By admin Tuesday, July 3, 2012

For weeks I’ve been wanting to see the Van Gogh exhibit at the National Gallery, so finally my family decided to make a weekend of it and go to Ottawa. Early Friday morning we departed from Union station by train and arrived in sunny downtown Ottawa rested and relaxed. Staying conveniently downtown for the weekend, we spent our first day in the city exploring the Byward Market and city streets. We grabbed lunch at the Blue Cactus restaurant, with open windows looking out on the busy market scene. We wandered through the stalls, checking out all the local food, flowers, and artists. We agonized over our choice of delicious desserts at Le Moulin de Provence and indulged in Beavertails. The busy market was a riot of sights, sounds and smells. We headed back to the hotel from some down time and then out for dinner at the famous burger joint The Works. With countless burger options and the popular onion rings tower, dinner was amazing. We took the scenic route along the canal back to the hotel, enjoyed our desserts from the market and packed it in for the day, resting up for the main event tomorrow.

Saturday morning we had brunch at Murray Street Kitchen, Wine and Chacuterie in the market and then walked just a few more blocks to the National Gallery of Canada, home to the largest collection of Canadian art. With some time to spare before heading into the Van Gogh exhibit we explored the works of Canadian modern artist Arnaud Maggs. While modern art is sometimes difficult to conquer, the exhibit had great captions to go with each piece. Finally it was time for the main event and the Van Gogh exhibit did not disappoint. We all used an audio guide, definitely worthwhile, as it gives great context to Van Gogh’s works. The exhibit is organized well, with a progression through his final years spent in France, and includes works (like Japanese posters and photography) that influenced Van Gogh’s art. It is an amazing exhibit for art lovers like my father and me, but is also sufficiently entertaining for the more moderately enthusiastic like my mother and brother. After making our way through the exhibit, we checked out the movie The Clock by Christian Marclay. It’s a 24-hour movie with clips from thousands of movies featuring time and timepieces. Clips even correspond to the real time. We only watched for a few minutes but it was so interesting to see the Canadian premier of this incredible work. After a final stop in the gift shop we headed back to our hotel. We had dinner at Wasabi, a sushi place in the centre of the Byward Market and turned in for the night.

Early Sunday morning we grabbed a quick breakfast and headed over to the Canadian War Museum. My parents had never been and really wanted to check it out. Our first stop was the 1812 exhibit that is celebrating the bicentennial anniversary of the War of 1812. The exhibit tells the story of the war from the various perspectives of the participants and has been getting lots of buzz with a recent article in The Wall Street Journal. It is definitely worth checking out. With limited time before our train we quickly went through some of the permanent exhibits. My parents went through World War I, while my brother and I explored World War II and the Vietnam War. With countless artifacts and great interactive features, it was fascinating and we ended by exploring the array of military vehicles on display. Despite the limited time, it was definitely a must-see before leaving Ottawa. Then we were off to the train station to head home. With amazing weather and incredible sights it was an incredible three days. And we didn’t even have to leave the province! With all these incredible things to do, Ottawa in summer is definitely not to be missed.

Katherine