Victoria, British Columbia

Well, we survived our journey and have now been three days in Canada.  The flight was uneventful, except that the embroidery project, which generally makes a long flight a pleasure for me, did not make it into my onboard bag - result, 15 hours of boredom!!  Actually, that pretty much set something of a pattern.  I also overlooked the laptop charger when I packed the laptop, and left my camera battery and charger at the last motel!!

Victoria, the capitol of British Columbia, is a delightful, human scale city on Vancouver Island, a short ferry ride (1.5 hours) or - in our case - an extremely short flight (15 minutes) from the city of Vancouver.  In peak summer, the weather was absolutely perfect ... sparkling colours, warmth moderated by a fresh breeze.  The harbour glistened, brilliantly coloured flower balls hung from every lamp post & building and decorative young Russian sailors from a tall ship, wearing gold braided pantomine suits, wandered around the foreshore.  We found a seafood restaurant serving seafood chowder and halibut so good we had to go back a second night.

Yesterday we  - and several thousand other tourists - visited the famous Butchart Gardens, on the outskirts of Victoria.  They were in their full summer garb, wearing vibrant colours against a background of rich and varied greens.  I thought that the creators of the garden were very lucky to have found such a dramatic location, until I realised that the Butchart family had inadvertently created the landscape themselves ... they made their money from manufacturing cement, and the garden is built over their original quarry and factory site.  Shows what you can do with determination ... and a small fortune!!

Now with a car bearing Quebec number plates (which has tickled Alvin's sense of humour), we are on our way across Canada.  First stop, Vancouver.  The ferry ride was a real pleasure but the drive through Vancouver (and by accident right down the main pedestrian shopping mall!!) caused Alvin's hair to turn a degree whiter.  There were a few things we intended to go back to visit, but we have thought better of it ... if it is on the other side of Vancouver, too late!!