I’m writing this post on my iPhone while sitting in a laundromat. It’s almost the end of another very long day.

It started with an unpleasant discovery. VIA Rail only allows two pieces of carry on luggage on the next leg of my journey tomorrow. Thanks to my recent purchases, I have 3. I called VIA to see about a freight service. Any option there wouldn’t work with my itinerary. So, on my way to the National Gallery of Canada this morning, I stopped off at Canada Post, bought a box and aw tape, and shipped the excess back he. I have a feeling I’ll need to do that once more before the trip to Quebec City, but we’ll see.

Once at the NGC, however, things improved. The place was being threatened by a giant spider, however.

This is, of course, the Louise Bourgeois sculpture “Maman”.

As I suspected, no photos allowed inside the galleries, so today’s pics were limited. Got a shot of the long ramp up to the first level galleries:

What glories awaited at the end of that road! No words are adequate to describe what it’s like to stand in the same orientation to a canvas as a famous artist, know the paint you are now looking at was put there by that artist. The only way to experience that creation more directly would be to watch it being painted.

Van Gogh. Renoir. Rembrandt. Picasso. And so many others, some of whom were unknown to me before today but which have now become new favourites, or at least new interests. Staring into the raw furnace of a Rothko. Basking in the brisk streamlining of Lawren Harris. Gasping at the energy Rodin brings to bronze.

It was 6 1/2 uninterrupted hours of bliss. No lunch needed – I was adequately fed.

Enough gushing. Tomorrow, on to Montreal.