My mother's youngest sister was up visiting her son and his wife and when I got back from my camping trip, a friend was on her vacation so I was able to get together with each of them and played tourist in my home town. I live on the east end of Ottawa so don't often go downtown and right now there's so much constriction on the new light rail system that there are often road closures that make things difficult to get downtown.
My aunt and I just went down to the Byward Market and walked around as she wanted to do some shopping for her new granddaughter and some of her friends back home. We had lunch together and then walked up to Parliament Hill, the Sparks Street Mall, and down to the basilica.
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| Rideau canal locks |
My friend and I made arrangements to go to lunch at the Tavern at the Gallery and then to go to the National Art Gallery. The Tavern on the Gallery is a seasonal restaurant that just opened this year. It's seasonal since it is outdoors in a sunken garden beside the art gallery. We had a wonderful wood fired pear and prosciutto pizza.
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| Maman outside the National Gallery |
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| Tavern at the Gallery |
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| Pizza and Sangria |
After lunch, we spent a good few hours exploring the gallery. I think you'd have to go many times before you'd really know your way around or before you'd see everything.
My favourite part of the museum is the Rideau Chapel. It is a reconstructed chapel from a boarding school that used to be in the area. It's wonderful that they didn't just let it be destroyed. But what's even more wonderful is the 40 Part Motet that is playing in the chapel. You can just sit and listen but the neatest thing is to go to each speaker and listen to the individual voices.
I hope you enjoy listening to just a small portion of this forty part vocal harmony.
