Last Friday, I was invited to be part of a panel at a workshop about CODE, which involved me flying to Ottawa for a day. It was a new experience because this was the first time that I flew somewhere, and then back home on the same day! It was liberating too, because I didn’t need to bring a computer with me so I didn’t need a backpack. I still ended up bringing a bag for my random electronics (Kobo, phone charging stuff) and and umbrella because it was supposed to rain the entire day.

The workshop lasted the morning, but I had the afternoon to myself. Fortunately (or unfortunately if you consider I had to carry an umbrella around anyways) it didn’t rain so I had time to explore. I mostly concentrated on the Parliament Hill region as I haven’t been to Ottawa since I was probably 15.

I didn’t bring a (real) camera with me so took a bunch of photos with my phone. The above is a photosphere that actually seemed to work! Maybe they improved the algorithm now that I’m on Android 4.4.3. It shows the Rideau canal with a conference centre on the right and Parliament/Chateau Laurier in the distance

I also liked this shot of couple of small locks to get from the Rideau Canal to the Ottawa river. It is right between Parliament Hill and Chateau Laurier.

I also did the Parliament Hill tour, which I don’t remember ever doing. It’s pretty short as you only get to visit the House of Commons, library and Senate. You have to go through security first so the ½ hour tour ends up taking an hour. It wasn’t that interesting (lots of waiting and not much to see), but the House of Commons and the outside media area looks exactly like it does on TV! Next time I’ll try and go to question period.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: ottawa, travelling