A bus ride took us to a change of Province,leaving French speaking Quebec Province behind for Ontario Province and the Capital City of Canada, Ottawa. The guide book said there wouldn't be much to do really but we found plenty and quite fell in love with Ottawa as in some ways it quite reminded us of Perth with a bit of Canberra thrown in. Our accommodation was in an old guest house with shared bathroom, communal kitchen and a pleasant 2klms walk to the city centre.

Through our usual diligent research we found that the main museum for all of Canada, The Canadian Museum of Civilization, was free on Thursday afternoons and evenings. We make it a mission to visit things that are offered for free! We did an enjoyable river cruise on the Ottawa River first and got dropped off near the museum. The museum gave us a wonderful overview of Canadian history and especially filled in the gaps in our knowledge about the Canadian Indians. 

There was a special exhibition there on Pompeii. It was an extra fee to pay to see and we told ourselves we were going to the real Pompeii soon so no need to see!( See Post Script below)

The following day we took a boat trip up the 150 year old Rideau Canal. This man made canal runs all the way through to the St Lawrence river at Kingston some 200 klms away and is a major link in Canadian waterways. Boats must pass through 47 lock systems. The Rideau Canal is also world famous for being the longest skating rink in the world when it freezes over in winter.

We found that Ottawa, other than being the Capital City of Canada, had a wonderful library and we spent quite a lot of hours doing research for the next major stage of our trip (UK and Europe). Time to move on again..

Footnote: The Rideau Canal is UNESCO World Heritage listed.
Post script: We didn't view the Pompeii exhibition because we were going to Pompeii. When we got to Pompeii many of the exhibits had signs that said "on loan to Ottawa, Canada!