Caitlin and Ryan's Canadian Adventure Part 2

After a fun lunch in the historic Byward Market, we headed over to try to get a tour of Parliament. Unlike in the US, outsiders can still sit in the gallery and watch the House of Commons do it's thing. And to make things more interesting, from 2 to 3 they have what is called the Question Period which basically means that the members of the House give speeches to the Speaker of the House and then the opposing party members yell at each other. So thankfully we got there in time to witness the Question Period. It was quite a spectacle. Prime Minister Harper was actually there and got up to speak several times.

So Caitlin and I sat and watched that for an hour before our tour departed. The tour itself was a bit disappointing. When the houses of Parliament are sitting you can only go into the center of the Centre Block building, and then into the Parliament Library. Unfortunately they do not allow pictures in the library, but it is quite spectacular. One bit of trivia is that basically the entire Centre Block burned down in 1917 (I think), except for the the Library because it had iron doors. So everything in the Library is original. I took a few pictures, but they are more interesting architectural detail pictures than actual places within the Parliament. Oh well!