Meeting Alice

An awesome ceiling in the museum... I decided I am going to have a ceiling like this in my house one day!
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The train from Kingston to Fallowfeild station, Ottawa took about two hours. The scenery was lovely, I still haven't gotten over the magnificent green they have here. I like it so much better than our browny green back home! I guess I will be just as amazed by it when I reach the UK, but for now Canada's green fields (can't call them paddocks here) and the spring flowers make me remark everyday how beautiful it is here.

Alice found me easily enough, (I guess a young girl with an enormous backpack with a slightly lost look on her face gave it away pretty quick) and we came back to her little place which is about 20 minutes from downtown Ottawa. It appears to be quite a country area with lots of feilds and some animals out in the paddocks. She is on 8 acres (I think) and has a beautifully kept garden and has a cute little dog. We had some supper and I went to reasonably early as I was tired from the wedding. It was already to easy to see that I was going to get on with Alice as she is a gorgeous lady, very talkative and very friendly. She still seems very excited by life which I think is marvelous for a 77 year old woman.

Alice sitting in one of the transfered ruins in the national park
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*I guess I should write a quick note for those of you who don't know who Alice is. Alice and my Grandpa Sedunary met one day around 50 years ago when he was travelling in Europe. She was working in the town he was travelling through, and after asking her to make his photo of the sea a little brighter she and her friend invited him and his friend to a dance. That was the only day they ever met in person, but have been writing a Christmas letter to each other every year since. When I told Grandpa I was coming to Canada he asked me to visit her on his behalf.. and so here I am!

Alice
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On Monday morning when I finally pulled myself out of bed and had some breakfast we went into Ottawa. The city sits on the Ottawa River and the drive only what is called the Parkway into the city is just gorgeous! It is lined with trees and the green grass against the water was lovely. The whole city seems to have lots of trees through and is very clean and well kept. Alice and I took a tour bus through the city which meant I got to see most things of interest and learn a few things about the city. It isnt a whole lot bigger than Adelaide (although there are more really tall buildings) and was made the capital because the politicians were fighting for so long over where the capital should be that they gave the job to the Queen who decided on one they hadnt even considered. When it was chosen to be the capital it only had 7000 residents, it is now up to around one million. The parliament buildings are absolutely stunning and one of the highlights of the day was going up the peace tower in the main parliament building and looking out over the city. It was gorgeous!

The parliament buildings are gorgeous
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Today, Tuesday, we got up and Alice took me to the Museum of Civilisations. It was awesome! We spent the whole day there and there was no way we saw everything. It was so big and there was so many things to look at and read about. Learning about history in a museum like that is great. I loved the whole day. There were 3 exhibitions that we got a reasonable look at,but even then I could go back and there would still be many things to read that I didnt have time to today. The exhibitions were on the Lost City of Petra in Jordan; the hall of the native inhabitants of Canada; and the hall of Canada's history. All were absolutely fantastic exhibits with such great artefacts, displays and well written explainations and facts about the different things. I wish I had time to go back!