Since I put off any tourist activities until running the Ottawa marathon, I didn’t end up at any museums until the Sunday evening. However, I tried my best to see the ones that interested me after that. The first is a museum that I actually forget which one it was… so, sorry about that! It had a few paintings with emphasis on climate change, a pending crisis that the Canadian government didn’t emphasize for a long time in the hopes that melting Arctic ice would open up lucrative northern shipping lanes. However, after growing pressure from Canadian communities feeling the effects of climate change and also perhaps the inevitableness of those lanes opening up, the government has stepped up their efforts of climate awareness and combating of some causes in the last decade. Oil drilling in Alberta continues to accelerate though, showing that the government still has limits in terms of how far they’re willing to actually go. The museum also had a good amount of indigenous art, which I’ve found to be the case pretty much across Canada. Lastly, there was a really cool video of a Hong Kong housing block, which looped and spent time zeroing in on various residences. It was a lot to focus on, and I ended up taking quite a bit of time to take it all in. Let’s see what you notice in that last photo:

The next morning, I stopped by the National Gallery of Canada after my visit to the Senate chambers. There was a new variety of artwork here as well, of all sorts. You’ll find everything from classical to indigenous to modern art here, and I think the pictures will really say more than any broad descriptions I could give. So, here they are:

Soon after, I passed by the official US Embassy, as well as the city’s Notre Dame cathedral. After a whole pizza for lunch, I ambled all the way over to the Canadian War museum, which had exhibits on wars from ones with the First Nations to World War II and more recent efforts that Canadians have participated in. Unfortunately, exhaustion from the previous day caught up with me here and I actually spent much of my time resting on benches. Still, I was able to catalogue some of what I saw…

So, how did these compare to famous museums in other cities, particularly those in the United States capital? I had a great time perusing the collections of Canada’s national gallery, and found the collection in the war museum very engaging before I just ran out of energy. They don’t have the expansiveness of the National Mall museums in Washington D.C., but they’re well worth a visit while you’re up here. It’ll take an ambitious day to go through them all, or a leisurely two days which is what I’d recommend.