Ottawa, the capital city of Canada stands on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of southern Ontario and is the fourth largest city in Canada behind Toronto, Montreal & Calgary. Ottawa was formerly called “Bytown” after Colonel John By who was an engineer who oversaw the construction of the Rideau Canal. In 1855, Bytown was incorporated and became Ottawa. Three years later, Queen Victoria chose Ottawa to be the capital of Canada in 1857. The construction of the Parliament Buildings began in 1860 and were completed in 1866. Confederation was one year later in 1867. The Canadian Tulip Festival (in Ottawa) has been going strong for 65 years now. It is one of the largest tulip festivals in the world and it is held every year in May. Tulips have been a symbol of Ottawa since the Dutch royal family gifted the capital city with 100,000 tulips as a thank you for protecting Princess Juliana and her daughters during Nazi occupation in The Netherlands during the Second World War. It is difficult to describe how absolutely beautiful Ottawa looks in May. There are literally thousands of tulips of varying colour. It sure is a sight to see. What a great way to say goodbye to winter and hello to spring. On the way back home,a brief stop at Thousand Island Region was a great addition to this spring weekend in Ottawa.