Moreen & The Notre Dame Sci Fi Cathedral - Ottawa, June 8

Ottawa, June 8

Driving into Ottawa, I park the motorcycle at a church organization doing goodwill work. Better they get some money, instead of the private companies managing city parking. It's a couple of hours before my lunch date, so I walk along a canal to where all the big buildings are. Impressive as some of them are, none beat the Notre Dame Cathedral with its new roof: Inside it is standard cathedral fare, as usual displaying the close connection between religion and art, as well as religion and money. Speaking of which, they thought a new copper roof would be too expensive when it needed replacing a few years ago, so instead the two spires and the roof are clad in stainless steel and aluminium.

Compared to the glorified bunker in Copenhagen, the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa looks great.

Notre Dame cathedral's elaborate interior includes wooden pillars panted to look like marble.

The spires of Notre Dame are clad in aluminium and stainless steel, which gives the church a bit of a sci-fi look.

Bookstore display indicating that the indigenous population north of the 49th parallel may still be at odds with the majority culture.

Vacationing in Hong Kong last year I met Moreen, a Kenyan residing in Ottawa, and figured we'd meet again since I was driving right by her. Our schedules click and we walk'n'talk for some hours until it's time to ride on to Montreal.
   On the way I run into guy with an Irishman's accent, who sees my bike and exclaims "Oh, I never thought I was going to see one of those again!", which makes him #4 on this continent who recognizes the bike for what it is. He says he saw a bunch of them in Monreal, albeit 35 years ago, so if he remembers correctly, there may have been an MZ importer there. Would be in to find  out...

Moreen from Kenya just finished her studies here in Canada (learning to kick Monsanto's ass), and is now pondering where to find a job. She's been traveling a lot, and her large family is spread all over the world, so she may end up anywhere.

 

I've seen af good number of these Can-Am  Spyder trikes, when they fly past me on the freeways. An odd cross between a car and a motorcycle, they seem to have gotten a lot of non-motorcyclists out in the open air. 

Some hours later at my Polish-Canadian friends' house, having shunned the freeway in favour of a route the maps claims to be scenic. Mirek is an old friend of mine, who in days of yore used to drop by in Copenhagen with an array of WW2 ex-Wehrmacht BMW and Zundapp sidecar motorcycles, that invariably needed some repairs. The one time one of them did not need it, he brought along a friend with a lend-Lease Harley, that was in need of repair. Eventually he moved to Canada, sold the BMW outfit (still regretting it) and got himself an Evo Harley. He and his new wife Kinga are recent transplants to Quebec, and Quebec being what it is, they're busy taking French lessons in order to assimilate. Guess I have to dust off my French too, then.