A black and white day by the river

We walked home from town along Sussex Drive this afternoon, during the latest snowfall. Across the river, artificial snow makers are adding to the amount for the sake of the Winterlude playground (aka Snowflake Kingdom, the biggest snow playground in North America!) being constructed over there, in Jacques-Cartier park. The machines are in operation night and day.

Below is a picture of the Ottawa side of the river, showing Nepean Point and the Alexandra Bridge over the frozen, snow-covered river. The bridge is currently closed to traffic because it's being given a new coat of paint, to prevent steel corrosion. On an average day, when it's open, this interprovincial bridge is crossed by 22,000 vehicles.

The pictures on this page, by the way, are colour photos, not black and white ones.

A long wait for the flying machines

I thought this would have made a good blogpost, but I'm afraid we got tired of waiting for the show.

It was a beautiful sunny morning while we were sitting at the foot of the Rideau Canal locks (the Alexandra Bridge, which would have made a better vantage point, was closed to pedestrians for the day) staring across the Ottawa River along with a large crowd of other people, including patient children, many of whom had pedalled there on their bikes. There was a far bigger crowd on the other bank near the action, or what would eventually be action, ––"Be there at 11am to check out the flying crafts and prepare for takeoff!" it said on the website––but the launching of the home made flying machines during Ottawa-Gatineau's Red Bull Flugtag, didn't actually begin until midday or perhaps later. We had gone by then.

Pilots ... launch themselves off a 22-foot high flight deck in hopes of soaring into the wild blue yonder…or more often than not, plunging into the waters below. Flugtag, which means “flying day” in German, pushes the envelope of human-powered flight ... Teams are judged on flight distance, creativity of the craft, and showmanship.

We missed seeing the flops of the flying beaver and the giant banana. Having read the report in the Ottawa Citizen, we seem to have missed a lot of fun altogether.

The Au Feel de l'Eau Aquataxi had been offering special rides on this occasion to passengers who booked in advance. Anyone lucky enough to arrive by boat could have a closer view of the Flugtag show; we saw some boat owners showing off at high speeds in the vicinity. I see that one canoeist-spectator has left a comment about this on the CBC.ca website, saying:

We went by canoe to join a fotilla of hundreds to enjoy the day. Unfortunately, on the way back we seemed to be the only ones stopped by the police to check if we had safety gear aboard. When asked what are you doing about the boats going at speeds up to 140 km/hr in the river, they responded that according to the law, people can drive their boats at any speed. Yes, but if they do so in an unsafe manner in a crowded waterway like this, that is an offence I replied. Too bad tbe cops [...] seem to focus on canoes when it's the motorized craft that imperil others.

Ottawa's Tall Ship

Yesterday evening, walking downtown, we made a detour down to the Rideau Canal locks to make sure the bottom one was closed. It was, and you can walk across, which means that my husband will be able to cycle to work in Kanata following the riverside trails without having to go through the traffic on Parliament Hill first; he can simply ride down the steep bike path from the National Gallery and then under the cliffs. There is still some ice on the bike trail but none in the river itself, now.

From our vantage point by the locks we noticed two wonderful things. First, the rusty old Alexandra Bridge over the Ottawa River was magically gilded by the setting sun from the west, especially dramatic with a grey sky for a backdrop to the east. I wished I'd had the foresight to bring a camera along. Secondly, as we walked past the penultimate lock, we saw the "Bytown Brigantine," still under tarpaulins, with her masts stowed horizontally, waiting to be sailed this summer. She's called Fair Jeanne and a visit to her website informs you of all kinds of possible adventures aboard. The section about Summer Activities in 2013 suggests that you

... be a part of history-in the-making, as Bytown Brigantine and the Fair Jeanne participate in three major events: the opening of Tall Ships Landing and the Aquatarium, the Tall Ships America Great Lakes Challenge 2013 and the Thousand Islands Flotilla.

You can participate in groups, as young teams (either in the 12 to 14 age group or the 15s to 18s) or as individual adults. It is not prohibitively expensive––each year, 20% of the ship's berths are made available to families through a bursary fund.

Across the bridge

Alexandra Bridge from the Ontario side, January 2012

Yesterday being a fine day I decided to walk to a friend's apartment on the Quebec side of the Ottawa river. She lives at 175 ave. Laurier and to get there on foot, it's best to pass the National Gallery and cross the oldest interprovincial bridge in town, the Alexandra Bridge. It was built at the turn of the (19th-20th) century and opened in 1901 as a Canadian-Pacific railway bridge; it was used for that purpose until 1966. The Ontario-to-Quebec lane for motor traffic overhangs the river to the right of the main cantilever bridge and its metal surface vibrates with a terrible rumbling noise when you drive across it. On the other side is the pathway of wooden planks for cyclists and pedestrians. Traffic driving from Quebec to Ontario use the original part.

Alexandra Bridge seen from a window of the Great Hall
at the Musée des Civilisations in Gatineau

On the Quebec side of the Ottawa River the Museum of Civilisation (Musée des Civilisations, plural, in French, which in my opinion is a better description of what the museum offers) stands on the shore to the west of the bridge and from its windows a fine view of the river, the bridge and, indeed, most of Ottawa's famous landmarks. Yesterday was a particularly good day for views, the sky being crisp and clear and the Gatineau Hills on the horizon covered in snow.

In the afternoon after visiting the museum as well as my friend I walked all the way back home as well.

Fireworks from the bridge

Carol's photo, from the park last night

Most of our company felt too comfortable in the warm house to want to go outside at all, but Carol and I put our boots on, wrapped up, and trudged out knee deep into the snowy park to our vantage point near the Minto Bridges from which we usually watch Canada Day's fireworks on July 1st. Last night being February 4th, the watching experience was altogether different (Carol and I were the only people out in the park, it was completely dark, very cold, and a line of heavy duty snowploughs and snow removal trucks was working along King Edward Avenue as we stood there) but the sky still lit up with a shower of fireworks marking the official start of Winterlude. They began shortly after 9 p.m. and lasted for about 20 minutes.

Even from inside our house, apparently, the explosions sounded loud.

Reuters picture of Winterlude fireworks

What I hadn't realised was that a row of fireworks would be set off from the Alexandra Bridge, so that a wider stretch of sky was lit than on Canada Day. There seemed to be new kinds of fireworks too, some like sudden waterfalls very high, some like flocks of golden birds scattering. A series of colours in the show turned the city by turns green, red and pink, more so as the smoke began to spread. We could smell it! By the end of it when we turned round to go back to the house we could hardly see across the Rideau River for drifting smoke.

Well worth the chilly outing, a beautiful show. I was talking to a Japanese lady yesterday who lives downtown on the 23rd floor of an apartment block. She told me that she would be watching, for sure.

The operations base is outside the Museum of Civilisation on the north bank of the Ottawa River. For comparison's sake, click here for a recording of last year's similar display.