This morning,
like every other morning, we rose bright and early as we had a tour of the
Supreme Court of Canada booked for 0930 and we had to be there for 0915 (yes we
are talking army time). We wanted to
“sleep in” for an extra minute so we decided to try the hotel room coffee. It wasn’t too bad but we sure couldn’t wait
for Starbucks after the tour.
This building
amazes us along with Parliament because from the outside this building is H.U.G.E! We couldn’t wait to see inside. We could tour these two buildings every time we go to
Ottawa but there are many other places we would like to visit in Ottawa as well
so we can now mark this one off the list.
We arrived and
went through the security and then wandered around the lobby while we
waited. This place is all marble and it’s
impressive to say the least. The tour
guide arrived (we believe they are law students or something along those lines). We went into the Federal Court of Canada and
he talked about what happens there and gave us the rundown of how the levels of
the court system work and how cases get to that level. Twin 2 put on a robe and sat in the Judge’s
chair.
Then we went into
the Supreme Court of Canada courtroom where all 9 Justices sit and where cases
are televised from. This one is also
impressive. We could not take any
pictures in here but it’s basically the same as the first court room only
bigger.
If you are
interested in what we learnt you can always book a tour with them from Monday
– Friday. This is the first time we’ve
been in Ottawa on a weekday and had a chance to take the tour. It is only half an hour but to see the inside
of the building is impressive. We would
love to see the whole building but they will only show you so much. To go back and watch a case sometime would be
amazing.
After the tour
we went to Starbucks as Twin 1 had coupons for coffee and breakfast sandwiches
which were both very good. We then went
back to the hotel to figure out what to do for the rest of the day. We originally planned to hit up the Rideau
mall but we noticed on Saturday all the good stores were gone and what’s left
is too expensive for us. We looked in a
tour book and decided to take a bus trip to another mall. The front desk told us that it would be
easier and cheaper to take a bus as opposed to a cab so we did. There was a bus station right outside our
hotel and we googled what bus to take and off we went. We asked another lady at the stop just to
make sure we would be getting on the right bus. We got on and it announces what
stop they will be stopping at next which is great and they seem to stop at
“stations” rather than just along the street like the Metro does….or the one we
went on anyway which was mostly downtown and highway.
We made it to
the mall and we headed to Winners because we thought the Ottawa Winners would
be way better than the Halifax ones…we were incorrect. It sucked. So we walked around the mall and
there wasn’t much there either. Needless
to say neither of us bought anything but it was a day out when we had nothing
else planned.
We headed back
to the bus station and thought we were waiting on the right side to head back
down town but we asked again and the lady told us we had to go over two more
bus stations so we finally made it to the right one and had a pleasant ride
back to downtown. We were a little
confused when we got off the bus and started walking one way but quickly
figured out we were going the wrong way so turned around and found the hotel.
When we arrived
back we packed up our suitcases as we had an early morning to the airport. Twin 1 then texted her long lost friend whom
she hasn’t seen in 13 years and tried to figure out if we wanted to go out to
eat, or for coffee or just hang out. In the end we decided to just hang out. Before she came over we cooked up some pasta
for supper and mixed it with our left over salad dressing as we were too cheap
to buy pasta sauce. It was good but
could have used a bit more dressing :)
The friend came
over and we had a great long chat about what’s been happening in each others
lives, had some good laughs and talked about plans for the future. A good time was had by all and hopefully we
won’t wait another 13 years to see each other again.
To bed for an early travelling
day on Tuesday.
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