Ottawa capital city of Canada

We had a bit of a false start this morning! We are 5 miles from the centre of Ottawa and set off to the car park we had identified and put in our sat nav. FULL. All nearby parks were full too …. We could find nowhere to park…

We returned to our hotel stressed and then got a taxi into the city. 

We got on a hop on hop off bus and did the complete tour up on top deck. It was so interesting and well worth it

But we were frozen to the bone 😫 I managed to get some photos and we got a coffee and chocolate croissant to warm ourselves up. 

Our plan being to see where we need to go to revisit along the route. 

Today we visited the parliament buildings,the cathedral of Notre Dame, the art museum from the outside and the canal routes. 

There were gardeners everywhere tidying up for the royal visitors next week and police everywhere.

Nowhere was open to the public to visit because of the soon to be opening of parliament. That was disappointing for us but it is what it is.

Tomorrow we hope to visit the museums and views of the river and tulip gardens.

Hope you like my photos I have hundreds more! The spider statue is a tribute to motherhood

She has eleven eggs if you look carefully. Not my choice for motherhood !!!

Long journey from Barrie to Ottawa

No blog as such today as we have been travelling for 6 hours and are very tired

We travelled over lovely country side flat and green. It was very marshy and lakes along winding rivers and streams. We saw a squashed skunk on the road. I saw many birds of prey, possibly turkey vultures and a tall blue heron. It felt like moose would live in these environments but did not see any large animals.

Now we are at the best Weston on the outskirts of Ottawa. We are a small dinner at the hotel and going to sleep early tonight!

Looking forward to exploring Ottawa…., King Charles visits next week so we will just miss him. There is a craft market and cathedral I really want to see.

More tomorrow

Toronto and CN Tower

Today is a holiday day in Canada. It’s Victoria Day. This was ideal for us to drive into the city as there was no rush  hour traffic in fact not much traffic going in at all. 

We arrived at the carpark nearest to the CN Tower and had a coffee while we sorted ourselves and cameras out. It was very cold and we had thick jumpers and coats on.

The camera backpacks insulate us too!

We went to queue up and then straight up the lift at a very quick speed. The structures flashed by and it was scary to look as we climbed very high up.

The viewing platform was wide and light 360* with a restaurant bar for snacks. We spent a long time up there and we got really hot with all our warm clothes 🥵

The views were well worth paying to go up there. You really got a feel for this city harbour,train station,airport 

And the huge lake surrounding the city. We really enjoyed the experience. You could walk out onto a glass pavement and look down and also an area where you can lean straight into the windows…. also just below the viewing platform is another platform with fresh air ie not sealed as the one above.

Of course there were the photographers selling pics of you and a huge gift shop at the base of the tower.

In the afternoon we explored the area and admired all the skyscrapers…. yes really! They were all different designs and colours of glass etc.

It was now a warm sunny day and we went round in tee shirts a big change in temperature from earlier on.

We saw the train museum all free for you to walk around and got many fab pictures of the city. Here are just a few.

I’m going to be so busy when I get home sorting my images. 

Hope you all are receiving my blog ok. (I’ve had to upgrade it and change my personal email attached ) hopefully you will receive it as normal. My IT is not too good and I have not got Anona to help me 😂😂

Our journey back to Barrie was good. All the traffic was now heading into Toronto at the end of their long holiday weekend. A very good day today and a meal out tonight too!

I visited here because I live in Thornbury South Gloucestershire UK

I also visited Thornbury in south island New Zealand

Above are the flower clock and the lilac garden that we visited the last two days in Niagara Valley We also visited a tulip farm and wildlife centre near the US docklands close by to Niagara. (Photos below.)

and yesterday was a very wet travelling day to our new location of Barrie 65 miles north of Toronto.

Today we woke up to Winter again. We were so cold what a shock!

We travelled up to Thornbury Ontario. It is beautiful town and situated on a harbour at Georgian Bay.

There was a Sunday market on a green field opposite to the town hall. The main street had coffee shops and restaurants and gift shops. free parking and two way traffic on all roads unlike Thornbury Bristol!

We toured around the area which seemed to be small towns with water fronts onto Georgian Bay a part of Lake Huron. So now we have seen a small bit of Lake Erie (USA side of Niagara), Lake Ontario and Lake Huron.

I will show photos of thornbury tomorrow.

niagara falls to Barrie Ontario 

Not a blog as such today

We had a day off visiting and traveled north mostly through dark clouds and  rain

It is now colder and wet. 

We got our clothes washing done and went to “beer pub”

It was sooo noisy but a great atmosphere. You had to shout to be heard.

We got talking to a local family on the next table to us

They were very friendly and suggested going to blue mountain and up a ski run 

We hope to visit Thornbury tomorrow!

I’ve worked out why my photos are not uploading they have changed to dng from jpegs so are too big for WordPress . I’ve altered my mobile settings and so all should work out tomorrow 

So an early night in our comfort inn at Barrie night everyone xx

Niagara Valley vines and tulips 

We have been to a tulip festival this morning. It was on a farm up the valley on the  winery route. The farm is called tulip farm and was very muddy and slippery 

In the early hours this morning we had a thunderstorm with flash lightening flashing all across the time across the sky, there was a bit of thunder and torrential rain. Hence the boggy tulip fields

There were over a million tulips and the colours and varieties were beautiful.

Everyone was allowed to pick 10 tulips in the price of their ticket so we picked 20 to give to our sweet Malaysian hostess.

This afternoon we went to find Grimsby no not Lincolnshire but here in Ontario 

We passed a town on the way here called Lincoln and close by is a town called Brigg. All three are well known place names to us! We were both born in Grimsby lincs

It was pleasant and warm to sit by the lake shores . There must be many such places all around the Great Lakes.

We got caught in traffic on the way back.

We called at McDonalds for (not burgers! But) ice cream and large Diet Coke to cool us down.

So now we are back sorting our many photos and listening to music and Netflix films

We move onto near Toronto tomorrow. 2 hour journey depending on traffic xx

no photos as probs uploading sorry ill try to add tomorrow

The skylan tower and buffalo city

It’s hot today!

The b&b where we are staying for 4 nights is so comfortable. We get a huge cooked breakfast and we are well looked after by a young Malaysian lady.

As we ate breakfast we saw a ground hog as big as a cat and a grey squirrel.

Today we went up the Skylon tower high overlooking the Niagara Falls We went early before all the coach parties arrived and there were only us and 2 other couples up there!

The 360* views were spectacular . You could see where all the river waters came from and flowed onto Lake Ontario.

As we have now so many pics of Niagara Falls in three kinds of weather 🤣🤣☔️

We decided to go to US side to a nature wildlife reserve at the Buffalo harbour.

We saw terrapins, deer , geese,yellow warbler birds, terns, dragonflies,egrets and unknown species of birds to us. But it was so hot. We went along walkways over marshes and ponds and all this was free. The lady at the info centre thanked us for coming to America as many people won’t!

We travelled back along the USA side to the border crossing further north, following the banks of Ontario 

82*f was the hottest we reached today. 

We went back to the lilac garden again just for the perfume  ….as it’s only just down the road from our b&b.

Day 5 Niagara valley  and Lake Ontario 

So today we went along the raging river as far as the Lake Ontario at Fort Ontario 

Firstly we stopped at the whirlpool. Here you can take a cable car across… we didn’t as it was closed for maintenance. 

We passed a clock made with flowers and a lilac hillside garden, especially planted for the millennium. The smell was wonderful.

. We saw the bridge separating Canada and USA

Pleased we are on the right side!

We passed some very huge houses and vineyards

The visibility is much better today so we took much better photos of the falls.

(Sorry my blog was muddled up yesterday … I don’t know what went wrong but I edited it to read properly but it relayed to you still

Muddled with yesterdays and the previous day)

Niagara Falls

Day 4

We had a good journey all the way to Buffalo and onto Niagara Falls. It only took 2 and a half hours with a stop.

We visited the American side first and parked in the national parks car park. We walked quite a way to see the roaring river and the tops of 2 of the waterfalls. The sound of the water was quite deafening. You could see across to the Canadian side and see the boats below on the water. The people were getting drenched by the spray on those boats!

Last of the big spenders we had a packet of crisps to share and a coffee each! 

We imagined it would take a while to cross the border but no we answered a few questions on Canadian side paid the bridge toll on the American side and we were there. 

Once again we parked a long way from the falls and walked a longish way to take our views and photos. 

Well what an experience it was. They are beautiful, powerful, astoundingly forceful and cover such a huge area . I hope my photos do them justice. 

More tomorrow…..