After another win­ter storm (where I, among oth­ers, sat on a bus that got stuck in the snow for an hour and shov­eled about 50 cm of white snow to be able to open my door), we decided to make the most of the sea­son and we headed to Win­ter­lude, the annual win­ter fes­ti­val which opened last week-end.

Funny thing is, I was recently read­ing RennyBA’s Terella, where my Nor­we­gian friend was telling about his own Oslo Win­ter Fes­ti­val — guess both coun­tries enjoy hav­ing fun in sub­zero tem­per­a­tures and build­ing stuffs with ice!

After The Storm

Snowy Road

Win­ter­lude starts here, at the Rideau Canal. The longest skat­ing rink in the world opened last week, and the ice was thick enough for peo­ple to skate on it. It was quite crowed and no, in case you ask, I walked and didn’t skate. Come on, I can’t be perfect!

The Rideau Canal

The Canal At Somerset

Skat­ing Marks

Skat­ing

The Rideau Canal ends down­town, close to the Con­fed­er­a­tion Park. Not all the lit­tle chalets — which usu­ally sell food and hot drinks — were opened, but I found a great ice bar. Bet the drinks are chilled!

Nunavut In Ottawa

Ice Boat

The sculp­tures were really nice. Made the pre­vi­ous day by an inter­na­tional team, they fea­ture Cana­dian land­scapes (such as this Nunavut scenery) and lots of icy peo­ple. The details are amaz­ing… and don’t for­get every­thing is made of ice!

Dancer

Ice War­riors

Red Inuk­shuck

Lin­ing Up For Beavertails

Kids were invited to make their own Inuk­shuk. Inuk­shuk (“in the image of man”) are sculp­ture made of stone or ice erected by the Inu­its. They rep­re­sent lead­er­ship, friend­ship and are also used as mile­stones in the North. Mean­while, grown-ups were queu­ing at the Beaver­tails stall.…

Maple Tof­fee

Mak­ing The Treats

But wait, the best is to come. I soon spot­ted… maple treats!! Maple tof­fees, more pre­cisely, my favorite… They are the made by pour­ing maple syrup directly on ice/ snow. Yes, it’s very sweet and sticky but oh-so-good!

What? I deserved it, didn’t I?

Related arti­cles:

1. Win­ter­lude !
2. Win­ter Fun
3. Win­ter­lude 2012 in Ottawa
4. Pic­ture of the Week: Maple Toffee
5. Win­ter­lude 2011