Thursday 29^th August

We have done a quick trip on the ferry up to Victoria on Vancouver Island.  This beautiful,  gracious city is the capital of British Columbia.  Soph had booked accommodation through Airbnb again – it was an interesting house, typical of the Victoria style, but the apartment was rather poky.  The young woman whose home it was moves out to stay with her boyfriend whenever she has a bnb booking.  When he gets a booking for his apartment, he moves in with her.  They are saving for a trip to New Orleans, both being music lovers.  There was a banjo, an accordion, an organ  and a washboard in her living area.  

We spent the day walking about Victoria, just soaking it in, and later in the afternoon, took an on-and-off bus trip.  Finished up with high tea at the Fairmont Empress Hotel overlooking the bustling Harbour.  Soph had advice that this was a must, and it was quite an experience (though expensive – but it was our last day together). 

Downtown Victoria looks beautiful in the summer – there are 1500 floral baskets hanging from lightstands.  All carry the same arrangement.  I suppose that is someone’s job, and they are currently planning next years bouquet.  All the electrical infrastructure was put underground some decades back, when they decided it was too ugly to tolerate.  The absence of poles and wires certainly improves the views.  

The Legislative Assembly is a big neo-baroque building (like Queensland’s) down by the Harbour.  It has 85 members – similar to Queensland again.  Standing in front of a statue of Captain Cook, I got into conversation with another woman who turned out to be Australian, with a son living in Victoria. Cook and his Lieutenant, Vancouver, had explored this coastline in 1788.  He got about – I must read a biography of him.  

The Harbour was full of all sorts of conveyances – from the big vehicular ferry Coho to a clutch of sea planes with their own dock.  Most appealing were the Harbour taxis, which really looked like dinky toys, and bobbed about on the water in a rather unsettling manner, it seemed to me. 

Our bus tour took us up Mt Tolmie, which gives a 360 degree view of Victoria.  It is the opposite of Sydney – where Sydney is built around the water, the water surrounds Victoria, at least on three sides.  The gracious suburbs of Uplands and Oak Bay have wonderful old homes, with deer on the lawns.  Though in some parts of town (not the Uplands and Oak Bay of course) lawns are brown.  Victoria is actually quite dry, having only 25 inches of rain in a year.  It rarely gets snow, and its temperatures are quite mild.  Never really cold (0 degrees only occasionally in winter) and never too hot in the summer.  Which is why there is a fairly strong population of retirees!

Businesses go all out with summer displays.

There is quite a lot of this mock-Tudor style in the housing.

Lots of trees.  Once out of downtown, every street is an avenue.

Craigdarrach Castle - built by John Dunsmuir, a Scot who came to Vancouver Island with nothing and became hugely rich through coal.  It has been restored and is open to the public now.

Life inside Craigdarrach.  A b it like Downton Abbey.  But they had hot and cold running water and electric lighting right through the five-story building when they first moved into it in 1890.

This one is for you Cath.  The tatting table in the Drawing Room.

No TV in our accommodation, so feet up listening to a Ted Talk from the iPod.