Lake Rosseau resort
You could drive from Niagara to Ottawa in about eight hours but we decided to take a few days in the lake area north of Toronto and then drive through the Algonquin Provincial Park to Ottawa. Lake Rosseau is about 200 miles north of Toronto. We stayed at the Marriott Lake Rosseau Muskoka Resort and Spa and while I would not normally plug a hotel, this one was stunning. The whole region is a series of interlocking lakes and rivers and there are some amazing riverside properties. This resort offers various activities including kayaking, canoes, cycling and various river trips. Food was pricey but really good. We had a great couple of days here and I could just about kayak in a straight line by the end of it (I have history from canoeing on a river on our previous trip and steering Jonathan, who was then eight, into bushes on both sides of a river before we were rescued). Everyone else was excellent at it – never mind, don’t think Ben Ainslie needs to worry about me. Looking back on the trip this was our favourite location and one we would not hesitate to go back to and explore more.
Ottawa
We found that a couple of nights here was plenty to see what we wanted to. I think we had unwound so much that a busy city came as a bit of a culture shock. We stayed opposite the Parliament building. Wandered down the locks on the Rideau Canal which passed next to the hotel and around the back of the Parliament building looking down on the river below. On our first evening we went to see the sound and light show of the story of Canada which is projected onto the Parliament building (think Buckingham Palace in the Jubilee concert in 2012 minus Madness on the roof). We had one full day in Ottawa and we headed off to the National Gallery of Canada which was excellent and had a Van Gogh exhibition on while we were there. This part of the city felt very spacious and laid back. Plenty of shopping opportunities in Ottawa so that took care of most of the rest of the day.
Mont Tremblant
We are now very much into the Frenchspeaking part of Canada and I have to say that we rarely found this to be an issue, with everyone willing to speak to us in English, so there was little need for our ‘Franglais’.
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