Day 5 (Saturday May 18, 2013): Tulip Festival and Byward Market
Our time of arrival to Ottawa proved special because Sohi and I had the chance to visit one of Ottawa's largest festivals: the Tulip Festival. It is the world's largest tulip festival and houses 300,000 tulips in 60 different varieties across downtown Ottawa. It is celebrated each May as a heritage of Canada's role in liberating the Dutch during World War 2.
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| Sohi and the beautiful tulips! |
We enjoyed walking around downtown to view all the colourful and assorted tulips.
To keep ourselves engaged in fun and brightness, we went to Byward Market in the afternoon, which is right behind Rideau Centre. It is one of Canada's oldest markets. Within four blocks of area, the Market houses local restaurants, galleries, pubs, museums, and much more. Upon our arrival, we noticed how vibrant and diverse the people and Market was. It felt like a tiny village, yet provided a variety of things to see. We walked past agri-food vendors as well as arts and crafts vendors. We can see why it is Ottawa's number one tourist destination!
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| We stopped for some famous Beavertails. A tasty souvenir! |
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| What's really cool are the hidden stone courts! |
After eating at a local restaurant, we went back at night to the Tulip Festival. The festival is not only eye-catching but provides several entertainment each day. To give a bang to Canada's long weekend celebrating Victoria Day, there were fireworks at 9 p.m. Located at Dow's Lake, families gathered and joined to watch what they called the Lake of Fire.
Today felt like a festive and vibrant day, where we got see a bit of Canada's history through it's largest festival and oldest market.
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