More sites to see in Ottawa

Tuesday, August 14 we headed to the National War Museum. The Ottawa area has seven National Museums. As much as I would have liked to visit all seven, I knew that was just too much. Besides, if you see it all there is no need for a return visit! They have a deal where you can buy a three day, three museum pass for $35 per person. At their current museum entrance fee it is like paying for two and getting the third free. I like free so we bought the pass at the first museum we visited, the War Museum.

Three day, three museum pass. A good deal.

The first stop was the Memorial Room. A very somber place. It displayed the headstone of the unknown soldier that had originally been in a cemetery in France.

They had a temporary exhibit of various types of armour. The kind the knights wore all the way up to modern kevlar vests the police and military use, and also some future armour from the movies. It was very interesting to view examples of armour from several hundred years ago. If only that armour could talk. Imagine the stories they could tell!

Fully armoured knights and their horses too. The knights armour weighed about 100 pounds, plus the weight of the rider and weight of the horses armour. You needed a stout steed to gallop into battle!

Futuristic armour worn by Superhero

Not a dainty type of glove

The story of war started back before white contact through the pre-confederation times and into the two world wars. Canada's role in the UN as a prime provider of peace-keeping troops was also well documented.

West coast native war paraphernalia.

Look closely on the right side of the damaged gauge.....

.....and read this!

Hitler's car.

Bullet hits on the glass

A piece of the Berlin Wall. This is the front, facing West Germany.......

.....and this is the back which faced East Germany. Guards arrested or shot anyone approaching the Wall.

Canadian UN 'peace keeping' vehicle with 54 bullet holes from an ambush. Some peace.

Front end blown off. See story below.

Small replica of the National War Memorial

The War Museum is a must-see. The exhibits are very well done and the stories they tell are spell-binding. We spent the entire day there and still felt we should have stayed longer.

With worn out legs we headed back to the campground. We drove through neighborhoods instead of the highways. Slower yes, but much more interesting and entertaining.

Wednesday was another Museum day. Day two on our three day museum pass. This time it was the National Museum of History just across the river in Hull (Gatineau), Quebec. Once again we drove into town and found parking fairly easily just across the street from the museum.

This is a big museum, and I knew by the time we made it through the exhibits we would be done for the day. They had a couple of temporary exhibits. the first was about armour. We had seen a large exhibit the day before at the War Museum so we passed through this one quickly.

Next exhibit was called the Frozen in Time. This documents the story of the Franklin Expedition. Sir John Franklin attempted to find the Northwest Passage through the Arctic in 1845. He was never heard from again. Numerous searches were performed but with no luck finding the expedition. In the past couple of years they found his two sunken ships, Erabus and Terror. This very well done exhibit documents the trip, the searches and the modern day findings.

Portion of the captains bed frame found near the wreck.

Model of how the shipwreck looks at the bottom of the sea.

Now it was time to start the main museum exhibits. We started in the pre-history section and worked our way through hundreds of exhibits. We stopped mid-day to watch a film about a modern day trip through the Northwest passage to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday (in 2017).

Large collection of West Coast totem poles

Beautiful painted dome on the ceiling of the museum

Model shows how Indian hunters herded buffalo over cliffs. Easier than shooting them with bows and arrows, and your kill is all in one place.

Birch bark canoe

Samples of pottery from over 2500 years ago

Collection of pipes. Notice the one second down on the right. The engraved face is facing the smoker. Would that be the smokers conscience looking at him while he smokes?? 

Early map of western Canada before the provinces were created.

Downtown Winnipeg. Portage Avenue and Main Street

I didn't take a lot of pictures today. Museum photography is tough. You can't use flash or tripods and even with high ISO, wide open aperture and trying to use 'museum' settings on the camera it still depends on the steadiness of the photographer to get good clear pictures. So most of mine were blurry.

We took some more pictures of Ottawa from the north side of the river where the museum sits.

Chateau Laurier hotel. Rideau Canal Locks in lower center.

Bridge over Ottawa River

Back of the Supreme Court building

Parliament Hill from the Quebec side of the river

Another tiring day. I think a hike is easier on the body than standing for hours looking and reading exhibits. Overall a great day and well worth the time spent. We made our way back through town in rush hour. It took some time but had no issues as we have done this route before.

.....and that was Our View From Here!