Tulip Festival Dates For 2009?
T.B.D.

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Idle away a few hours beside Dow's Lake, wander the tulip beds along the world famous heritage site; the Rideau Canal.

Seeing the beautiful blossoms of the Canadian Tulip Festival means also to be able to see many of Ottawa's other attractions too.

Sadly, the Canadian Tulip Festival 2007 has come and gone! The beds are now blossomless. Never fear! Want to see some of the thousands of tulips that graced Ottawa's Tulip Festival in 2007?

Just click here for a flash slideshow featuring the Tulips of 2007.

And for those that don't know, the history of the Tulip Festival is thus.

During the Second World War the Dutch Royal Family were guests of the Canadian people, staying at Government House in Ottawa while awaiting the end of hostilities in their own country. During their stay, Princess Margriet of the Dutch Royal Family was born at the Ottawa Civic Hospital.





In a gesture of thanks for providing shelter for Holland's exiled royal family and also in recognition of the significant role played by Canadian troops in the liberation of the Netherlands, in 1945 Princess Juliana presented the Canadian people with a gift of 100,000 tulip bulbs.

The seeds for the annual Canadian Tulip Festival in Ottawa were planted!

The Tulip Festival that we can enjoy each year in Ottawa actually began in 1953.

Each spring since the millions (yes, that's millions, folks) of tulips that adorn Canada's capital are planted, maintained and managed by the NCC (National Capital Commission) of Ottawa to ensure that the tulip legacy will continue to prosper.







The tulip beds are astonishingly beautiful, gracing green spaces around Parliament Hill, along Confederation Boulevard, bordering Ottawa's scenic and recreational pathways and parkways, surrounding national museums and institutions, and meandering along the banks of the historic Rideau Canal.

Commissioners Park at Dows Lake is the official site of the Tulip Festival and where visitors will find more than 300,000 tulips planted in array after beautiful array.

Commissioners Park is about 4.7 km (2.9 miles) from the Parliament Buildings, and it is within walking distance on a fine spring day.

It is a bit complex to drive though, so perhaps consider taking a taxi, or even better, the Tulip Shuttle (which runs weekends during the festival) should be considered for economical and on-off site visiting!

Visitors to the Tulip Festival may enjoy the following, among the many, many other attractions in Ottawa...

Commissioners Park - buskers, music, Tulip Café, street vendors

Dows Lake Parade of Light & Fireworks

Flotilla of flower bedecked boats on the Rideau Canal

Beautiful Dows Lake, and of course... hundreds of thousands of tulips

The thousands of tulips adorning Parliament Hill

Major's Hill Park Tulip Promenade with gorgeous tulip beds, artwork by local artists including paintings, tulip pottery, tulip photography and poetry

more than 100,000 tulips of 16 varieties planted at Casino du Lac-Leamy, the second largest of the Tulip Festival's gardens - and, of course, those of the gambling persuasion can enter the casino for games of chance

a huge range of culinary delights to suit any palate from the "official" Tulip Festival restaurants

lodgings at some of Ottawa's finest hotels on the available list of "official" hotels of the Ottawa Tulip Festival

When at the festival, lots of information is available for the visitor. You just have to look for one of the information booths which are identified by the colorful sign shown in the adjacent graphic.

The Tulip Route covers about 15 km winding through downtown Ottawa and into the Gatineau (on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River).

On that route were four official Tulip Sites along with more than a dozen other attractions.

You could have taken the OC Transpo Tulip Shuttle for a few dollars a day, running every 15-30 minutes depending on the weekend, and allowing "on-off" privileges for riders at each of the Tulip display areas.

OC Transpo will be featured elsewhere on this site. Not only did they offer an awesome Tulip Shuttle, but their service is world class, and taking the bus allows a low-cost way to see all of Ottawa.

Entrance to all of the concerts and attractions available during the Tulip Festival are not included in the one-price passport though many are. You will need to check and see what's included should you decide to purchase the passport.

A word of caution! When I visited the tulip sites later in the festival time span, quite a number of the blossoms had already been blown from the stems by spring winds. Some of the tulips were certainly past their peak. I visited the festival twice in 2007, early on, and towards the end, and each time different beds were at their peak.

Is it better that you visit the Ottawa Tulip Festival earlier rather than later in the season? If it's a really cool spring, the tulips may not be at their peak until the end of the festival! If it's a really hot spring, they will be past their prime before the end of the celebration. So who knows? Why not plan on staying for the whole festival and during your visit see the many other sites and attractions Ottawa is famous for?

And given that mother nature is nothing, if not capricious, really, who knows what she will bring to any Canadian Tulip Festival? The weather might be hot, it might be quite cool, it might rain and - horrors! - it could even snow. So prepare your wardrobe appropriately.

Visit...enjoy!





For more information about the Canadian Tulip Festival, please click here.







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