Rideau Canal Ottawa

From the Byward Market, we walked towards the Parliament Hill to meet the rest. On the way, we chanced upon this beautiful scene of the Rideau Canal! This is one of the most photographed places in Ottawa and always seen on Tripadvisor haha.

This canal connects Ottawa to Kingston on Lake Ontario! :) Technically, if we boarded one of the cruises here we would make it back to Kingston :)

From above, we saw a boat at the gates and wondered what it was doing there. Then it became clear to us that they were trying to release the boat into the Canal! Like excited children, we ran down the stairs to the platform where the boat was :)

The boat on the Rideau Canal

So, because the height where the boat was is way higher than the Canal, people controlled the flood gates had to open them one by one, allow the water level to even before the boat can go pass the next flood gate. A painstaking process just to get one boat out but it was fun to watch!

Rideau Canal, where skating would be :)

Photo Credit: Charles 

During the winter months, the Rideau Canal gets frozen and becomes the largest skating rink in the world. If you happen to be a Queen's student during the Winter Term, do sign up with QUIC (Queen's Uni International Centre) for a chance to skate here!

We crossed the bridge in the photo to the other bank of the rideau canal and had a stunning view of the Parliament hill! We didn't intentionally cross it. Initially we wanted to visit the Museum of Civilization but we found out it wasn't free admission so most of us didn't enter. We wandered to the back of this museum and found this beautiful scene :) Our sunday was filled with so many surprises and good things :)

From the opposite bank, 

The Parliament Hill

So, we found this beautiful view and went snapping away. Since we were waiting for Eric to be done with the museum, we had some time so we found a comfortable spot on the stone bank to sit and enjoy the view.

Charles, the friend who's photo has been used several times in Ottawa blog posts

Almost like a gothic Disneyland across the canal

We spotted geese!!

These migrating birds were seeing flying together in an arrow formation and they landed here, where we were chilling :) They are rather intelligent cos' they follow you if you extend your arm and pretend there's food there.

With a leap of faith!

The view from this side of the bank is so pretty I think you should come even if you're not intending to visit the museum of Civilisation. A friend who went into the Museum told me that the exhibits were large of Native Americans I think its worth a visit too!