The Mounties impress in Ottawa & the girls brush up on space travel in Washington

We arrived in the city of Ottawa, Canada in high spirits, and for good reason too. Not only was the sun shining, not only were we in a beautiful city, but we also had two whole days off! Many of us spent our first evening in Ottawa watching the band “The Strokes” perform in the venue we were to be in later that week. Once our ear drums had recovered, we were able to explore the town, and ventured over the river into French-speaking Quebec which was gorgeous, though required some concentration to communicate!

Being the true geek that I am, I couldn’t be in Ottawa without going to visit the RCMP stables – home of the renowned Royal Canadian Mounted Police. We were shown around the museum and stables, met the enormous horses (and their respective Mounties), and then watched rehearsals for the “Musical Ride” display for which they are famous. It was quite a sight to see forty something gleaming black horses thundering past in ever decreasing circles, in perfect formations, flags and all – kind of like a horsy version of “Reel Around the Sun” though somewhat heavier... I reckon our Irish dancers could teach them a thing or two!

Holidays over, we flew onwards, to Baltimore. During the week, some of us took a day trip into Washington DC. Saxophonist Carolyn and I took a highly entertaining guided bus tour of the city, jumping on and off as and when we felt like exploring. At our first stop, however, we made the mistake of going into the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum to ask for directions. Two hours later we reluctantly dragged ourselves out again. That place is incredible! We would have been feeling smug in our new expert knowledge of space travel, if we hadn’t been so green from being the pilot and gunner in a 360 degree flight simulator of an F-18 Hornet fighter plane. Let’s just say I don’t expect to get my pilot’s license anytime soon...!

Once we had regained any sense of which way was up, and resisted the temptation to have another go, we rejoined our tour bus to “do” the sights, including of course the White House. And no, he wasn’t home.

The end of this week was marked with a note of sadness, as we waved goodbye (not without a party!) to a number of our company as they headed for the lakes of Killarney, where Riverdance is soon to open. We miss you guys already!!

Anyway we’re off to London next (the Canadian one), so who knows what that’ll have in store... watch this space!