Fairmont Chateau Laurier

I hope you're not getting tired of all these sketches. I have a few more from our recent visit to Ottawa. This is a view of the Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel with the Parliament bell tower in the background. We're looking north west from the corner of Colonel By Drive and Wellington.

This luxury hotel was built in the tradition of the grand castles of France. It sits across from the Rideau Canal, which during the winter is a wonderful outdoor skating rink that stretches for several kilometres through the heart of Ottawa.

The exterior of the hotel is limestone, while the turrets have a copper roofs. The hotel was commissioned in 1907 by Charles Melville Hays, who ran the the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway of Canada. Hays did not see the hotel completed. He was a passenger on the Titanic's maiden voyage.

To read more about the hotel's history, read this account on its website.