Ottawa 2026 – Day 3

When planning the trip, we decided to do a long bike ride on Day 4 across the Chief William Commanda Active Transportation Bridge into Gatineau Park. Unfortunately, a large amount of rain is forecast for tomorrow, our only full day available for riding. So, I made a 20 km route including an out-and-back over the bridge, that will allow us to get back in time to attend Question Period in the afternoon.

We dressed for cycling and rode to Egg Club for Breakfast. I had breakfast at one of their Toronto locations several years ago and really enjoyed the egg bun breakfast sandwiches. So did everyone else. They don’t have any seating, but there were benches outside.

We then rode over to the Rideau Canal to start a ride. 

We saw these cute swinging Muskoka chairs in several locations.

I love that this is an active transportation bridge above an active transportation path.

At Dow’s Lake, they have installed a swimming area, one of four installed in Ottawa this year.

The Dow’s Lake Pavilion is a year-round entertainment centre and recreational hub. It is on the Rideau Canal and offers water rentals, restaurants, and serves as a focal point for the Canadian Tulip Festival and Winterlude.

Here’s another protected intersection under construction.

Ottawa Trillium Line is a 19 km light rail transit (LRT) route. The Trillium multi-use path runs adjacent to the LRT. The path directly connects to several of the stations for easy access to transit. It also connects to the Ottawa River pathway system, and the Chief William Commanda Bridge.

The Chief William Commanda Bridge, formerly the Prince of Wales Bridge, is the pedestrian and cycling bridge which was a former rail bridge. It spans the Ottawa River between Ottawa and Gatineau Quebec. It connects the Trillium Pathway in Ottawa to the Voyageurs Pathway in Gatineau. It crosses the south channel to Lemieux Island with six spans of a Prescott Truss bridge over the south channel and seven spans over the north channel. It is 1 km from shore to shore. It opened in 2023. It’s a great connection, but unfortunately, it’s only a seasonal one.

I created this video of our return over the bridge sped up to double time. I put together four clips, added music, and a title using iMovie on my ipad.

Ottawa is recognized as a gold-level, Bicycle Friendly Community by the Share the Road cycling coalition. It was a pleasure to ride around the city and we were mostly on cycling infrastructure.

As we were returning to the university residence, David realized that we were close to the home of a childhood friend so we took a quick detour to say hello. We didn’t have time for a long visit so we arranged to visit for longer tomorrow morning when it will be raining.

Ottawa has been building cycle tracks adjacent to the sidewalk in the boulevards in many places.

Here is another protected intersection.

On Carling Avenue, an arterial road, bikes, buses, and taxis share a lane.

Glebe Avenue accommodated bicycle traffic as a one-way street with a parking-protected bi-directional cycle track. Further along the road, it became a unidirectional cycle track, fortunately in the direction that we were travelling. I would assume, but don’t know, that a nearby parallel street has a cycle track for the opposite direction.

Ottawa has removed some street parking spots for cars and put in bike racks.

We cleaned up and changed for Question Period. We got lunch at the Ottawa Bike Café. The Food Was Delicious.

Look at this interesting open and closed sign.

After finishing lunch, we walked to Parliament Hill. These are some of the sights we saw as we walked around the back of the Centre Block. The address we were given was incorrect and took us around the back of the Centre Block. The new entry for visitors is on the west side of the Centre Block and is best accessed from Wellington Street.

The new visitors’ centre has a gift shop. I bought Michael a beer glass, which I thought he would appreciate as a relatively new Canadian.

David and Dayle’s friends, whom we met for lunch on Monday, joined us for Question Period. We were required to show government-issued photo ID and go through airport-style security. Then we proceeded to a large open area where there was a gift shop. There were probably 200 or so people attending. Employees took groups to a secure coat check where we had to check everything except wallets, and then to another waiting room, before escorting people up to the gallery in small groups. We were taken up after Question Period had started. Due to the requirement to check everything I don’t have any pictures inside the House of Commons.

Question Period seems to consist of the opposition asking gotcha questions and then making a lot of noise while members of the government try to answer. MP Sidhu briefly left the floor and came up to the gallery to tell David that she needed to stay for three votes following Question Period causing her to be late for our appointment. We stayed for the first vote and then made our way to her office on Spark Street. We had to go through the same security routine minus checking personal items.

David wrote about our meeting with MP Sidhu here.

It was Cindy’s birthday and she chose Tayanti Peruvian restaurant for dinner. It was a good meal. We followed it with ice cream at a different gelato place in Byward Market. It was even better than what we had last night.

I was surprised to see the American Embassy lighting up its dome in a rainbow to celebrate Pride given the current administration.After gelato, we took a short walk around the market before heading back to the residence.I was surprised to see the American Embassy lighting up its dome in a rainbow to celebrate Pride given the current administration.