In May I travelled from New York City to Ottawa for the annual Tulip Festival, and to my delight I found that Ottawa itself was a garden of delights.
The Tulip Festival had its origins with a gift of 100,000 bulbs presented in gratitude to the people of Canada by the Dutch Royal Family after World War II. Due to the war, some members of the Royal Family sought refuge in Ottawa. During their stay Princess Margriet was born and she periodically returns, often at Tulip Festival time.
The gift of tulips from the Dutch people to Ottawa has continued over the years, and every spring more than a million blossoms of various colours stretch across a nine-mile radius that winds along the Rideau Canal, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
While Ottawa is primarily English speaking, I found that most signs, directions, instructions, menus, monuments and so on were written in both English and French and that many locals were bi-lingual and could converse fluently in either language.
This charming mix-and-match blend of cultures is not limited to language; architecturally too, the city captures the best of both traditions and makes Ottawa a truly distinctive city to visit.
As the capital of Canada, Ottawa is home to the magnificent grouping of Gothic Revival Parliament Buildings situated on Parliament Hill. During summer months there’s a daily changing of the guard ceremony, which adds even more English-style colour and texture to the downtown.
