Ottawa
Part 3
For Friday, our last full day in Canada, Elyse and I mostly had different itineraries. She was going to explore Ottawa and Gatineau by bus, while I was going to spend the day in Ottawa, largely on foot doing a photo walk and taking some transit. The HR-V would stay parked for today’s adventure.
Things started out as they did the day before. I went down to the hotel’s restaurant for breakfast, and got the All-Canadian Breakfast for myself, though this time, I got fried eggs rather than scrambled. Elyse wanted food as well but didn’t want to come down, so I ordered the same thing for her, and asked that they package it to go, and delay it by about twenty minutes. That worked out well.
Leaving the hotel, we went down into Lyon station, which was right next door to our hotel. We went in, got our SmarTrip, er, I mean, Presto cards, and then took the O-Train one stop, to Parliament station.
Faregates at Lyon station.
The platform at Lyon. The station is a bit smaller than what I’m accustomed to, but it’s quite well-lit.
Our train arrives at Lyon station.
Interior of car 1106, manufactured by Alstom.
Cooperative seating, which we would call “priority seating” in the States, where able-bodied passengers should be prepared to give up their seat should someone board who needs it more than they do. The seats also fold up, as shown here, to accommodate wheelchair users.
“Do not hold the doors” signage in English and French on the doors. We need signage like this in DC.
Our train departs from Parliament station.
The platform at Parliament station is similar to Lyon, except that Parliament contains artwork in the spaces between the columns.
Escalators running between the mezzanine and the platform at Lyon station.
Coming out at Parliament station, we almost immediately went into an A&W restaurant. Elyse wanted one of their root beer floats, and was surprised that they didn’t have them anymore, its having been replaced by a root beer slush. According to Elyse, it wasn’t the same at all, and didn’t hit the spot like the cream-based one did.
Leaving A&W, Elyse and I parted company for a while. I headed off to photograph the Parliament buildings, while Elyse caught a bus.
Presumably owing to its place as the national capital as well as its proximity to Quebec, street signs in Ottawa are bilingual.
And, of course, I again enjoyed photographing Ontario-style traffic signals, which are yellow with a yellow backplate, with a red aspect that is larger than the other two. Compared to the signals across the river in Gatineau, these felt very conventional.
I spent a lot of time photographing around Parliament Hill, and had a good time with it. Just about every spot that I could get to, I photographed from it. One thing that was a bit disappointing, though, was that the Centre Block structure, i.e. the main building, was undergoing a major renovation at the time of my visit, so I could not get a lot of the angles that I wanted. I suppose that just means that I need to do another trip to Ottawa in the future, in order to photograph it again when the renovations are complete.
The Confederation Building, an office building on Parliament Hill. The entrance was unfortunately shrouded by construction work at the time that I passed by.
The Canadian flag flying over the Confederation Building.
Five-headed lamppost and security camera array on Parliament Hill.
Canadian-style speed limit sign on Parliament Hill. 30 km/h is roughly 19 mph.
Temporary speed limit sign for construction traffic. This speed is really slow, as 15 km/h is roughly 9½ miles per hour.
Bilingual stop sign on the drive in front of the Parliament buildings. All of the stop signs that I saw on Parliament Hill were bilingual, unlike in the immediate surrounding area, where stop signs were only in English.
A white and rectangular pedestrian crossing sign struck me as unusual, as white and rectangular typically indicates a regulatory sign. A pedestrian crossing is normally a warning sign, i.e. a yellow diamond. Road Guy Rob describes regulatory signs well when he says to take whatever the sign says, and add, “or you will get a ticket,” to the end of it. “Pedestrians crossing, or you will get a ticket,” doesn’t quite sound right.
The West Block, which, at the time of my visit, contained the interim House of Commons chamber, in use while the Centre Block is closed for renovations.
The Canadian flag, flying on the west side of the West Block.
Sewer manhole cover spotted on Parliament Hill.
View of Gatineau from across the Ottawa River.
Peace Tower on the Centre Block building. I was disappointed that it was starting to cloud up by now, because it made my photos less bright.
Closeup of the clock on the Peace Tower.
Canadian flag atop the Peace Tower.
Tulipa agenesis flower on the grounds of Parliament Hill.
The Centennial Flame, which commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Canadian Confederation. If there was one thing that I spent a lot of time photographing around the Parliament buildings, it was this. I just loved the way that the flame appeared to emit from the water. I got it from all sorts of different angles, and really had a great time capturing the different shapes of the flame as it danced around.
The Centre Block, with construction cranes and a fence around it during renovations.
The Canadian flag, on top of the Senate of Canada Building, with the Westin Ottawa hotel behind it.
The Alexandra Bridge. This is what we took the day before on our way to and from Gatineau.
The Library of Parliament building, behind the Centre Block. Owing to the clouds and the construction, none of my shots of this building came out well. Something to do next time I’m in Ottawa, I suppose.
Restroom on the grounds of Parliament.
Selfies with the Parliament buildings.
When I finished at Parliament, I needed a moment to decompress, so I dipped into a nearby Tim Hortons, where I got some milk and then used the restroom. After that, my walk around the city began. I just sort of wandered around and photographed what I saw. I like those kinds of walks, and I don’t get to do them nearly as much as I would like. It was also approaching time for lunch, though the milk from Tim Hortons would hold me off for a little while. As such, the end goal of the walk was to get to a Pizza Pizza location at the corner of Elgin Street and Cooper Street, but I would take my time getting there, i.e. the pizza wasn’t going anywhere, so I would get there when I got there. I had Google running to ensure that I was making progress towards my goal, but beyond that, I just wandered around and did my thing.
One way sign at the intersection of Bank and Sparks Streets. I love the way that “one way” signs in Ontario are wordless. Wordless road signs are more common in Ontario, favoring pictograms over words to avoid any language barriers.
Bell payphone along Bank Street just past the intersection with Sparks. I was surprised to see a slot for a credit card on this payphone. I saw more payphones in Ottawa than I had seen in a very long time. As a point of comparison, there are no payphones remaining in Washington, DC.
OC Transpo bus 6487, a New Flyer D60LFR, makes a left turn from Queen Street onto Bank Street while operating the 7 route. OC Transpo is the name of the transit service in Ottawa, and includes a fairly extensive bus network, as well as the O-Train.
Sign for Popeye’s Supplements, a chain of health food stores using Popeye the Sailor as its mascot. The store sells products similar to those at GNC.
STO bus 2210, a NovaBus LFS HEV, services a stop at the corner of Albert Street and Bank Street while operating the 55 route. STO, short for Société de transport de l’Outaouais, is the public transit system in Gatineau, and many routes also service parts of Ottawa.
Bus 1411, a NovaBus LFS Artic, services the same stop before departing on its way.
STO bus 1221, another NovaBus LFS Artic, pulls out of a stop at the intersection of Albert and Metcalfe Streets.
Office building at 170 Laurier Avenue West.
Traffic light assembly at the intersection of Metcalfe Street and Laurier Avenue West. Note the additional, separate signal for bicycles.
Another traffic signal at the same intersection. Note the icon-based signs for “no turn on red” and “right turn yield to bikes”.
Ontario-style construction barrel. Compared to what we see in the States, these are taller and skinnier, and have orange and black stripes.
Meet Noodle, an Asian restaurant at 160 Metcalfe Street. Looking at the architecture, I got the distinct feeling that this building began its existence as a residence, though based on Street View imagery, it has been in use for commercial purposes for a very long time.
Pedestrian signal call button at the intersection of Metcalfe and Nepean Streets.
Sign on a wall at The Lofts at Tribeca, at 197 Lisgar Street. No smoking or loitering, sure, but eating? I found that rather curious.
Parking pay station along Metcalfe Street.
Sticky note on another pay station nearby, indicating that the print button is broken, along with a drawing of a sad face.
When I got to Pizza Pizza, I got a slice of their pineapple pizza, which also came with some back bacon on it. They warmed it up, and I enjoyed.
The Pizza Pizza restaurant at 230 Elgin Street.
My slice of pizza, just before it was served up.
Finishing up at Pizza Pizza, I continued my photo walk.
Four-aspect traffic signal at the intersection of Elgin Street and Somerset Street West. Note that the left-arrow aspect is the same size as the red aspect.
Selfie on the streets of Ottawa.
However, it wasn’t long before Elyse intercepted me via phone and asked me to grab a bus and come join her. Okay. She told me what stop to go to, what route to take, and where to go, and I did what I was told. While I was waiting, I got some photos of the buses going by.
OC Transpo bus 4500, a New Flyer Invero (D40i) traveling southbound on the 200 block of Elgin Street.
Bus 4335, another New Flyer Invero, passes by.
Funny thing – for as much of a transit nut as I am, bus networks in cities where I am not so familiar with either the streets or the bus networks tend to intimidate me. I tend to avoid the buses in those situations because I worry about getting lost in an unfamiliar location, or stranded somewhere that’s difficult to get back to where I need to go. It sort of feels like I’m going out into the abyss. In places where I know the area, buses don’t intimidate me like that, because I always know exactly where I am and know how to get where I’m trying to go. As a local example, I am pretty good with WMATA service, because I know the city and the routes very well. Ride On in Montgomery County intimidates me in certain areas of the county, because I don’t know where all of the routes go, and unlike WMATA routes, which tend to follow straight lines, Ride On routes tend to meander. Rail routes don’t tend to do that to me, mainly because of their more fixed nature. As long as I am at a station, another train will be there to save me if I make a mistake. Buses, I don’t necessarily have that sense of surety.
In an area like Ottawa, where I’m unfamiliar with both the streets and the bus network, it is a much harder sell to get me on a bus unsupervised. But with Elyse’s telling me exactly where to go, I was willing to ride. So I got on a 14 bus at Elgin and Cooper Streets, and rode out to North River and Montreal Streets. That said, I was still a bit of a white-knuckle rider and not able to relax. That was not because I didn’t trust the operator or the vehicle. After all, it’s a bus, and I know a thing or two about buses. Rather, it was all me, because I didn’t know where I was going, and had to pay super close attention to the stops so that I didn’t end up somewhere that I didn’t want to be by accident.
Once I got off of the bus, the photo walk continued, as I made my way over to the hobby shop that we had visited the day before.
The intersection of North River and Montreal Streets, near where the bus set me down.
Parking sign along Montreal Road.
Sign for Girard’s Lock & Key.
One way, no stopping, and no parking signs along Palace Street.
Speed limit signage on Palace Street, indicating the beginning of a 30 km/h speed zone.
Arriving at the hobby shop and locating Elyse, we soon went out for another bus, which would take us to Blair, the eastern terminus of the O-Train line. But first, we stopped into a nearby Esso station for a drink.
Esso station at the intersection of Montreal Road and Vanier Parkway.
I always find it interesting whenever I go outside of the United States to see Exxon stations operating under their original brand, Esso. Recognize that in the States, the Standard Oil trademark is split up by region, with different companies’ owning the rights to the “Standard” name in different states. This goes back to the breakup of Standard Oil a century ago, and so nowadays, every company that holds rights to Standard uses it in some token way in the territory where it controls the trademark, whether it’s branding a single station as Standard in each state, or branding certain products as Standard, in order to prevent the other companies from using the Standard Oil name in their territory. The end result of it is that no one company can use “Standard” nationwide, and as a result, the “Standard” brand has largely fallen into obscurity in the United States. In Canada and elsewhere, the “Standard” brand isn’t divvied up by region, so ExxonMobil can use it however they wish – thus they brand their stations as Esso instead of Exxon.
Boarding the bus, we rode out to Blair. This time, I could relax, because Elyse was in charge, and I just had to get up when she told me to get up.
Emergency alert button on bus 6660. I had never seen a button like this on a bus before.
At Blair station, we finally caught our Invero. This is OC Transpo bus 4393, a New Flyer Invero.
Elyse poses for a photo in front of the Invero.
The front of bus 4393. These padded bumpers are apparently an Ottawa thing, as they were on all of the OC Transpo buses that we rode, but I’ve never seen them anywhere else.
Interior of 4393 from further back.
Dashboard of bus 4393, which looks like a typical New Flyer dashboard from the period. That blank gauge all the way to the right is the place where a fuel gauge would go, but many agencies choose to skip the fuel gauge entirely.
Builder’s plate on 4393.
We ended up chatting with the operator for a little while, and then rode the loop route that he was running, which ran out to Blackburn Hamlet and then back to Blair. Not bad. We then went over to the nearby Gloucester Centre mall, which was our original intent before seeing the Invero. That mall was fairly forgettable, but there was a Walmart that was in a former Zellers building.
“Washrooms” signage over the corridor leading to the restrooms.
“Walmart” signage at the front of the store.
I didn’t get many photos because honestly, I was getting tired of Walmart in Canada. I was good with one Canadian Walmart, as the Gatineau store was on my list. By the third one, you know, we get the point. Walmart is Walmart.
A big desire path that we encountered on the way back to the station from the Walmart.
We then walked back to the station, and I got to ride the O-Train like I meant it. We rode the entire line from Blair to Tunney’s Pasture.
Interior of car 1156.
Strip map on the wall of car 1156.
Our train services Hurdman station.
Our train approaches Lees station. You can see the train bending at its articulated joints. Elyse laments our missing a special edition paper train during the opening of the new Potomac Yard station on Metro, which occurred that same day.
Selfies on the O-Train. The bottom two in particular, I thought, as the meme goes, “Felt cute, might delete later.”
When we got to Tunney’s Pasture, we got off the train, and walked through the neighborhood around this station. Elyse had found West Park Lanes on Google, which was a bowling facility that appeared to use banded duckpins, plus there was a Pizza Pizza next door. So we headed over there for bowling and then food. Walking over, we noticed these smaller, older looking houses, and in the dark, they looked like they were possibly low income. Considering that the rail line was relatively new, this wouldn’t have been too surprising. But then we saw the cars parked in front of them: all luxury brands, like Audi and Mercedes and such. Appearances can be deceiving, as these houses were owned by people with money, despite what we initially thought.
Arriving at the bowling alley, it was cosmic bowling night, i.e. blacklight and loud music. I’m not a fan of cosmic bowling because it’s generally too much stimulation for me, but I wanted to try this bowling variation. As it turned out, this was five-pin bowling, where the pins are slightly larger than duckpins, but smaller than tenpins, and had rubber bands around them. Additionally, unlike other bowling variations that I had played in the past, each of the five pins was worth a different amount of points. Not bad. A friend of ours who owns a bowling facility in Maryland wanted to see video of the pinsetter in action, and so I did my best to get it. Funny thing – we found out that the operator of this facility knows our friend. Small world!
The sign out front at West Park Bowling. This was a very clear indication of the vintage quality that we would find inside.
West Park Bowling, lit up for cosmic night.
The pins, lined up and ready for play.
Cover panel that drops down while the pinsetter does its work.
Two frames of five-pin bowling at West Park, zoomed in on the pins in order to show our friend how it worked. I don’t know how much he could see from these videos because of the low lighting plus the cover panel, but I did my best.
We played three games, and we had a great time with it. Next time we go to Ottawa, we are definitely coming back here, though not necessarily on cosmic bowling night.
I also got photos of the urinals at the bowling alley, because of their strange looking flushometer. I had never seen a urinal with such a square-looking flushometer before. Definitely unique.
We also took a moment to appreciate the payphone in the entrance vestibule, which still worked.
Elyse’s expression when she checked to see if the phone worked, and discovered that the payphone actually did work.
When we left the bowling facility, we were disappointed to find out that Pizza Pizza had already closed for the night. Ah, well. So we got back on the bus and headed towards our hotel, figuring that we would find something near there. We ended up going to a place called Mr. Fez, which was a little shawarma place. We both got some and enjoyed it.
LED sign on the wall at Mr. Fez. This was another great place, and I definitely want to come back here next time we’re in Ottawa.
And then from there, it was only a couple of blocks to our hotel. Good times all around. It was fun exploring Ottawa. The next day, meanwhile, would be a long one, as we had to head back home, so it was important to get good sleep.