August 30, 2004
British Columbia – Victoria
Victoria is on Vancouver Island and is in British Columbia, Canada.
What a beautiful city. Everyone kept telling us, but you can’t appreciate it until you visit it. Old brick or stone buildings with ivy creeping up the sides. The city is surrounded on three sides by water. There are ferrys, taxi-boats, and seaplanes filling the harbor. The streets are filled with bike-cabs, double-decker buses and horse-drawn carriages. And flowers are everywhere: hanging baskets on every light pole, flower beds on every corner, flower pots and small and large gardens to walk through. Unfortuantely all of the flying caught up with us and we succumbed to some nasty colds. So we did the best we could – played tourist in the morning, napped in the afternoon, and walked the city at night to enjoy the lighted buildings. The parliament buildings are all dressed up with lights and look like gingerbread houses.
Parliament Buildings at Night
Buskers Entertain on Inner Harbour
We did get to see most of the attractions, but couldn’t manage anything too physical like a whale watching trip, bike riding, hiking or kayaking. We’ll just have to go back, that’s all! We visited Crystal Gardens (a greenhouse and conservatory), walked Beacon Hill Park, took a drive along Dallas Ave and visited a tide pool, went to the Mt. Tolme Lookout, and the rest listed below…
Totem Poles at Thunderbird Park
Butchart Gardens was beautfiul, but we went on a Saturday when they do fireworks at night. The mass of humanity was smothering. It was the second to last fireworks display (they do it in summer only), and we think everyone on the Island was there. Next time, I’d go during the week and hope to have more space to walk around and take pictures without the claustophobia setting in.
Sunken Gardens at Butchart Gardens
Water Fountains at Butchart
Brentwood Bay/Mill Bay
At Undersea Gardens we got to see large pacific octopus (which grow up to 25′), a sunflower star (which is a 20-legged starfish), and a wolf eel (which has a face like an old bald man).
Craigdarroch Castle was beautiful with dark wood walls and ceilings and stained-glass on almost every window. It was built in 1880’s with old coal money.
Inside Craigdarroch Castle
Hugo’s Brewery offered a beer called the Super G. It was made with Ginseng and Ginger for spice. We tried some hoping it would help kick the colds 🙂
Now, before going to Canada don’t forget to practice your math to help with conversions. You’ll have to convert your money to Canadian dollars, the temperature from celsius to farenheit, and the gas from liters to gallons ($3.76/gal CA$).
Diandy's RV Travels from 2004 