Victoria Trip Day 2: Of walking, sightseeing and seagull attacks
We decided to be indulgent and had breakfast on both days at the hotel itself. Expensive, but deliciously so with fresh local ingredients, beautiful presentation and warm service.
Andy had the Canadian Breakfast: hash, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages and (not shown) multigrain toast.
While I had the Dungeness Crab Benedict. Beautiful and very delicious, but I must admit it was too rich for me for breakfast and I did not finish!
Then we took a morning walk along the harbour right outside the hotel, peering up at totem poles and watching the comings and goings of ferries and seaplanes.
While walking to the Royal BC Museum, we caught the weekly performance of the harbour ferries water ballet. They looked very cute going around in circles and formations, before breaking off to do their regular routes across the harbour.
There were plenty of people kayaking all the time. Nobody seemed bothered by the seaplanes taking and landing in the same area.
Our hotel across the harbour
The former British colonial tax office. Our hotel in the background.
The Empress Hotel, one of the oldest and unarguably the grandest hotel in Victoria. It is enormous with more than 400 rooms. Afternoon tea at the hotel is always on the recommended to-do list for tourists as a grand Victorian tradition but it is, of course, hideously expensive (around CAD$35 per person). Obviously we did not do that :p What I did want to do is to walk around in the hotel main floor but we never got round to doing that.
Summer blooms with the BC Parliament Buildings in the background
We then spent the rest of the morning at the Royal BC Museum. The British Museum was having a special exhibition there, which was in the news a lot the past few months. We weren't that fussed about it since we both went to the British Museum numerous times already, but the Royal BC Museum itself was very good indeed, covering natural and human history of the province with very good layout and interactive displays. Andy watched his first IMAX film (about the Grand Canyon). I couldn't believe he's never watched an IMAX movie before since just about every Singapore school kid has been to the IMAX theatre at the Singapore Science Centre at least twice on school trips.
In the afternoon, we walked towards the Parliament Buildings in search of lunch and dined at a small local pub called The Bent Mast.
Back of the Parliament Buildings
I think this photo could have been taken anywhere in the UK.
After lunch, we walked up to Beacon Hill Park. We did not make it all the way to the top of the hill though (where there was a Children's Farm). Just a leisurely stroll around.
We went to the hotel in the late afternoon for a rest. I planned on having a shower before we head out for dinner but it was just as well I didn't (to be explained later). There was still plenty of daylight when we went out back to the inner harbour for dinner. Plenty of the usual craft stalls, caricatures and street performers. Andy did not want to get a caricature done. Boo.
Dinner was at Milestone's with a lovely view of the harbour. It does not sound terribly exciting (Milestone's is a chain restaurant) but the location is excellent and the food really rather good. We shared a starter of freshly steamed and chilled prawns and they tasted so fresh and sweet that Andy wanted to have it again when we come home (which is easy enough to do, just buy fresh whole prawns from Granville Island Market or the fisher boats at the dock). It was sunset by the time we left Milestone's and the Empress Hotel was glowing in the sunset.
The plan was to walk around the downtown area after dinner, and just nosy about the plentiful pubs and restaurants in that area. Unfortunately, we were only about 5 minutes away from the harbour, walking on the pavement beside rows of heritage buildings, when both Andy and I were bombed by seagulls. I assume it was more than one since it was a shitload (ahem) of poo :( Argh!! There was already a note in our hotel room about the million seagulls in Victoria with apologies about any unpleasant state of the hotel windows, so we were not that surprised...
Some wet wipes too the worst out of our hair, jackets and Andy's backpack. But unfortunatly they also landed two big streaks down the side of my cotton dress which I did not want to risk wiping into the fabric. So the evening's walk was immediately terminated and we went back to our hotel and straight into the shower. Fortunately, warm water, the hotel bar soap (which tends to be stronger than shower gel or shampoo) and some gentle rubbing got the stains out fine. I then hung the dress up to dry over the bathtub overnight, it went into the wash when we got home and it was none the worse for wear. Phew. Not a great end to a lovely day, but still, no big damage.
Andy had the Canadian Breakfast: hash, scrambled eggs, bacon, sausages and (not shown) multigrain toast.
While I had the Dungeness Crab Benedict. Beautiful and very delicious, but I must admit it was too rich for me for breakfast and I did not finish!
Then we took a morning walk along the harbour right outside the hotel, peering up at totem poles and watching the comings and goings of ferries and seaplanes.
While walking to the Royal BC Museum, we caught the weekly performance of the harbour ferries water ballet. They looked very cute going around in circles and formations, before breaking off to do their regular routes across the harbour.
There were plenty of people kayaking all the time. Nobody seemed bothered by the seaplanes taking and landing in the same area.
Our hotel across the harbour
The former British colonial tax office. Our hotel in the background.
The Empress Hotel, one of the oldest and unarguably the grandest hotel in Victoria. It is enormous with more than 400 rooms. Afternoon tea at the hotel is always on the recommended to-do list for tourists as a grand Victorian tradition but it is, of course, hideously expensive (around CAD$35 per person). Obviously we did not do that :p What I did want to do is to walk around in the hotel main floor but we never got round to doing that.
Summer blooms with the BC Parliament Buildings in the background
We then spent the rest of the morning at the Royal BC Museum. The British Museum was having a special exhibition there, which was in the news a lot the past few months. We weren't that fussed about it since we both went to the British Museum numerous times already, but the Royal BC Museum itself was very good indeed, covering natural and human history of the province with very good layout and interactive displays. Andy watched his first IMAX film (about the Grand Canyon). I couldn't believe he's never watched an IMAX movie before since just about every Singapore school kid has been to the IMAX theatre at the Singapore Science Centre at least twice on school trips.
In the afternoon, we walked towards the Parliament Buildings in search of lunch and dined at a small local pub called The Bent Mast.
Back of the Parliament Buildings
I think this photo could have been taken anywhere in the UK.
After lunch, we walked up to Beacon Hill Park. We did not make it all the way to the top of the hill though (where there was a Children's Farm). Just a leisurely stroll around.
We went to the hotel in the late afternoon for a rest. I planned on having a shower before we head out for dinner but it was just as well I didn't (to be explained later). There was still plenty of daylight when we went out back to the inner harbour for dinner. Plenty of the usual craft stalls, caricatures and street performers. Andy did not want to get a caricature done. Boo.
Dinner was at Milestone's with a lovely view of the harbour. It does not sound terribly exciting (Milestone's is a chain restaurant) but the location is excellent and the food really rather good. We shared a starter of freshly steamed and chilled prawns and they tasted so fresh and sweet that Andy wanted to have it again when we come home (which is easy enough to do, just buy fresh whole prawns from Granville Island Market or the fisher boats at the dock). It was sunset by the time we left Milestone's and the Empress Hotel was glowing in the sunset.
The plan was to walk around the downtown area after dinner, and just nosy about the plentiful pubs and restaurants in that area. Unfortunately, we were only about 5 minutes away from the harbour, walking on the pavement beside rows of heritage buildings, when both Andy and I were bombed by seagulls. I assume it was more than one since it was a shitload (ahem) of poo :( Argh!! There was already a note in our hotel room about the million seagulls in Victoria with apologies about any unpleasant state of the hotel windows, so we were not that surprised...
Some wet wipes too the worst out of our hair, jackets and Andy's backpack. But unfortunatly they also landed two big streaks down the side of my cotton dress which I did not want to risk wiping into the fabric. So the evening's walk was immediately terminated and we went back to our hotel and straight into the shower. Fortunately, warm water, the hotel bar soap (which tends to be stronger than shower gel or shampoo) and some gentle rubbing got the stains out fine. I then hung the dress up to dry over the bathtub overnight, it went into the wash when we got home and it was none the worse for wear. Phew. Not a great end to a lovely day, but still, no big damage.