This season we decided to get our first overseas stamps to our Worldloppet ski passports. The Gatineau Loppet is held in Québec in Canada, at Gatineau Park close to the capital Ottawa. We flew through Amsterdam with KLM, and on our way, we had a little stop in Amsterdam.

Tip! If you have time between the flights in Amsterdam, it’s nice to drop by to the city itself. The train (one-way 5,20 EUR) goes directly from the airport and the journey takes about 15 min.

The whole travel time was 24 hours, so it was good to be at the spot few days before the race. We stayed in hotel Crowne Plaza in Gatineau, just across the Ottawa river, on the side of Québec province, while Ottawa is in province of Ontario. It was good to choose the hotel recommended by the Gatineau Loppet as we got to meet the other participants and share the (shuttle) rides with them.

We liked the hotel, we had spacious room and there was a gym, a pool and even a sauna (although it wasn’t allowed to throw water to stove!).

TIP! We found the travelling with the local buses a bit hard, or we just didn’t get it. If you take a bus, the ticket is sold by the driver and you need to have the exact change. Using Über was cost-efficient (6-10 EUR to Ottawa), and also walking across the river is possible and takes about 35 min to the Parliament Hill.

They just got 30 cm of fresh snow on the same week as the race. As again this year, there is lack of snow in southern Finland, we were so happy to land directly into real winter! We had three full days to check around in Ottawa before the weekend with races. Ottawa was so cool with its snowy roads and scenery. And without spikes in the tires, the way to open the roads was to spread salt, and it indeed was everywhere: the floors of the shops, our shoes, windows of the buses… All covered with white salt.

The core of the capital is relatively contained, and many of the top sights can be easily accessed on foot. The first two days were really cold and getting our shoes wet every now and then, we can only recommend: Take a lot of clothes, and very good winter boots when visiting Canada!

Ottawa is full of official government buildings, museums and art galleries. We visited the Parliament Buildings with a free guided tour (to be booked early in the morning for the same day tour). Our tour included also a visit to the Peace Tower with glorious views of the city.

In front of the Parliament Buildings there is the Centennial Flame, which was first lit in 1967 and it burns continually. Besides, there was a little skiing rink and one skier too!

There is also really nice old market area called ByWard Market (http://byward-market.com/en/home/). The area is located just east of Parliament Hill, across the Rideau Canal, and offers a colorful collection of craft shops, cafes, boutiques, bistros and especially a café with famous “Obama cookies”. We ate in that area almost every day, and enjoyed the atmosphere. Besides, there we first came across the local delicacy called BeaverTail!

We made a bus trip to Tanger Outlet Mall (https://www.tangeroutlet.com/ottawa), outside the center. It’s a long bus ride (1 h), but they had special sales going on and in this cold and windy weather, it wasn’t crowded. We found also some shops with stereotype Canadian clothes…

Canadian War Museum (http://www.warmuseum.ca/) is housed in a stunning modern building and it looks at the country’s military history. Canadians have seen their share of the world’s battlefields, and the museum was super interesting! After spending few hours there, we needed to stop as there was too much information coming to our little heads. We really recommend to stop by for a visit, especially on Thursdays, as the entrance is for free from 4 to 8 pm.

TIP! There is an easy ski trail of about 16 km starting behind the War Museum and heading west (http://skitrails.xcottawa.ca/skitrails_SJAM.php).

Running south through the city, the Rideau Canal is a playground of the city. The canal is UNESCO World Heritage site, and in winter the canal, at 7.8 km long, turns into world’s largest skating rink (http://rcs.ncc-ccn.ca/). It was the main attraction of Winterlude festival, and of course we rent the skates (20 CAD each) and had wonderful winter day at the canal. We were lucky to save the skating day for Friday, sun was shining and it was warm and pretty. And again, it’s the BeaverTail time!

The Winterlude Festival is held every February when the city is celebrating Canadian winter. And for us, it seems it’s worth to celebrate! So much snow and real winter! We visited Crystal Garden in Confederation Park.

On Friday, we started to get ready for the races. Our friends from Finland joined us in Canada, and we collected the bibs from the event center in Mont-Bleu High School (20 CAD taxi ride from the hotel), which was next to the tracks in Gatineau Park (http://www.ncc-ccn.gc.ca/places-to-visit/gatineau-park/things-to-do/cross-country-skiing-gatineau-park). Park has 200 km of trails to ski!

Our team member Antti had a mistake in his eTA entry form (who can anyway recognize if it’s ‘O’ or ‘0’ in the passport…?) and after time taking problem solving, he ended up taking another flights than the rest of his group, and the luggage was left behind. So, Friday we spent shopping new skiing gear for him at the ski show at the school. It was really good that there were many brands and shops at the event, we really liked those and their good deals. What more, we met a Finnish/Canadian man promoting high-class sport glasses, ZiZU Optics (what a great name for a brand!).

On Saturday it was the time for the classic style race. As not so good classic skiers, we took the safe side and skied only 27 km, and saved the powers for Sunday. There were 280 skiers in this distance. Jukka’s overall position was 143, and in men series 106 out of 175 with time 02:38:24. Marja was 168^th being 49^th out of the 105 women. Her time was 02:46:48. We have bought new Salomon Skin skis, and that helped so much, no waxing problems! Antti was the toughest of us, and did the whole 51 km with time 04:59:04 and ending on position 267 (out of 385 skiers). He was the second best in his class “Men 70 +”. Well done!

The whole happening was full of good spirit and nice humor, and it was seen for example in the finish, where they provided the skiers a glass of beer. Oh, we so needed that! Also, there was a man in a beaver hat playing guitar and singing, that gave really nice feeling after finishing the race!

 

 

In the evening, they held a cocktail party for the Worldloppet passport holders at the school. It was a very nice happening, with good food and international atmosphere, we met so many people from different countries, skiing indeed connects the people. Also, Pierre Harvey, one of the greatest Canadian skier and cyclist ever, was given a prize. Jukka is not washing his hand after shaking it with him!

To get ready for the Sunday, we needed to find some food in Gatineau, and we ended up in “Pizza Italie” (http://www.pizzaitalie.com/), just around the corner from the hotel. The man behind the desk was so sympathetic, and hoping to see us in the Olympics. To make that sure, he fed us with so good food, we even got a free tasty portion of local specialty, poutine. At least it shouldn’t be about lack of food if there is no success!

On Sunday it was to be a very warm day, and it was now the time for skating style. Our distance was the full length, 51 km. The skis were prepared for -5 C, and the reality was somewhere in +5 C, the snow was melting in front of our eyes. In this weather, also the downhills needed to be skied, no chance for a rest, as it just didn’t glide! It was really hard, but we made it, a little bit under 4 hours.

The scenery on the way were anyway magnificent, and the food they offered in drinking points was very nice (chocolates, energy marmalade, bananas… we could have spent even more time there!). There were 313 participants, and Andy Shields won it with impossible time 02:23:30. Jukka was 184^th with 03:53:50 (163 out of 273 men), Marja was 202^nd with 03:58:37 (25^th out 40 women). It didn’t go as nice as the plan was, the weather was hard for us. Only 10 min faster, and we would have gained so many positions! Next time….

Nevertheless, we were the best (and almost only) Fins on both days in our categories! Antti took part on Sunday for the shorter race, 27 km, being 203^rd out of 253 participants with time 02:23:50. He was waiting us in the finish line, that was great!

At the finish there was again beer and local band! Besides, while we picked up our gear, we met friendly Americans, who also gave us beer. This starts to seem we were there only to drink beer, hmm…

After the race, we were talking to the people in the shop area at the school, made again many new friends.

There were some difficulties with the shuttle bus to the hotel (supposedly we were late every time…), but there were so many friendly people taking us back in their cars and helping whatever we needed. That’s the best part having this most expensive passport ever: to meet the people and share the fun at the races! Especially here in Canada, the people were so kind and somehow happy over the fact we traveled from so far to only take part in their race!

Last night in Canada we went out for dinner in Gatineau to a restaurant Gainsbourg (http://www.gainsbourg.ca/), and ate big burgers. Before the departure on Monday afternoon, we still had a chance to meet the other Finnish skiers at the ByWard market and take home some maple syrup.

Our flights were again with KLM, but the first part was by bus from Ottawa railway station to Montreal Airport.

TIP! If you are booked to KLM/AirFrance bus, it’s enough to be there 15 min prior to departure, all the formalities are done once the shuttle takes you to the airport.

The trip to Canada was one of the best ski trips we have done, and we wish more people from abroad would go there to enjoy the Canadian hospitality. Gatineau Loppet is among the rare races, where they for sure have snow every year! Or what do you think from these great photos borrowed from our new ski friend Brian Nilsson from New York?

Big thanks to the local ski club XC Ottawa (http://www.xcottawa.ca/) for excellent tips for Ottawa and for very informative web pages. Also, many thanks to Pierre and Nicole and the team from Gatineau Loppet for the advice and help!

Our next Worldloppet race is already booked… Stay tuned!

Ski with the best, hangout with the rest!