I’m back from a hectic week in Ottawa.  Wow!  The architecture was impressive, Question Period was a bunch of preschoolers arguing and the book shopping was great.  But now I’m exhausted, so here are some pictures:

This is Notre Dame Cathedral in Gatineau, Quebec.  Gatineau is right across the river from Ottawa, for those of you who don’t know.  It was built by the Irish and French Canadians, which explains both the opulence and the shamrock over one of the doors leading into the cathedral.  They built this in their spare time, which is rather depressing for us lesser mortals who like to read or watch TV in our spare time.

Also: No, there is no real gold.  All of the carvings are actually wood with gold coloured paint.  Still, this is a very impressive cathedral and my picture hardly does it justice.

And this, of course, is Parliament.  I took the tour, drooled over the library and nearly slept through Question Period.  Sometimes I think preschoolers are better behaved than our representatives, but I am quite the cynic.

I also went to the enormous Chapters bookstore near Rideau Hall (yes, it was amazing!), but I have no pictures of that.  Needless to say I just finished my Christmas/birthday shopping for the year and have a lot of new reading material.  More on that later, after I get a decent night’s sleep.

So what’s new with you guys?