May 19-23, 2012: I had been looking forward to Victoria. I had enjoyed Vancouver in 2010, and thought Victoria would be a smaller, quieter, perhaps quainter version, with reportedly better weather. I was disappointed.
The weather didn’t help, varying from cool to cold and from damp to wet, and getting sick (probably from standing out in the cold and damp for two hours) didn’t help either, but mostly it was Victoria itself. Smaller turned out to be a bit too small, definitely not big enough for all the tourists, and the buildings were less interesting than I expected. Then, thanks to the weather, I still didn’t make it to the Butchart Gardens as I saw no point in paying $31.47 plus transport to look at gardens on a wet, grey day.
All was not gloom, however. I approved of my hotel, the Helm’s Inn, an older but well-kept property near the harbor that provided me with a big room and a useful kitchenette. I spent one wet day at the Royal BC Museum right next door, enjoying the historical displays, although it took me 50 minutes in line to get in, and I skipped rapidly through the big dinosaur exhibit on the ground floor.
Then I was in town for Victoria Day, which livened things up a bit. I spent those two hours standing around outside to watch the 114th Island Farms Victoria Day parade. This proved to be a good old fashioned local show, starting out with soldiers and sailors and airmen and progressing through marching bands and firetrucks and Shriners to assorted floats and performers. It actually lasted three hours, but I went indoors to thaw out and find warmer clothes after two.
That afternoon I took a bus to visit Craigdarroch Castle, actually a house, built in the late 1880s for a Scottish-born coal magnate. I found the family history as interesting as the building, and moved on to Government House, just round the corner. Normally visitors only get to tour the grounds, but to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee the house itself was open. I arrived to find a crowd outside watching the unveiling of a statue of former governor Sir James Douglas, followed by a rather tentative rendition of the national anthem and an ear-splitting cannon shot.
I hadn’t heard “God Save the Queen” in years, and found the experience quite nostalgic. Back when I lived in the UK, I was a small “r” republican, but it didn’t take a long sojourn in the US to turn me into a supporter of constitutional monarchy. The crowd in the ballroom indoors, queuing up for tea and cakes under the gaze of royal portraits, also struck a nostalgic note.
I did a little nostalgic eating too, although not at the famous Fairmont Hotel. I thought the price for afternoon tea excessive ($60!), especially as I really only wanted the scone and clotted cream. I found a couple of places that provided just a scone for a more affordable price, and ate some pretty good Indian food as well.
So Victoria, like Portland, dropped off my “places to live” list, replaced by Seattle. Good thing I went to look. My next stop would be Vancouver, a city I already knew and liked.
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