A Finale For Ottawa Christmas Lights

 The National War Memorial occupies the heart of Confederation Square, and is surrounded by landmarks like Parliament Hill, the Chateau Laurier, the Government Conference Centre, the National Arts Centre, and the Chambers. Christmas lights are strung up in the trees around it. I started walking around the perimeter, taking shots as I went.

On the northeast side of the perimeter, a series of statues and busts are gathered around a staircase that comes up from the Rideau Canal. They are collectively called The Valiants, consisting of figures from across Canadian military history. General Arthur Currie commanded Canadian forces during the last part of World War One, and by all accounts did very well with them.

I carried on.

My last stop was Parliament Hill, where the Peace Tower was illuminated in blue and purple, with snowflakes falling down the length of the tower.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Luxury

 The first day of each month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo. For December, that theme is Luxury. Check out how other members of the group are taking on the theme right here.

Two hotels came to mind for me for this theme, and we start with one. The Chateau Laurier is the grandest of hotels in Ottawa, opened in 1912 and built in a French Gothic Revival Chateauesque style as a compliment to the Parliament Buildings, which lie to the west. To the east, as seen from here in Major's HIll Park where we are seeing the Chateau in the distance, is the Connaught Building, a government building and castle of sorts. I took these shots a few days ago.

For the second half of his career, the pre-eminent portrait photographer of the world, Yousuf Karsh, had his studios in the Chateau. A few years ago this bust was erected in his honour outside.

Inside, the hotel is inviting, with its walls adorned with art and photographs dating back through the Chateau's history.

A look from out front and across the road. The statues and busts seen to the left are part of the collective group called The Valiants- figures of Canadian military history.

Down the road from there is another luxury hotel- the Lord Elgin Hotel. Named for a governor-general of the 19th century and dating back to 1941, it looks out over Confederation Park.

Inside, this fireplace drew my attention. This being that time of the year, Christmas decorations have already started to make their presence known in both hotels.

Two marble busts are present, flanking the main entrance. This is Maria, Lady Elgin.

And this is James Bruce, Lord Elgin.

Vantages On Canada Day

Today I'm starting a series from Canada Day. This first shot was taken the day before, from the Mackenzie King Bridge looking over the Rideau Canal. The NAC and Parliament Hill stand to the left, while the Chateau Laurier and Government Conference Centre are on the right shore. The Canal comes to an end up ahead at the final bridge in the Ottawa Locks, descending down to the Ottawa River.

On Canada Day itself, I paid a visit to two museums, the War Museum and the History Museum. Leaving the first, I crossed the Ottawa River by the Portage Bridge to the Gatineau side to get to the second. En route I noticed the Peace Tower on the Hill among the trees.

When I was finished at the History Museum, I took the Alexandra Bridge back to Ottawa and photographed views along the way.

At the Ottawa end of the bridge is an observation platform that I come to for seasonal views of Parliament Hill, something I'll have in a post later in the year. I took additional shots from here, including of a kayaker down below.

My wanderings took me into the Rideau Centre mall, where there's a pedestrian bridge linking the mall to the Bay. It's a good spot to photograph Canada Day visitors to the west.

I continued onwards. At Plaza Bridge near the War Memorial are a series of statues and busts of military figures from Canadian history collectively called The Valiants. 

Over on the other side of Plaza Bridge, I photographed the other point of view of the Rideau Canal, looking towards the Mackenzie King Bridge.

I stopped in at the National Arts Centre, though it turns out I'd missed the Canada Day concert.

And I made a visit to the National War Memorial, where the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was a spot for Canadian flags to be placed. The wreaths in the background had been placed at the Memorial that morning- July 1st is also the date of the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and at a place called Beaumont-Hamel, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment suffered horrendous losses. The occasion is still marked here each year.

Tricks, Treats, And Ghostly Guests

Happy Hallowe'en! I have some material appropriate for the occasion today.

This particular house in the Glebe was well decorated when I passed by one day earlier in the month.

This was along a path in Gloucester.

These jack o'lanterns were outside a house in Centretown.

I came across this witch in a jewel shop window at Sparks Street.

Up the street, the Haunted Walk operates out of quarters near Elgin Street. Two signs stand outside, one more whimsical. The company offers walking tours of various places with a history of hauntings. I meant to go on a tour this year in the run up to Hallowe'en, but with MosaiCanada and the fall colours, I pretty much ran myself out of time.

The Chateau Laurier is close by, within site of the Haunted Walk's offices, diagonally across the War Memorial grounds, and a tour might make note of its spooky history. I captured it around sundown one day earlier this month. The figures you can see in silhouette in the foreground are the collective monument of military history called The Valiants.

A couple of days later I captured it at night. It's an appropriate subject for today, as the hotel has its own ghost stories.

The lounge just off the main entrance looks dramatic at night. Several portraits by Yousuf Karsh, who had his photography studio at the Chateau during the second half of his career, adorn the walls. The hotel has quite a history in its century plus of existence; the great and the good have stayed in the hotel, which first opened in June 1912. Along with its established history comes the supernatural: whistling by an unseen presence in stairwells, furniture moving in the night, and unexplained noises.

Doors have been known to open by an unseen force. A guest once fled her room because objects were moving about by themselves. People have mentioned the feeling of being watched by some unseen presence. Some guests have reported the sight of a little ghostly girl. Others have reported a spectral man in dated formal attire.

That might well be the man who commissioned the building of the hotel, haunting his crowning achievement. Charles Melville Hays was the president of the Grand Trunk Railway, and had the Chateau built along with the new main train station downtown (today the government Conference Centre across the street). His portrait hangs in the corridors within the Chateau.

In 1912, Hays and his family went to Europe to secure investments and to purchase furniture for the dining room at the Chateau, due to open in late April that year. The family booked passage to return home with their purchases in time for the opening. That passage was aboard Titanic. Hays reportedly made a prophetic remark about the competition of steamlines for passengers, saying, "the time will come soon when this trend will be checked by some appalling disaster." He, his son-in-law, and his personal secretary were among the dead in the disaster, and Hays would end up buried at Mount Royal Cemetery in Montreal.

The opening of the hotel was delayed into June out of respect for the dead. It has been said that Hays still haunts his final project in life, having had not lived to see its opening. He's deemed generally a friendly spirit, glimpsed on occasion, still tied to a place that meant a great deal to him in the last months of his life, a life cut too short in the cold Atlantic one night in April 1912.