Tour to gardens and Victorian times

Arrived in Vancouver and just had a bit of a look around by walking down the street. My hotel is on one of the main streets that lead down to the harbour.

Looked around an area called Gastown, which is very much like our "Rocks" in Sydney but much bigger and better laid out.

Organised a tour for my second day over to Vancouver Island. Bus picked me up and we boarded a ferry that held over 2000 people and the cars/buses/trucks to go with it!

It was a 90 minute trip on the ferry across.

We first went to Butchart Gardens. It has been established over 100 years and was orginally owned by a person who mined limestone there to manufacture cement and the garden was a way to make the environment left more pleasant. It's still owned by the family!

The gardens are superbly maintained and I think they said there was a team of about 55 gardeners that work on it, and I'm not surprised.

There are different themed spaces in the gardens and the Japanese section would have to be one of the largest. The Rose section was not anything special since it really was the wrong time of the year for them, only a few buds on bushes, but lots of bushes that you could see had been pruned to prepare for winter here.

The sunken garden was probably the most spectacular especially with the trees that were changing colour in it and a really impressive fountain that 'danced'.

Last stop was the city of Victoria. It was much bigger than I thought! Looked at least twice the size of Calgary! Very busy city but with a lot of historical elements to it on a pretty harbour.

While in Victoria went to the Museum of British Columbia. some interesting exhibits, particularly of the First Nations (Indians) people.

On the waterfront, there was a statue of Captain James Cook! Who knew he had ties to the area.

Emblazened on the plaque:

“After two historic voyages to the South Pacific, Cook was cruising the awters of the Pacific Northwest on his third and final voyage, with his two ships, Resolution and Discovery. He was searching for the Western exit to the legendary Northwest Passage. In March, 1778, they put into Nootka Sound for repairs and to trade with the native people, with him on the voyage were Mr. William Bligh as Master of the Resolution and Midshipman George Vancouver.”

On the way driving back to the hotel on the mainland, came across these fields of flowers. Did I say flowers? They are pumpkins ready to harvest for the upcoming Halloween!