Friday, January 15, 2016

Ottawa: January 15, 2016; man, it's cold, and Parliament

I'm in Ottawa--a small trip before I go to Hawaii in just over two weeks. It is freezing here. Around -10 degrees celsius, with a wind chill in the minus teens. It's supposed to warm up overnight and get just above freezing tomorrow. I had forgotten how cold it gets here, and it makes me embarrassed at how I was complaining about the "cold" in Nashville and Austin, like here, and here.

I look forward to the day in a few weeks when I complain about the "cold" day in Hawaii when it is only 20 degrees celsius....

As always, click on the photos to enlarge....

Ghosts during the tour of Parliament

Well, as anyone who has been reading this knows, I enjoy a good legislature or state capitol building. So after arriving, I decided to take the tour of Parliament.  I went to school in Ottawa, but hadn't visited Parliament since I was a kid.  While on the tour, this guy walked right by us:


Former Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien.  Ever the politician,
he stopped to shake hands with the tour group. I asked him whether
he had anything better to do than just wander around Parliament and
talk to people. I actually said nothing of the sort....

Light was so low in the building, so Chretien's a bit blurry in my photo.  He walked by us as we headed to the Parliamentary Library, and when we exited, we saw him again, at which point, he stopped to shake everyone's hand. I told him to stop campaigning and he strangled me. (That's a Chretien joke.)

Remember when he was thinking of making marijuana possession an offence punishable by a fine and he told the press, (I'm paraphrasing), "Who knows?  Maybe one day I'll have my joint in one hand and my money to pay the fine in the other."  Ahh, good times....

Shots of Parliament

The required shot of Centre Block at Parliament:

The Peace Tower at Centre Block of Canada's Parliament, Ottawa.
The library:

Interior of the Parliamentary Library.  That's a statute of Queen Victoria.
She picked Ottawa to be Canada's capital.  Did she visit in the winter before
she did?  It's way too cold for a capital here. 

The ceiling of the Parliamentary Library.

The Senate Chamber at Canada's Parliament. Ottawa. One day,
I want to be a senator and have a scandal to call my own.

Ceiling of the Senate Chamber.

There's a lot of Gothic architectural elements in the Parliament.

Examples of Gothic elements in Canada's Parliament. Note the
pointed arches. This might be the rotunda. I don't know. I
wasn't paying attention to the tour guide because I was too busy
taking pictures.


Actually, I think this is the rotunda.....

Closer detail of the Gothic arches.

Outside, at the entrance of Parliament's Centre Block, are the animals on Canada's Coat of Arms.

The lion on the left of the entrance
represents the Sovereign.
The unicorn on the right represents
Scotland, but notice also the French
fleur de lys above it.