Winter is the time for cold and snow and lots of ice. Since we have a lot of all we find ways to make good use of them.
During the winter Ottawa is home of the World's Longest Skating rink. The Canal closes down and most of the water is removed. Enough water is left in to create the long ice rink that starts at Dow's Lake which gets totally frozen over and continies along the canal to the other end at the locks. Large chalets ate lowered into the canal and provides space for washtooms, warming up rooms and food and services. This year was the first time I got on the ice at Dow's Lake and rolled all the way through to the other end.
Ramps and staircases are put in at various places along the canal for people to get from ground level down to the ice level. It isn't crowded like this all the way through but this is one of the entry spots near the Parliament Buildings.
If you are too tired to skate or don't know how you can rent these cool sleighs and get a friend to do the hard work and push you around while you snuggle under some warm blankets
While the skate-way is opened as long as the ice is thick enough we also have two weeks and 3 weekends of Winterlude. There are many acctivities but one of the main attractions is the ice carving contests. These are unbelievable creations made from blocks of ice and chains saws, and blow torches.
It was really crowded so I didn't get a chance to get cvlose enough to get some good pictures but here are a few.
This horse and rider are almost life-size
Below is a dog sled with dogs - lots of dogs - but I couldn't get the sled in the picture. You can see the size of the dogs compared top the person standing there. The sled had a blanket on it and kids could sit while mom or dad took a picture
This looked so pretty and yet fragile
