By Air

Ottawa International Airport has commuter airlines from most large Canadian cities, especially Toronto and Montréal, plus direct flights, particularly in summer, to the major European cities.

By Train

VIA Rail - Ottawa's station was relocated from the center to the south-east of the city. Trains run several times daily to Toronto and Montréal.

By Bus

The city is well served by the Canadian intercity bus lines.
Ottawa Transit's city buses run at short intervals on an extensive and closely integrated system of routes.
Ottawa stands at the confluence of the Ottawa and Rideau rivers, and is also the starting point of the Rideau Canal linking it to Lake Ontario.

National Gallery of Canada

The National Gallery of Canada, designed by Moshe Safdie, is an architectural masterpiece, a highly successful, ultra-modern building that, with its prism-like glass towers, echoes the lines of the nearby Parliament Buildings, and while strongly contrasting with their Neo-Gothicism and the mock medieval Château Laurier nevertheless fits very well into Ottawa's cityscape.

Among the gallery's major works, those by Canadian artists include "Joseph Brant" (1805) by William Berczy, "North Shore, Lake Superior" (1926) by Lawren S. Harris, "Blunden Harbour" (1930) by Emily Carr, "Journey on Foot" (undated) by Pitseolak, and "Reason over Passion" (1968) by Joyce Wieland.

Ottawa Locks

A flight of eight locks at the north end of the Rideau Canal, at the entrance to the Ottawa River, were completely overhauled some years ago, and an interpretive trail runs alongside the canal.

Rideau Canal

Colonel By's Rideau Canal starts east of the Houses of Parliament, in a gully taking it up from the Ottawa River to the Rideau valley through a system of 9 locks that bridge the difference in height between the two rivers. The War of 1812, with the young United States, had shown how easily the U.S. could threaten the St Lawrence. After the war the Duke of Wellington dispatched scouts to upper Canada to see if a solution could be found to the difficult situation. Colonel John By was sent to Canada in 1826 to oversee the building of a canal that would circumvent the dangerous waters of the St Lawrence and provide an alternative route for navigation as far as Lake Ontario 200km (124mi) to the south-west. The canal was finished in 1832 but
never achieved its anticipated strategic or economic importance.

Rockcliffe Park

Rockcliffe Park, northeast of Parliament Hill, is a popular recreation and picnic area with a fine view over the Gatineau River valley.

Rideau Falls

The Rideau Falls are a series of cascades, with Green Island in the middle, where the Rideau drops down into the Ottawa River. They are a particularly impressive spectacle when the torrent is swollen by the melting snows in spring.

Information not available

January - February -> -16(°C) - Winter
July - August -> 27(°C) - Summer

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