Cambridgite goes to Ottawa.

Starting out with some skyline pics and pics of the Parliament buildings.

First, downtown Ottawa, from across the Ottawa River.







More of the downtown skyline...





A beautiful park...



Downtown skyline from in front of the Parliament buildings.



Skyline photo of Tunney's Pasture (complex of government buildings).



The skyline of Hull, Quebec...Ottawa's ugly Francophone sister.





Ugly brown government boxes.



Of the parliament buildings....







A statue...



Ottawa has some beautiful parklands along the Ottawa River.



Crossing over from Hull, Quebec, to Ottawa, Ontario. It was a long bridge...



The national art gallery. As nice as it is from the outside, it's even nicer on the inside! I love the slanted staircase and had lots of fun with it. I'm such a kid.



The Lebreton Flats development, still going.





A spaceship...err, War Museum I mean.



Back to the hustle and bustle of the city.

Walking through the residential area of Lower Town. Apparently this is supposed to be bit of a rough area, but I didn't find it too bad.







Around the downtown core...







The American Embassy.



Wellington Street.



Sparks Street.





Photos from Rideau street and the Bytown Market area!

This is my favourite area within the city of Ottawa, bar none. I might even say it's one of my favourite neighborhoods in all of Canada.













Rideau street.





The brand new 90 George.



Rideau street with 90 George in the background.



Some condos popping up...







Looking down Bank street from Lansdowne after getting my running kit (for the Ottawa Race Weekend 1/2 marathon). I would have liked to get some pictures of the Glebe, but unfortunately I was on a bus and couldn't get off at the time.



An apartment building going up across the street.

[Rathgrith]

Great nice of Ottawa! You should check out my neighborhood: Sandy Hill if you are still there. It has an interesting mix of ghetto student life and rich architecture diversity. Walk down Laurier Ave East and you will see what I mean. I walk down it everyday in the school when I go to the University of Ottawa.

[drizzo_613]

nice photos! i think you hit the wrong part of lower town if you were expecting to see the rough area. Next time go east of King Edward near the Byward Cinema and you'll see btw, How was the marathon?

[eemy]

Did you catch a look at some of those courtyard sin the Byward Market area? They're just a small thing with relatively little traffic, but fantastic examples of a positive urban intervention. My favourite features the Tin House, a recovered tin facade of a tinsmith's house, that has been mounted on one of the buildings wall.

From Distilled Life:

Originally Posted by Rathgrith

Great nice of Ottawa! You should check out my neighborhood: Sandy Hill if you are still there. It has an interesting mix of ghetto student life and rich architecture diversity. Walk down Laurier Ave East and you will see what I mean. I walk down it everyday in the school when I go to the University of Ottawa.

I've heard of Sandy Hill, but I don't think I've been there. I have passed through the Glebe though, by car and by bus. Very nice houses and quite the spiffy strip!

Originally Posted by drizzo_613

nice photos! i think you hit the wrong part of lower town if you were expecting to see the rough area. Next time go east of King Edward near the Byward Cinema and you'll see btw, How was the marathon?

Yeah, I drove east on Rideau street and it did look a little shadier past King Edward, but not that bad. I didn't check out the area that thoroughly though.

It was the half-marathon I ran, which is 21km. It was tough, but I managed to run the whole thing and achieve a time of 2 hours and 15 minutes. I wasn't expecting to win anything. I just wanted to finish the thing running. How many people can say they've done that?

The scenery was beautiful at parts too. Hull was pretty ugly (no offense ), but it was a beautiful run along the Rideau Canal on both sides.

Originally Posted by jeremy_haak

Did you catch a look at some of those courtyard sin the Byward Market area? They're just a small thing with relatively little traffic, but fantastic examples of a positive urban intervention. My favourite features the Tin House, a recovered tin facade of a tinsmith's house, that has been mounted on one of the buildings wall.

From Distilled Life:

I didn't notice much in the way of courtyards. When in the market, most of my focus was on the market itself, the immediate area, plus Rideau street. I wish I got to explore the downtown more thoroughly, but we were only there for a few days and my friend wanted to walk along the River, go to the National Art Gallery, get a picture in front of the Parliament buildings, etc. Plus all of the details involved with the run kept us busy as well.

One observation: The Rideau Centre could use a cleaning (mostly dirty floors)! The mall itself wasn't really that bad. It was busy and there weren't that many vacancies, in contrast to Kitchener's Market Square. I would actually say it's probably one of the most successful downtown shopping malls in the country. But it looked as if there weren't any janitors around.

Another thing: I liked what your City did along west Carling Ave by putting retail establishments fronting the streets. It looks a lot better than your typical 'South Keys' type of environment that is very common here in the KW area. It just goes to show that this is possible even in environments that are more or less suburban.

[eemy]

Originally Posted by Cambridgite

I didn't notice much in the way of courtyards.

It's not really that surprising as they're to the rear of the buildings along Sussex, and so not exactly an obvious place to check out unless you're aware of them.

Congrats on the run!

[ScotM]

Gorgeous photo set.

Thanks for sharing.

[Davis137]

Hey, thanks for taking a picture of the Tunney's/Westboro skyline with the Metropole in the distance...I live right near the Coats building, and your picture makes my part of town look nice...

[Aylmer]

Originally Posted by Cambridgite

Walking through the residential area of Lower Town. Apparently this is supposed to be bit of a rough area, but I didn't find it too bad.

That just means that there is no TimHortons.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by AylmerOptimist

That just means that there is no TimHortons.

St Patrick and King Edward.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

St Patrick and King Edward.

I am no shrinking violet but that is one scary intersection...

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I am no shrinking violet but that is one scary intersection...

Indeed, especially with the construction at the moment (by the way, does anyone else find the "improved" King Edward a bit of a mystery?) It would take a lot more than that to keep us away from our Timmies, however.

[Kingofthehill]

cool