Ottawa city – history, democracy, unesco… and summer pilates
Ottawa – the capital of Canada. Join me for an intense day – or a few days – around the inner city with war / peace, women, democracy, art, training and shopping.
I’ll keep my travel advice true to my own interests. So follow this if we align on democracy, security – war – aviation – space- history, women, training …
It’s a warm summer day May 26, 2026, and Canadians are easy going, so I decided to wear my training / running clothes all day. A great decision as I could get in everywhere in this and it’s comfortable and allowed me to walk & run around literally all day. It’s also possible to rent a bike and that will make it faster to get around and really easy.
I used NomadManias app to find as many places of interest as possible and to optimise my route and time. I’ll take this slightly more in themes though for you to prioritise first:
Museums:
Aviation and Space – they have my favorite helicopters, the Sikorsky. A rescue helicopter. And a picture of landing on an island that could be part of the Faroe Islands. So cool
War museum – my favorite part is the part about conflicts that are still around. It reminded me how many wars Canada and Denmark / EU have been involved in together over the last 10-20-30 years. We are always in the same side, and we take responsibility. I respect that.
The war memorial shows this too.
The holocaust memorial reminded me that Canada was not a safe haven for the Jewish people during Second World War. They kept their borders closed and let the Jews get murdered in Europe. 2/3 of the Jews in Europe were murdered systematically. It’s acknowledged here.
Senate is 2 minutes walk away and has the same offer. I was lucky after persisting and got in. Wearing sports clothes and feeling disrespectful of democracy. A short time after I entered the debate on getting immigrants to work for the sake of both them and society, they ended with an old fashioned and traditional ceremony involving a huge golden sceptre, a man in hat and black gloves, a man in white gloves, the speaker in dress reminding me of priests, and a little march.
Parliaments are open ! Thats interesting and I recommend it. You just have to be aware of a few pitfalls.
Parlament have free access to debates. Though only if there is space. Unfortunately I came at a time where ai was told there was no space … unless I knew a parliamentarian :-/ and could get an invitation. On the spot, I could not.
Advice – don’t book time for the immersive tour – it’s just two rooms with a bit of interactive exhibits- it’s literally not seeing the parliament in any which way. But you have to book and break up the day for this.
Guided tours both places would have taken too long. At least for my patience and interest.
In front of the parliament were a great event though – summer Pilates with 300(?) participants m. Free. Easy to join on impulse for me. Just join on the lawn. Perfect for running around in training clothes.
This whole city centre is filled with monuments and museums. Also the possibility to get into the court looked interesting and would get me to book a guided tour next time.
In front of the senate is a wonderful monument with feminists / suffragettes who fought for rights for WOMEN and got women to be respected as persons with a right to vote. a cool place for photos! I’ll recommend it to the series committee of NomadMania 🙂
There is one unesco world heritage site. It’s the Rideau canal build by the British.
I booked a boat trip on the canal. On NomadMania it secured me both a proper visit to the unesco site and a boat trip in canada. The canal boats are even on the lists itself.
The art museum / gallery is also worth visiting – even just walk through the cafe.
Close to is is a huge mall and there I got all I needed and a bit more. A training bra and underwear at Victorias Secrets. As a European I always love how good service they have to find the right sizes in bras and they directed me also to all other items on my list. A converter, the favorite fragrance of my daughter from her one year on exchange in Canada, getting glasses tightened (for free and a google review that was well deserved).
I even got a Danish with crème and forrest berries that I have of course never seen in Denmark. though it is perfectly possible to eat healthy here. Just don’t do fast food. Even subway uses double the meat and half the salat compared to how I would make a sandwich. And 1/2 is more than enough.
Look out for the men playing back pipes. 😉 And bicycling police officers 🙂 my favourite people all day 🙂
