Farewell Canada, hi to The Big Apple (part 1)

Well, we are now in New York on the final day of our journey and so we are posting our final two blogs. We loved Canada, a beautiful country and wonderful people not least Fogg's cousin John and his wife Faith and my mum's cousin Sally and her husband Russell. We have been reminded on our travels of the importance of family and it has been brilliant to explore New York with our youngest daughter Hannah.
Anyway back to Canada and Ottawa a delightful capital city with the UNESCO World Heritage Rideau Canal and locks. We had a gentle trip on the canal learning a little of the history of this part of Canada. It made us realise how little we know of North American history, must rectify that on our return.
Fogg here. It is worthy of note that the Rideau Canal is frozen solid for about two months in the winter and is used for recreational skating on a regular basis. It was originally built to move armaments during the war with the Americans in 1812 but it was never used for that purpose. The locks pictured here (seven in total) convey pleasure boats at about six at a time up the steep rise from the Ottawa river. My cousin John and his wife Faith were brilliant tour guides and amongst other things introduced us to the delights of Timmy Hortons, a wonderful chain of coffee shops that sold awesome doughnuts! So our time in Canada came to a close all too soon and we flew to the 'Big Apple' to meet Hannah!
We found a diner and planned our visit. There are so many icons in New York and so little time we have merely scratched the surface and visited a 'few' shops! Central Park is wonderful and it was great to walk there in the shade in the very hot and humid city. Walking past the Dakota building we joined many others at the plaque to John Lennon and also watched turtles in a lake which Phileas, particularly, found exciting. Fogg thought he had escaped more wildlife watching!
Grand Central station is a wonderful building . Phileas commented she thought it was like a Cathedral. So over to her for more commentary.
The Guggenheim was one of the most exciting buildings that we have seen, some great Kandinsky's but Hannah was not too keen on the Louise Bourgeois (some debate here on the spelling!!) and I did find them quite uncomfortable.
We have seen and done so much here that we will post a second New York blog. Suffice to say that this is a crazy, exciting city and we love it!!
Best wishes
Phileas and Fogg