May
20, 2006
Hello from Ottawa: The Tulip Extravaganza
at the Casino de Lac Leamy
After my historic train travel experience on the Hull-Chelsea-Wakefield
Steam Train I decided to explore the surrounding neighbourhood.
The Casino
du Lac Leamy, located in Gatineau on the other side of the Ottawa
River, is less than five minutes away from the train station and
is one of the official locations for Ottawa’s famous Tulip
Festival and this year, it is the main location for the World
Flower Summit that is being held in Ottawa.
The Casino de Lac Leamy is right next to the five-star Hilton
Lac-Leamy Hotel, which offers an urban resort experience 10
minutes from downtown Ottawa on the Quebec side of the Ottawa River.
The hotel itself features 349 rooms, indoor and outdoor swimming
pools, a luxurious spa with 17 treatment rooms, a fitness centre
and a game room, a variety of meeting rooms as well as a restaurant
with an outdoor patio. A conference centre, 24-hour room service,
a cigar lounge and a number of boutiques round out the services
at the Hilton Lac-Leamy Hotel. The city of Gatineau is the center
of Quebec’s Outaouais travel region and offers quick access
to a variety of urban and nature experiences in the immediate vicinity.
The Hilton Hotel and the Casino de Lac Leamy
The Casino du Lac-Leamy is a regular official component of various
Ottawa festivities, and this year again it is an official location
of Ottawa’s
Tulip Festival. Even more special is that this year Ottawa is
hosting the 23rd World Flower Summit. This international event is
organized by the
World Flower Council, an organization dedicated since 1983 to
furthering the cause of world peace through the beauty of flowers
and the sharing of knowledge among those who have chosen the floral
industry as their profession.
The Casino, fully decked out in tulips
Juzaburo Sekiye, the founder of this organization and a citizen
of Japan, had a dream of furthering the cause of world peace through
sharing a love and knowledge of flowers..."making a flower
the symbol of peace and culture without regard to country boundaries."
His dream became reality in 1983 with the first summit meeting of
the Pan Pacific Flower Culture Conference in Gifu, Japan. The conference
was later renamed The World Flower Council, and has since enjoyed
continuous growth. Since 1983, WFC meetings have been held in Australia,
Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, the Netherlands,
Russia, South Africa, Spain, Thailand, the United States, the Philippines,
Latvia, and Indonesia.
A floral beauty
As you know, Travel and Transitions dedicates itself to building
bridges between people from different places and to fostering greater
cross-cultural understanding and tolerance. So the notion of building
peace through a joint love of flowers is intriguing to me and I
was happy to see that this year Ottawa was chosen as the location
for the international conference of the World Flower Council.
The programming form May 18 to May 22 features exhibitions, demonstrations
and workshops with 300 delegates from over 30 countries. The World
Flower Summit encompasses a variety of ceremonies and presentations
by flower designers from different countries. A variety of flower
conception workshops advance the craft of floral design and at the
Casino du Lac Leamy flowers are the key attraction during the Tulip
Festival.
Beautiful decorations in the Hilton Hotel
A Tulip Tour of the World includes 100,000 tulips in 16 exotic
varieties, named after destinations in 11 countries. The gardens
at the Casino du Lac-Leamy are the second largest of the Festival’s
tulip gardens, after Dows Lake. A schedule of flower related events
called the Tulip Explosion ( May 4 to 22, 2006) is sure to entertain
every flower enthusiast.
The festival offers flower and design shows, with scores of activities
including live paintings, exhibitions, competitions, and a dazzling
assortment of floral creations by master and student florists. This
weekend the Tulip Explosion culminates with the XXIII Annual World
Flower Council Summit (May 18 to 22).
In addition to the dazzling outdoor display of tulips, the Casino
also features giant tulips with a height of about 7 meters indoors.
Throughout the entire month of May the Casino du Lac-Leamy has been
turned into a center for floral displays. In addition, special dress
designs are being featured in the walkways between the Casino and
the Hilton Hotel.
I took my time to explore the floral beauties outside the Casino
and as well as the decorative displays inside the Casino and the
interconnecting walkways to the hotel which featured a variety of
beautiful exhibits created by talented designers. The Casino du
Lac-Leamy offered a great opportunity for a hobby photographer like
me to try to capture the beauty of the world of flowers.
Related Articles:
Hello from Ottawa
- Overview of my first excursion to Ottawa's Tulip Festival
Hello from Ottawa - Arrival,
two photo exhibitions and my own photo safari
Hello from Ottawa - Doubling up
on antiquity at the Canadian Museum of Civlization
Hello from Ottawa - Sweetgrass Bistro:
Aboriginal dining in the ByWard Market
Hello from Ottawa - The historic
McGee's Inn: 2 couples embark on the adventure of joint B&B
ownership
Hello from Ottawa - The Canadian
Museum of Nature and Fatal Attraction: seduction in the
animal world
Hello from Ottawa - Gatineau Park,
Ottawa's nature playground
Hello from Ottawa - Major's Hill
and a live TV interview
Hello from Ottawa - Bistro 115: Authentic
French-Canadian cuisine in the ByWard Market
Hello from Ottawa - Historic transportation
on the Hull-Chelsea-Wakefield Steam Train
Hello from Ottawa - The Wakefield
Mill Inn & Spa: from historic gristmill to upscale lodging,
dining and pampering
Hello from Ottawa - Flower
and dress design at the Casino du Lac-Leamy
Hello from Ottawa - The Flotilla
- a parade of decorated boats - and an interview about the background
of the Tulip Festival
Hello from Ottawa - Sheep shearing
at the Canadian Agriculture Museum
Hello from Ottawa - Tractors,
cows and small animals at the Canadian Agriculture Museum
Hello from Ottawa - My 2-day
packed itinerary for Winterlude
Hello from Ottawa - First
impressions and an overview
Hello from Ottawa - The Lord Elgin
Hotel: a historic landmark in the heart of Ottawa
Hello from Ottawa - Fat Tuesday's
and the Mardi Gras Experience in the ByWard Market
Hello from Ottawa - An early
morning walk to Parliament Hill
Hello from Ottawa - Skating
on the Rideau Canal, the World's Largest Skating Rink
Hello from Ottawa - Charity and
hilarity: the 26th Annual Bedzz Races on Dow's Lake
Hello from Ottawa - Confederation
Park and other Winterlude locations
Hello from Ottawa - Darcy McGee's:
a historic Irish pub on Sparks Street
Hello from Ottawa - The Canadian
War Museum and "Weapons of Mass Dissemination - The Propaganda
of War"
Hello from Ottawa - The
Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography featuring Sunil Gupta
and the challenges of immigration
An interview with Tourism Ottawa
provides a great overview of this city
An interview about
the ByWard Market, a prime entertainment and shopping area
An interview
with the National Gallery of Canada
An interview
with the Canadian Museum of Civilization
Helpful websites:
Ottawa
Tourism: Ottawa's official tourism information
The ByWard
Market Business Improvement Area
The
National Capital Commission
The National
Museum of Civilization
The National Gallery
of Canada
The Canadian War
Museum
The Canadian Museum
of Nature
The
Canadian Agriculture Museum
Useful books about Ottawa:
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