Parliament Hill

A few months ago I was in a bar in London and got talking to a Canadian who was working in London. I told him I was going to Canada for Canada Day and asked where he recommended I went. There was only one place, he said: Ottawa. They do Canada Day big style! Well, he wasn't wrong!

This year was also the centenary of the Royal Canadian Air Force, so events kicked off with a long fly past of aircraft from the past and present, which we watched from a bridge near our Airbnb. We then got a bus into the Parliament Hill area - a nice touch was that all public transport is free on Canada Day.

It seemed like the whole of Ottawa was out on Parliament Hill - all wearing red and white and sporting Maple leaf 🍁 flags, headdresses, scarves or caps! We walked down towards Le Breton Flats where we thought the main event area was but then found an information tent and discovered the next event was a parachute aeronautical display by the Sky Hawks back up by the Parliament. 🪂

After the Sky Hawks display, we waited 45 mins but in prime position to watch the Snowbirds aeronautical display - the Canadian equivalent of the Red Arrows. They were absolutely amazing! ✈️

By this point we were pretty exhausted so repaired to a tavern in Byward Market for dinner, before going back to the Airbnb to chill for a bit.

We knew that the highlight at the end of the Canada Day celebrations was a huge firework display held over Le Breton flats. But the thought of struggling back into town with 50,000 people was too much. I had seen a poster for some fireworks in a local park so we decided to go to these ones instead. It was a lovely community event; we got chatting to some people who said the area is called New Edinburgh, that it's a lovely community and we were lucky to find it on our first trip! The fireworks 🎆 were pretty amazing for a community event, and afterwards we walked a minute further to watch the main fireworks display across the river, albeit in the distance. My first Canada Day 🇨🇦 experience is one I'll not forget for a long time and I'm very grateful to that man in the bar who told me to come to Ottawa!Read more