Merry Christmas

Dear friends and followers, we wish you a merry christmas! Best geratings from Canada your Hans and Paul!

Ottawa Adventure (part 3)

 There's not much water in the canal right now because it's being drained to make it better for skating. Someone is keeping a very large boat in this lock over the winter.

This is the oldest building in Ottawa. It was built in 1826 and was part of the headquarters for 

building the canal. Today it is a museum about the history of Ottawa.

Ottawa Adventure (part 2)

 This is the library on Parliament Hill. It's not open to the public because it's only for people who work in the government. In 1916 there was a fire that destroyed most of the original center block of parliament. The library is the only part left from the original building.

  Here we are sitting in front of the Canadian flag along with the flags of each of the provinces and territories.

We decided to get a closer look at the canal so we walked down to see it. In about a month the canal will be frozen thick enough that people will be able to skate on it! Each winter, 8km of the canal in Ottawa is open for skating. It's known as "The World's Longest Skating Rink".

Next part is comming tomorrow...

Ottawa Adventure (part 1)

Here we are sitting on a bridge in downtown Ottawa over the Rideau Canal. The canal runs 202km from Kingston to Ottawa and was built in the early 1800's. This is the end of the canal where it runs into the Ottawa River. The strange gates are locks that let the boats pass between the different water levels of the river and the canal. 
 

Here we are outside Parliament Hill. This is where Canada's government meets. The tall tower in the middle is called the Peace Tower and it has a clock at the top that chimes every hour. Our host assures us that Parliament Hill is much busier during the summer, especially on Canada Day when there are people everywhere! 

 his is the view from the back of Parliament Hill. You can see it's a very tall hill! The building across the canal on the right is the National Art Gallery. Across the river in the distance is the province of Quebec.

Next part is comming tomorrow...

The Christmas tree

Now that exams are finished at Bishop’s University, we are visiting Ottawa with our host. It was a very long bus ride from Sherbrooke so we have spent the past couple of days recovering from exam stress with our host at her home. She has a beautiful Christmas wreath on her door which we climbed into for this picture!

Yesterday we helped decorate the Christmas tree so we rewarded ourselves with some delicious gingerbread cookies and a glass of eggnog, typical foods for a Canadian Christmas.

Here we are in front of the Christmas tree!

At the concert

We attended a concert given by the Bishop's University singers and the Orchestre symphonique de Sherbrooke. The music performed was Handel's Messiah, which is commonly performed at Christmas time. We watched from the balcony and discussed the amazing performance during the intermission.   

 

On a chilly afternoon, we went to a Christmas market in Sherbrooke. We saw a Ferris wheel, a giant decorated Christmas tree and vendors selling a variety of things, from fur hats to pottery. We also sampled delicious local cheese. Canada is beautiful during the holiday season!

Snow in Sherbrooke

It snowed again today. We were so excited that we went outside and built a snowman. The snowman's name is Frosty, we hope you like him!

We warmed up with hot beverages from the famous Canadian coffee shop, Tim Hortons, which is named after a hockey player. After a taste test, we have decided that these drinks truly follow the coffee shop's slogan, "Always Fresh". Another one of this coffee shops sayings is "Every Cup Tells a Story." We have to admit that this is quite an exciting story that we are experiencing here in Canada.