Ottawa's elegant upper city, a component of Ottawa's tourism, stretches down the Parliament Building area and southwest of the Rideau Canal. The streets were designed in chessboard style.
The crowded streets are Wellington Street, Kent Street, O'Connor Street, Metcalfe Street, and Sparks Street Pedestrian Street - a chain of supermarkets and smart stores interspersed with gourmet restaurants.
But perhaps the most striking architecture in the upper city which is a tourist attraction in Ottawa is the Bank of Canada Building, designed by the famous architect Arthur Erickson.
The building behind the 12-storey stained glass facade is not much like a bank, but rather uniquely, with lots of artwork, tree-height plants and spraying fountains.
The Currency Museum is located within the Bank of Canada's original building, and contains a section displaying coins ranging from ancient China, Greece, Rome and Byzantium, as well as coins coming through medieval and Renaissance Europe, to the detailed development of currency in North America as it is today.
