelry began on Friday, June 28th and will reach its peak on Monday with parades and fireworks. We made a deliberate decision NOT to be in the fray of festivities for Canada Day Weekend. Despite our best intentions, we ended up in the middle of the partying. Last night, on the blue line of Lock #1 of the Chambly Canal, two Quebecois motor yachts rafted together behind us, cranked up their favorite pulsating music and amidst squeals of delight, four well-lubricated couples danced the night away. Oh, Canada!


Between Ottawa and Montreal is Le Chateau Montebello. Reportedly the largest log structure in the world, it is a fascinating compound owned by the Fairmont Resorts people. Putting our “price sensitive” nature aside, we splurged.
 Cable ferries first came into our world on the Ottawa River. Rather than building bridges to connect the remote Ontario villages on either side of the river, a series of 4-vehicle ferries have been put into service at the narrowest parts of the river. Each ferry gets its course direction from an underwater cable that it pulls up under itself as it moves. It is imperative that the oncoming boater wait until the ferry is well past before attempting to cross the cable area. Waiting gives the slack cable time to drop back to its lowest point, far below the pleasure boat’s whirling propeller blades. Cable ferries are used in Quebec Province to carry vehicles across the Richelieu River, too. The same caution must be observed by boaters moving up and down this river.



 We have become quite relaxed in securing Summertime in the locks. We have also enjoyed becoming friends with the couples who are locking through a series of locks with us. The Rideau Canal Locks held four boats in the 36 to 40 foot range; the Chambly Canal locks held only two. Out on the Ottawa River and the St. Lawrence River/Seaway, the commercial traffic requires the locks to be much longer and wider. We have seen a passenger ship and eight pleasure crafts all transit the Lambert Lock and the St. Catherine Lock together on the St. Lawrence.

 The marinas in downtown Montreal were not available to our 8mph boat. The two-mile run from The St. Lawrence River/Seaway to the city is fraught with turbulence and an out-flowing current that runs in the 6-8mph range. The Skipper Bob Publication recommended staying on the lock wall in the delightful town of St. Anne de Bellevue west of the city and taking public transportation into Montreal. We followed that advice and enjoyed the 60-minute express bus ride through the shoreline towns and down the freeway; a connecting subway ride brought us to Montreal’s waterfront. We each paid $10.00 Canadian for a ticket that covered the cost of riding to and from the city. Not bad! Our city bus tour, requiring an additional ticket apiece, carried us all around the city central and on up to the mount overlook where we could view the panorama of Montreal East and Montreal West. When returned to the downtown, we were revived by a special poutine lunch. Our arrival back at the waterfront was one of perfect timing. We got to cheer on our buddy boat New Freedom as Paul and Janet fought the last half mile of strong current getting into the Montreal Yacht Club. That had to have been one wild ride! A spectacular Jazz Festival is to be the centerpiece of this year’s Canada Day celebration in Montreal. The performance stages and spectator seating were being installed along the waterfront. Nearby was the Big Wheel (the fancy year-round ferris wheel), the Zip Line, the Pirate Ship Challenge Wall Course and the Montreal-based Cirque du Soleil circus-style theatrical performance tents. The city’s buildings are predominately condos, apartments, hotels and high-end shops and boutiques. The architecture style for these is tall and utilitarian… even the Ritz Carleton seemed to us to be lacking in pizzaz! I guess we’ve been spoiled by the delightfully detailed historical structures in Kingston and Ottawa.