Summary
Walked to nearby restaurant, The King Eddy, for breakfast then took an uber to the Central Experimental Farm. “The…farm is a research centre and…a national historic site where scientists study agriculture and visitors can enjoy gardens, greenhouses and museums.” We enjoyed the extensive gardens and the large animal barn then the kitchen museum and a brief cooking demonstration. It started to rain during lunch so we made our way through the throngs of Ironman participants and viewers to the grand old Château Laurier Fairmont for drinks outside under umbrella away from the downpour. Later we had drinks at Apothecary Lounge and dinner at the charming Cocotte restaurant.
Details
Today’s our first and last full day in Ottawa. We’re out of the hotel and over to King Eddie’s right when they open. They joke with us as we’re coming in, but they’re serious about their food. They’re an institution here and we enjoy the breakfast fare. We skip the wine on tap or Caesars (what they here call Bloody Marys). They’re famous for their various “bennies” (Eggs Benedicts) and someone does get that. They deserve the acclaim and we’re sure we’ll be here again if we’re ever back in Ottawa.
Back outside it’s still not raining. An Uber picks up the four of us and whisks over to the Food Museum, or at least close to it (we gave an address near by but not the right one). There was some concern by our driver about getting around. Apparently there’s some race going on in the city today and there are road closures. We’ve not heard about this. Our driver this time is from Algeria and we chat most of the way. Lots of diversity in Ottawa Uber drivers.
We’re out of the car, and happy that we’re still not being rained upon. The forecast was for rain all day with a total of 2.5 or 3” total. That’s a lot. We’re early for our entry time for the food museum so we walk over to the demonstration gardens. It turns out that they’re massive and well manicured and very much in bloom. We slowly walk up and down each row, carefully inspecting each flower, it seems. This must be a perfect climate for these flowers.
Eventually we head over to the food museum. They’re showing kids (and adults) where food comes from and how it gets to us, and how it’s prepared. There are obvious commercial sponsors for food preparation equipment and agricultural equipment, etc. We wander through the animal pens and into the food prep portion of the museum. They have a lot of panels and pictures. It’s interesting.
We also wander into a demonstration where a young man is making skewers with watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, feta, and mint. We learn the proper handling and cutting and how not to give each other our germs. The technique for cutting the watermelon was new to all of us and we can’t wait to get home to try it.
Before long we realize that all of this talk about food is making us hungry. Time for another Uber out of here to grab lunch.
Our choice for lunch is 3 Brothers for Shawarma and Poutine. There are quite a few of these franchises around town and we think we grab the one closest to our hotel (we don’t). The food is great and we find we really like poutine. The portions are generous and the servers are a hoot.
Given that we’re at the wrong 3 Brothers it’s a 20 minute walk to our hotel, not a 2 minute walk. We cowboy up for our walk home. Soon we’re met with visions of lots of unhoused people and substance abusers. We see a hypodermic needle on the street and first responders dealing with someone. We can’t get out of there fast enough, but it goes on for a long way.
Eventually we’re close to our hotel and overshoot it to check out the famous Fairmont Chateau Laurier castle. We could get there easily were it not for the IronMan Triathlon going on. Ah! This is what we saw set up last night, and what our Uber driver was talking about earlier. It’s (at this point) running and biking. It loops around and we see bikers and runner whizzing past. We hear people shouting and clanging cow bells in encouragement.
We watch for a while and then want to get from over here to over there, across many lanes of competitors. For the bikes they’re moving too fast and the only way past is over a temporary bridge. Then you have to get past the runners. They’re typically enough of a break that a few people at a time can scurry across. It’s great fun and we can say that we ran a tiny part of the IronMan Triathlon.
We walk a half mile to dinner. It’s quite good. It’s still drizzling and we’re amused to see the IronMan men and ladies walking their bikes home as if nothing had happened. Such amazing people.
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