Victoria

I only spent 1 night 2 days in Victoria. It's probably around 9 or 10C in the morning. I started to feel a bit unwell and very tired.

I met the English couples again when taking the bus to Victoria. That's the bus where many tourists took to go to Victoria as it's more simple and easier.

They went to see their nephew in Victoria and do some sightseeing.
We spent hours talking on the bus and the boat. There were similiar coach service in the UK where the coaches drive to the ferry and disembark. They told me once many people were killed when there was a rainstorm and many coaches were thrown to the sea.

It's a rainy day but we're safe. Victoria is bigger than I thought. You know, the guidebook always said you could walk to everywhere in Vancouver and Victoria. But I was quite tired of walking at the time I was in Victoria.

People in Victoria are less friendly than in Vancouver. That's the first impression. It's more like a British town - the parliament, the gardens, the Royal BC Museum. There are traces of British legacy everywhere.

The China town is just two or three blocks there. Nothing interesting. The Market Square can't be compared to the Covent Garden. There are shops with very few visitors.

I went to the Butchart Gardens in the rain. It is not a huge garden but it pleases you enough. Their gardening work is not as artificial as the Japenese and Chinese where things are more delicate, in planned patterns and unified. It's still a lovely and popular garden. If the weather was nice, I should have enjoyed a cup of tea there.

Canada is a coffee country. I'm surprised that a hotel in Kelwona didn't give me tea during breakfast. Victoria, on the other hand, is more British,where I found some tea houses and more emphasizes on tea.

BTW, I bought some Maple Syrup Tea back and had a taste of it. It's not bad at all. You could smell the sweet flavour of maple syrup when it's ready but the tea just has a very light syrup flavour and is not too sweet at all. The taste combined with the smell totally please my palate.

The Empress Hotel was the landmark of Victoria. How could the hotel be decorated with the green. Will it continuously be growing and cover the whole hotel? The Parliment Building reminded me the one I saw in Ottawa. The Victoria one is bigger and sits in front of the water.

The next day when I woke up, my throat started to feel sore but I got to see the Craigdarroch castle that I planned. After 40 minutes' walk, I reached there. I found the B&B where I supposed to stay at the beginning.

I probably will go out less if I stay there. That B&B is a quiet place but more remote as compared to where I stay.

The castle was owned by a mining operator but was not owned by the Castle Society.
I couldn't imagine how rich the man was when he owned the castle but none of his offsprings have the ability to inherit his success to run the family business. The furniture inside the castle was not the original items as it's once converted to be the home of a college, a music group and a sanatorium, so this castle is full of history. You can reach the highest point of Victoria on the 3/F or 4/F of the castle.

I had wondered whether to do the whale-watching. But I eventually gave up my plan as I felt my body couldn't stand the sea, the weather was bad and the whale report was not that positive.

The shops are more or less the same as in Vancouver except the souvenir shops. I had a warm cup of tea before taking the coach back to Vancouver. Homeless people are still everywhere. I once spotted a young woman in the 30s asking for money. The local people said homeless people are good at asking tourists for money. I once heard one saying "give me money for a cup of coffee". Coffee might be more important than food in this country.

The afternoon was sunny and the ferry ride was terrific. It was quite windy to stay on the deck but I enjoyed the sun and the amazing island view around. There are so many islands around that I hardly noticed when I first went to Victoria.

It was a blessing to see the beauty of the Islands at the end of my journey.

Enjoy the blue sky and lovely views here.