ByWard Cafe

 

May 2025 - Ottawa ON - Toronto ON

Ottawa ON

Saturday Day 2 Ottawa

It was meant to be a totally rainy washout, but we lucked out.

It was pouring at 9 but as we were doing a city bus tour we didn't mind. We had one stop at the Canadian War Museum.

Some photos from the bus.

Maman, the spider at the Art Gallery of Canada. John immediately thought of the Barcelona spider which I happened to post last Weekend Roundup!!

The rain stopped when we reached the Tulip Festival!

The Canadian Tulip Festival (French: Festival Canadien des Tulipes; Dutch: Canadees Festival van de Tulp) is a tulip festival held annually each May. The festival claims to be the world's largest tulip festival, displaying over one million tulips, with attendance of over 650,000 visitors annually. Large displays of tulips are planted throughout the city, the largest of which are often in Commissioners Park on the shores of Dow's Lake, and along the Rideau Canal with 300,000 tulips planted there alone.

The festival is a cultural and historical aspect of the special Canada–Netherlands relationship, having originated with commemorative donations of tulips to Canada from the Netherlands for Canadian actions during World War II, when Canadian forces led the liberation of the Netherlands and hosted the Dutch royal family in exile. The Netherlands continues to send 20,000 bulbs to Canada each year (10,000 from the royal family and 10,000 from the Dutch Bulb Growers Association).

Back on the bus for ByWard Market where we have the afternoon to ourselves, the bus took some back to the hotel immediately and also came back at 1:30 for any others wanting a ride.

The ByWard Market (French: Marché By), is a retail and entertainment district in the downtown core of Ottawa. We had lunch and then strolled around.

We took the bus back and then went for a stroll AND the sun came out.

We stepped into the Supreme Court of Canada, after a vigorous security screening, John even had to drink from his water bottle.

We visited the Bank of Canada Museum.

As we left for the included Oh Canada Eh dinner and show the skies opened again with torrential downpours.

The show was the highlight of the evening. In the middle is Vince, one of our guides, they always get their man!!

Sunday Day 3 Ottawa

Surprise! It was raining but it was also cold! But, again, we were spending the morning indoors at a museum. Canadian Museum of History.

Back at the hotel we grabbed a quick lunch before heading out for a river cruise, and it stopped raining! BUT it is COLD, feeling like 2 C or 36 F!!!

Being suckers for punishment we went for a walk when we got back.

On our way it had gotten so windy and cold that we cancelled our Joey's reservation and settled for something close by. We have Joey's in Toronto so can go there anytime. We had a delicious dinner at Brown Social House.

Monday Day 4 Ottawa

Monday Mural Camara de Lobos Portugal.

The bus pulled away from the hotel at 11:45 AM, no rain! 

It would be 7:15 PM when we pulled into the Burlington parking lot.

We had a 30 minute coffee/bathroom break and a 45 minute break at the Big Apple. It is the first long weekend of summer and the sun finally came out so it was packed!! We've been here before.

We picked up our car and were home around 8.

Tuesday we treated like our usual Saturday and lazed around. We started watching MC Australia and had apple pie and ice cream for lunch!

Signs from Porto Portugal

Wednesday it is STILL raining so golf was cancelled. John took a trip to Longo's with me. 

More binge watching, this time with chips and coke!

Thursday RAINING.

I was fooling around and up popped Gemini, a generative artificial intelligence chatbot developed by Google. These drive me crazy. Instead of writing what I really wanted to say, I said "go away".

This was Gemini's response, we laughed and laughed.

Friday some rain and a picket line, CUPE union, I'm guessing postal workers as I headed to Longo's for vegetables.

COOKING/EATING

Saturday OTTAWA Oh Canada Eh dinner

Sunday OTTAWA Brown Social House

Monday OTTAWA  toasted sandwiches 

Tuesday chicken a la orange 

Wednesday frozen gluten free sole chips and coleslaw

Thursday hamburger patties, gravy, mashed potatoes and beans. TIP I used packaged gravy but instead of water, I used red wine beef stock.

Friday steak baked potato chimichurri and roasted fennel . No chimichurri, I bought parsley instead!

WATCHING

A Working Man  Levon Cade left his profession behind to work construction and be a good dad to his daughter. But when a local girl vanishes, he's asked to return to the skills that made him a mythic figure in the shadowy world of counter-terrorism. Any movie with Jason Statham is a good watch! Movie was made in 2025 and there is a subtle scene when we see the Russian gangsters and as we leave their building there is a Ukraine mural painted on the wall.

We are binge-watching MasterChef Australia Season 17 episodes 1 to 15, now we have to wait!

I went back to Call the Midwife.

We watched to latest The Handmaid's Tale episode, only one more to go!

Who Killed Garrett Phillips?  is a 2019 two-part documentary. It delves into the 2011 murder of 12-year-old Garrett Phillips in Potsdam, New York, and the subsequent investigation and trial of Oral "Nick" Hillary, a Jamaican man and ex-boyfriend of Garrett's mother, Tandy Cyrus. The documentary examines the complexities of the case, highlighting issues of racial bias and prosecutorial misconduct.

He opted for a bench trial and was ultimately acquitted. During the trial, it was revealed that public state prosecutor Mary E. Rain withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense. This, along with other instances of professional misconduct, led to Rain being banned for two years from practicing law.

READING

I read Life Sentence introduces a new kind of forensic heroine - a crime-solving Goth-girl mortuary technician who talks to the dead. The tension builds up nicely through the story, with plenty of little shocks along the way that kept me turning those pages.

Sculptures at City Hall

July 2017 - Toronto ON

Toronto City Hall at Nathan Phillip's Square is known as the "new" city hall as the old one is on the next block.
The Square is named for Nathan Philips, who was Mayor of Toronto from 1955 to 1962.Beneath the square is one of the world's largest underground parking garages. In 2012, illuminated "disappearing" fountains were installed among the slabs, used for decoration and cooling.

The Square is property of the City of Toronto. Smoking is prohibited in the entire square.

There are a lot of sculptures near city hall and these photos were taken at various times but are all located within a few city blocks.

The arches over the reflecting pool/ice rink were officially named "Freedom Arches" in 1989.

A piece of the Berlin Wall lays flat at the base of the centre Freedom Arch on the south side. There is a plaque embedded in the piece that reads:
"Freedom Arches"

The Citizens of Toronto dedicate these arches to the millions who struggled including Canadians, to gain and defend freedom and to the tens of millions who suffered and died for the lack of it. May all that we do be worth of them.
Only in freedom can the Human Spirit soar.
Against the Human drive for the freedom nothing can be long succeed.

We'll first step into City Hall.


By Toronto artist David Partridge the sculptural mural Metropolis, located along the east wall inside the main doors of City Hall, was the winning submission in an art competition held in 1974 to select a permanent work of art to complement Toronto City Hall’s unique architectural style.

He regards his sculpture as a symbolic interpretation of a great metropolis, but not of any city in particular.

Moll-Berczy is shown with Governor Simcoe in the Rotunda of Toronto’s City Hall. Both were instrumental in the creation of the city of Toronto.

Presented to the City of Toronto on October 22, 1972 by the German Canadian Council for the Arts and the Historical Society of Mecklenburg Upper Canada.

Berczy is also honoured at Berczy Park on Front St. which opened in June 2017.

Emily Howard Stowe, née Jennings, physician (b at Norwich, Upper Canada 1 May 1831; d at Toronto 30 Apr 1903). A lifelong champion of women's rights, Emily Stowe taught school in Brantford and Mount Pleasant, Canada W, and in 1856 married John Stowe, whose illness from tuberculosis inspired her to seek a career in medicine. No Canadian college would accept a woman student, so she enrolled at the New York Medical College for Women and on her graduation in 1867 set up a practice in Toronto. She was the first Canadian woman to practice medicine in Canada, although she was not licensed until 1880. Emily Stowe's struggle to enter the medical profession caused her to organize the Woman's Medical College, Toronto, in 1883. In 1876 she had founded the Toronto Women's Literary Club, Canada's first suffrage group, and she was principal founder and first president of the Dominion Women's Enfranchisement Assn (1889).

We head outside now and see the large abstract sculpture on Nathan Phillips Square in front of City Hall, known as ""The Archer"", was created by Henry Moore, one of England's most famous artists in the 20th century.

I am not positive, but I believe this globe was donated by Nathan Phillips to the city.

A very familiar figure to most done by Oscar Nemon.

Antique column presented by the Mayor of the City of Rome Umberto Tupini, as a token of friendship between the citizens of Rome and Toronto. The column is of granite (lapis syonites) known to have been quarried in Egypt between 300 and 400 C.E. for a Roman building since destroyed.

"Peace Through Valour" Monument
Artist: Ken Lum

The space behind the Sir Winston Churchill statue is being prepared for this monument, which honours the Canadian soldiers who fought in the Italian Campaign in WWII.

The Peace Through Valour Monument presents the 3D printed bronze topographical map of the town of Ortona, where Canadian soldiers fought the fiercest battle in the Italian Campaign, and achieved one of the greatest victories in WWII.

The 3D-printed sculpture depicts a 7-foot by 7-foot topographical map of Ortona illustrating the ruin and destruction the town endured during the battle, with each corner of the map guarded by figures of Canadian soldiers standing vigil. Lum took inspiration for the sculpture from photographs and paintings of the town’s destruction by Canadian artist Charles Comfort. Lum said the model is meant to be looked at with downcast eyes and is scaled to be engaging to people of all ages.

Between the buildings of City Hall and the Court House down a walkway are beautiful sculptures large enough to be very impressive. 

When we were here the other day they were all enclosed for cleaning.

All of these represent Human Rights and Freedoms: bronze Lion and Sheep, "Equal before the Law" by Eldon Garnet.

The Frederick G. Gans Memorial by Maryon Kantaroff. In 1978 family lawyer Frederick Gans, 40, was shot and killed by a former client’s husband during divorce proceedings. The shooting took place in the hallway of a courthouse then at 145 Queen Street W.

"Freedom of Expression" , female sculpture, by Marlene Hilton Moore.

On top of a black marble slab is a male sculpture holding a globe with religious symbols on it such as the Star of David, the Cross, Islamic symbol, etc., unity of the world idea.

Facing the Court House, the Pillars of Justice sculpture in stainless steel by Edwina Sandys, rather unique representation of a chosen jury.

University St. at this junction is three lanes wide in each direction with a wide boulevard down the middle wide enough to accommodate sculptures and plants.

In the middle of University steps away at Queen St. looking north is the South African War Memorial. To give you perspective that building on the left with the green roof is the court house.

The South African War Memorial was commissioned in 1910 and designed by Walter Seymour Allward to commemorate Canada's participation in the Boer War, it consists of three bronze figures at the base of a granite column. Another bronze figure is found at the top of the memorial.

Two them were Canadian soldiers and the third was a symbolic representation of Mother Britain. At the top of the monument was a winged figure holding a golden crown.




Victory sits atop.

Nearby:
Campbell House