Have Pen and Camera, Will Travel: Victoria BC

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Breakfast on the way to Victoria at Country Cousins in Centralia, WA.

The topic for this post is our recent trip to Victoria, BC, Canada, to celebrate our 50th wedding anniversary. This post also celebrates for me the 150th post on this travel blog since I started it in April of 2011—that’s quite a bit of travel and a large bunch of photos. Now on to Victoria.

Victoria is about four and a half hours north of Portland by car to Port Angeles, Washington,

Major accident southbound on I-5 slowed us down.

then an hour and a half ferry ride to the city. Victoria is the provincial capital of British Columbia and is situated on the southern coast of Vancouver Island.

Victoria has a lovely skyline from the harbour.

Major construction downtown while saving the character of the building.

Victoria at night

It’s one of the oldest cities in the Pacific Northwest having been settled in 1843. The most iconic building in the city is the Parliament building which was completed in 1879. We really enjoy Victoria—it’s an easy city to get around in and has plenty of fine eating places and shopping.

Anne shopping in the Irish shop.

Interesting shopping in the west coast's second oldest Chinatown; this is Fan Tan Alley.

Street artist.

She could barely make it to the chair.

It’s particularly beautiful when decked out for the Christmas season which gets its official start with the lighting of the Parliament building on the first Saturday in December

Parliament Building lighted for Christmas.

—the shops, obviously, are ready for Christmas shoppers much earlier.

Besides Parliament, another iconic building in Victoria is the Fairmont Empress Hotel on the harbour.

Empress Hotel from the edge of the harbour.

Opened in 1908, the Empress has been serving Afternoon Tea practically since it opened. Called “among the world’s best tea experiences,” Afternoon Tea at the Empress is a treat not to be missed. Often called “High Tea” (which was really a hot meal for industrial workers returning home after a long day of work, now called supper or dinner), the Empress Afternoon Tea consists of a choice of specialty teas from a list of 21 loose leaf blends and a three course lunch served on a tiered platter.

Tea Steeping Timers: green for 3, white for 4, and gold for 5 minutes.

The Full Monty

Special Touches at the Empress

The typical meal includes: first, warm raisin scones with clotted cream and strawberry lavender preserves; second, finger sandwiches (smoked salmon on blini, shrimp tartlet, English cucumber on rye, and roast beef on whole wheat); and third, a layer of sweets (chocolate and passion fruit tart, berry and pistachio daisy, caramel banana cake, and queen bee shortbread). Even though the portions seem small, because of the tea and relaxed atmosphere in the beautiful tea room, we couldn’t finish the final course and took several of the sweets home with us. The teas were also special. Anne had Rose Congou Emporer tea—five times layered with rose petals and a favorite of Princess Diana. I had Bella Coola Organic tea—orange notes and highlights of velvety pineapple. From the excellent service by staff to the visit by the tea manager to explain our selections in more detail to the serving plates—1914 design King George V china first used in 1939 for the Royal visit of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (Queen Mum) and now exclusive to the Empress Hotel

—everything about the Afternoon Tea at the Empress is beyond First Class, and be warned, that includes the price. But you can have a great Afternoon Tea experience at an affordable price in Victoria. Check out White Heather Tea Room in the Cook Village neighborhood.

Afternoon Tea at White Heather Tea Room.

The “Wee” tea we had there was excellent even if not as fancy as the Empress and less than half the tariff.

Another building in Victoria which should attract your attention is Canada’s Castle, Craigdarroch Castle.

Craigdarroch (“rocky, oak place” in Gaelic) is the fine four story mansion built in 1890 by Scottish immigrant and coal baron Robert Dunsmuir. The mansion is a “bonanza house” built by the nouveau rich of the industrial revolution and was designed by Portland architect Warren Heywood Williams.

The Formal Dining Room

The Family Dining Room

Craigdarroch has had several uses besides a family home including a military hospital and a School of Music. The house is now held by a private trust as a Victorian period museum. At Christmas time the Victorian decorations are particularly lovely.

Our last stop of note in Victoria was the Royal Museum of British Columbia next to the Parliament building in the downtown area. We’ve toured the museum on almost every one of our visits to Victoria—we always find much to interest us. This trip we were eager to see the Egyptian Exhibition from London.

Most of the artifacts were from between 6th C and 3rd C BC. though some were as old as 1550 BC.

The exhibit didn’t disappoint, even though we saw a special Egyptian exhibit last year in Edinburgh. The artifacts were displayed beautifully and all were labeled with sufficient information for understanding.

A Chief's Costume.

We also toured the First Nation (native) area which is always fascinating.

Outside town we made it to two attractions. First, we visited Fort Rodd Hill, a retired defensive artillery station and the Fisgard Lighthouse next to it. The Fort, in use since the 1840s, was turned into National Historic Site (museum) in 1958.

Wandering among the batteries at the fort.

Interesting display in the Magazine Building; hope they weren't live.

The Fisgard Lighthouse, built in 1860, warns shipping entering Esquimalt harbour and was the first lighthouse built on the west coast of Canada. Until 1950 the lighthouse was situated on a small island, but the island has now been connected to the mainland by a short causeway.

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Both sites offer great creative photo opportunities. Secondly, we took a drive to the north on the Saanich peninsula to Sidney

View of Mt Baker on the way to Sidney.

and then to the Victoria Butterfly Gardens near the famous Butchart Gardens. The Butterfly Gardens highlight about 70 different species of tropical butterflies in an enclosure about as big as three basketball courts.