Notes on Riding Ottawa

Is riding a bike an art form?

Not all art is meant to be preserved. Like food or live music, riding a bike is meant to be consumed in a moment, not forever kept behind glass.

What is art anyway? Many would say that art is the manifestation of the artist’s emotions and experiences. I would argue that the same thing applies to riding bicycles. Any bike ride is shaped, if not determined, by the rider's past experiences and current emotions. The main difference is that the type of art that is made while riding a bike is a private type; the only audience of the ride is also the creator. Other people may be able to view the ride (in person, digitally via Strava, or other means), but this type of viewing is like reading a description of a painting; the message may be able to be conveyed, but the emotions and feeling are lost.

Izzy and I rode in Ottawa recently. We used our bikes to travel downtown and stopped at the National Gallery of Canada where we spent many hours looking at art, much of which was excellent. However, in the end, the thing that impacted me the most was not a Van Gogh or Rembrandt, nor was it a Monet or Picasso, but it was in fact our humble bike ride. Here are the notes of this ride.

A three-hour drive is the worst distance to be from a destination. It is an awkward distance where if it were closer it would be an easy day trip, but it is not far enough away to be a notable candidate for a vacation. There are a few destinations that are this in-between distance away from Lake Placid. One of these places is Ottawa, and for this reason Izzy and I have never been.

Ottawa is the Capital of Canada and is located in southern Ontario. Due to its location on the Ottawa River (which connects the western Great Lakes to the St. Lawrence River and eventually the Atlantic Ocean), Ottawa has played a major part in the development of eastern Canada and the northern Midwest of the U.S. For this reason, the city has strong examples of older architecture and old infrastructure like canals, both of which make it a beautiful city to explore by bicycle.

Izzy and I decided to bite the bullet and book one night at an AirBnB. We left home after work and got to our accommodation around 9 p.m. We promptly went to bed so that we would be ready to make the most of our one-day stay in Ottawa.

In the morning, we decided in order to set ourselves up for a big day of exploration, it would be best to get a big breakfast that would hopefully sustain us throughout the day. This led us to finding a nice café/bakery that was located in a hip, up-and-coming neighborhood that was close to where we wanted to start riding from. We shared two pastries and a plate: a matcha scone, a rosemary goat cheese croissant, and two sunny-side-up eggs served over sautéed vegetables with yams and potatoes. After our breakfast, and before our ride, we thought it would be best to check out a nearby bookstore, The Black Squirrel. After a browse of the curated collection of new and used books, we moved the car onto a side street and out of the two-hour parking zone.

We wanted to start our ride from this area because it was close to a canal that runs into the downtown area and has accompanying bike paths on either side of it. After riding a block or two on the street and walking down one set of stairs, we were able to make it to the canal and the associated paths. On the path, we made quick progress towards downtown. After a mile or two, we crossed on a pedestrian bridge to the other side of the canal.

On the other side of the canal, the grass was in fact greener because in addition to a bike path, we were greeted with a road that was closed off to car traffic. We learned that the reason why this road and others were blocked off to cars is due to an initiative that closes roads on the weekends to encourage more people to spend time outside. So cool. It was nice to be able to bike down the middle of the lane with no worries of cars. These are the places where I can really turn off the brain and just enjoy the feeling of riding.

A few miles later, and after a quick detour because of a running race and some construction blocking the road, we arrived at our destination, the National Gallery of Canada. The National Gallery is located right in the downtown area, and nestled between the older and ornamental buildings, the gallery stands out in its sprawling Brutalist building with lots of concrete and glass. Out front of the gallery we were greeted by a 30-plus-foot sculpture of a spider; after a brief glance, we locked up our bikes out front and walked under the arachnid towards the front door.

Upon entering, and attempting to make a joke to the front desk worker about how I was 11 years old and therefore should be eligible for the free entrance ticket—a joke which did not land great—the first thing that I was struck with was the size of the museum. Past the entrance, the first thing that we were faced with was a long and low angled ramp which slowly brought us up to the second level of the gallery. Izzy and I spent the next few hours looking at hundreds and hundreds of paintings and lots of other mediums too. There were lots of breathtaking pieces, but I was finding it hard to fully focus on the art because, to me, the mindset required to appreciate the art is so different from what it takes to ride a bike, especially in a downtown setting. Riding requires shifting attention between so many things at once, and looking at the art takes focusing deeply on one specific thing.

Despite generally enjoying the gallery, I was relieved when we were leaving the museum and getting back on the bikes. As it was later in the afternoon, despite the filling breakfast, we were getting hungry again. After a quick but intentional search on Google Maps, we settled on Dumpling Bliss, a Chinese dumpling restaurant with an impressive 4.8 stars on Google, plus it was only a little out of the way. I pulled up the bike directions on Google, turned the sound all the way up, put the phone in my pocket, and we set off. After only a few minutes of riding we arrived at the restaurant. I started to lock up the bikes on a nearby tree when one of the workers came out and encouraged us to move our bikes closer to the door and lock them up on a railing that was right in front of the door so we could keep a better eye on them. We ended up sharing a total of 30 dumplings and a pot of jasmine tea.

This stop left us feeling satisfied; however, we were craving a dessert, so we hopped back on Google to see what our options were, and we settled on a gelato spot. After we crossed back over the canal and wound through some side streets, we arrived at the final food stop of the trip. Izzy got the recommended pistachio flavor, and I, not wanting to say goodbye to summer, went with the one scoop of lemon and one scoop of mixed berry. It was a refreshing way to chase down the dumplings and left us energized for the rest of the ride.

Finally, we set off back towards the car, and I was just feeling content and at home on the bike. As I think back throughout the day and our ride, my memories have a hue of Impressionism, where the different parts overlap and blend together, and there is a universal texture to the memories almost like visible brush strokes on a painting. As we near the car, we decide to keep past the car a bit to extend the ride. We eventually found a bench looking over the canal to sit for a moment to watch the cyclists and runners go by and reflect on the day.

In this moment looking back on the ride, I felt like an artist stepping back from their canvas to assess their artwork. The different choices we made throughout the day impacted the final out come of the day, and the lasting impact it has on us. I see the pace of the ride is the equivalent to the style of the painting, the rout is the subject matter, and the people on the ride determine the color pallet of the work.