After a quick breakfast in our Airbnb, we started the day by wasting time trying to find parking around parliament hill. For a city this small, the traffic is abysmal and the drivers lack driving skills and are aggressive. We spent about 40 mins driving about 5 miles and after finding parking lots already full or extremely expensive we had to come back to park in the Bayward market area.

Eitan took some multivitamin gummies from a bag that Sarah left on the counter, but unfortunately, what Eitan had eaten was a melatonin gummy. Seriously, who has their vitamin gummies in the same bag as their melatonin? yup… Sarah. Well, Eitan was expected to fall asleep soon, but luckily his sightseeing FOMO was stronger than the medicine.

We started our sightseeing day with a visit to the Cathedral. Ariela loved visiting this one, but not because of its religious affiliation to the catholic church, but because she thought this was a princess castle!!

The basilica is the oldest and largest church in Ottawa and the seat of the city’s Roman Catholic archbishop. Its twin spires and gilded Madonna are easily identifiable from nearby Parliament Hill and the surrounding area.

We walked across the Rideau Canal to reach the Parliament hill, there were some pretty large renovations ongoing on most buildings and the tours were not available at a time, so we just walked around the grounds and chased Ariela as she ran for hours in the grass.

Parliament Hill, colloquially known as The Hill, is an area of Crown land on the southern banks of the Ottawa River in downtown Ottawa. Its Gothic revival suite of buildings, and their architectural elements of national symbolic importance, is the home of the Parliament of Canada.

Parliament Hill attracts approximately three million visitors each year.

Originally the site of a military base in the 18th and early 19th centuries, development of the area into a governmental precinct began in 1859, after Queen Victoria chose Ottawa as the capital of the Province of Canada. Following several extensions to the parliament and departmental buildings and a fire in 1916 that destroyed the Centre Block, Parliament Hill took on its present form with the completion of the Peace Tower in 1927.

Since 2002, an extensive $3 billion renovation and rehabilitation project has been underway throughout all the precinct’s buildings; work is not expected to be complete until after 2028.

The view of the Ottawa River was pretty nice, but there did not seem to be anything on the other side that was worthy of our limited time in the city.

We started our walk back and by pure luck, we walked past the Bank of Canada Museum. If you know me, you know my obsession with world banknotes, but I am pretty polite so I would have never put Sarah and Ariela through the pain of visiting a money museum…. but this was free…so, we went in.

To our surprise, the museum was incredible with many interactive exhibits for kids to enjoy. They did a fantastic job making a boring topic a super fun experience and Ariela did not want to leave at all.

After the museum, we stopped at Canada’s greatest poutine restaurant. It was OKish, not sure we are huge fans of Poutine to begin with, as I don’t understand the wish to eat soggy French fries… but to each their own.

Not sure if it really is considered the best, or if it is just the name. They offer several fusion Poutines to choose from, all with the typical French fries, gravy, and cheese curds as the base.

After a filling nutritional meal of basically French fries and gravy, we walk fast to the Canadian Mint (like in coin factory, not like the herb). We had tickets for the 3 pm tour, so we could not really stop for too long to visit other sites. Still, we stopped briefly at the War Memorial for a photo.

The mint tour was great (for Eitan), they take you on a walk above the manufacturing floor. Ariela got bored pretty quick (we are talking 5 minutes here). So, Sarah took her back to the gift shop. After another tantrum where she wanted to see daddy, then they rejoined the tour…. with a security escort in case she start crying again she would be kicked out (not joking here).

The mint here in Ottawa only makes investment and numismatic coins and it’s considered the best mint in the world for quality and innovation. They showed us how they make these coins from the foundry to the packaging. It was fascinating to watch, especially the big coils of gold worth $50 million. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed due to their secret machines and to protect employees’ identities.

Eitan bought a commemorative silver coin in this shop, the one commemorating King Charles coronation and the death for Elizabeth 2.

We stopped again at the Art Museum to feed the Spider a toddler.

We walked back to the market for a Happy hour dinner with pizza and some wine to finish the day. Unfortunately, there were other sights we didn’t have time to see like the Aviation museum, the cold war bunker and the National Galley, but we will come back one day.

We then went back to the hotel to relax and sleep. We will leave for Montreal in the morning!!

Bonus pic of the day:

The side to which each monarch faces on the coin’s alternates with every new monarch. Queen Elizabeth always was facing right, and King Charles will be facing left.

Bonus fact of the day:

The origin of the word “mint” is ascribed to the manufacture of silver coin at Rome in 269 BC at the temple of Juno Moneta. This goddess became the personification of money, and her name was applied both to money and to its place of manufacture.