Day 6 - Galiano Island to Victoria

The next morning, I was a little sad to leave the island, but our ferry to Victoria left at 11:00. Between another gorgeous breakfast, packing, and checking out, there wasn't any more time to explore. We did have the amusing experience of parking our car in the ferry lane (the very first in line!) and then returning to the Inn on foot, which of course was only a few yards. :) This turned out to be cool because, as you can see in the pictures, we were the first car on the ferry and got to pull right up to the railing. The ferry ride was longer this time-about two hours-because we made two stops at Mayne and Pender islands, which I found very interesting to watch from the deck above. The ferry was practically empty from Galiano to Mayne and Mayne to Pender, but at Pender (which is a very small island, so I guess it just doesn't have many sailings) about a million people and cars got on and suddenly the ferry was a zoo. Still, it was a beautiful view and we had our books and before we knew it we were pulling into Swartz Bay, the stop for Victoria. The sun was weakly shining and we were starving and excited for more adventures. We started driving towards Victoria but within a minute or so realized we weren't far from the famed Butchart Gardens, and we headed there for tea and a tour. What an incredible place! I guess everyone goes there, because the set-up reminded me of Disneyland, with the character parking, the "main street" entrance, and the mobs of tourists getting off of busses. In all fairness, it was a Sunday, and it was never so crowded that we couldn't enjoy the displays in a leisurely way. The Butcharts, back at the turn of the century, decided to turn their quarry into a garden, and then it became so popular they kept adding other gardens until it became an attraction. Now it's huge, with an Italian garden, a Japanese garden, a "sunken" garden (where the quarry used to be) and several others, and so many species of plants and flowers that they give you an illustrated dictionary when you enter. There is also a very chichi restaurant, and we had High Tea there instead of lunch. You never think you're going to get enough food with high tea, but we were soon so stuffed that we begged them to put the last two courses in a box. Some highlights were the candied ginger scones, the "chocolate flower pots" with tiny pansies on top, and the beautiful curried chicken sandwiches shaped like pinwheels. The service was impeccable and the view-of the Italian garden below us-was magnificent.

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The weather held for most of our visit, but even when it started to rain, we had our umbrellas and the thinning crowd made for a contemplative mood in the Japanese garden, listening to the water drip off the leaves as we stood under little awnings and gazebos admiring the greenery around us. We ended up staying there for over three hours before beginning our 20 kilometer drive into downtown Victoria, which wasn't very stressful even though we had no map because there was no traffic. David did terrify me witless at one point by falling asleep at the wheel ("we were at a light!" he protests) but we made it to our hotel, the Harbour Tower Suites, without a single wrong turn. The location was excellent, only a block from the Inner Harbour and perfectly situated to walk everywhere, but we were soon underwhelmed by the hotel itself. For one thing, the bell gal was kind of grim, and the place seemed kind of deserted (though it actually looked pretty nice.) Also, our first room was directly adjacent to a giant air conditioning unit that made an infernal racket only a couple feet from the bedroom window. Part of the problem is that she gave us a room on the third floor, and all the good rooms (ones with harbour views) are much higher. She was willing to move us to a quieter room, but it still didn't have any view to speak of. Now before you think that we had the let-down of a crapcake room after the wonder of the Galiano Inn and the chic Metropolitan Hotel, I should mention that it was also the LARGEST hotel room I've ever stayed in (with the exception of our wedding night.) It was a one-bedroom suite, but it also had a den area, a TV area, and a full kitchen. And these rooms were so big that we could have had four other people stay with us! We had a nice balcony to let the air in (necessary, since the ventilation system didn't seem to work) and a big bedroom. And we had gotten a great internet rate for this massive space. So it wasn't a tragedy. ;) The only other contact we had with the hotel was a bizaarely thin and scratchy gray blanket I was presented with when I asked for another blanket. It looked like it had been around since the gold rush days. ;)

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Anyway, with our car safely stowed, we ventured out for a nice walk, and within minutes I had fallen in love with Victoria, too. We had been told that Victoria could be a little kitschy, with a faux-British thing going on, but this turned out to be no longer true. Also, it was the best kind of city, which is the kind where it's easy to walk everywhere, and you can see all kinds of different neighborhoods in a short time. Everything is laid out around the Inner Harbour, which is beautiful and made more so by the British Columbian Parliament buildings presiding over one side and the famed Empress Hotel on the other. On the advice of Frommer, we walked into downtown and found Pagliacci's for an Italian dinner, a cozy place chock-full of raucous people and very friendly servers. We were elbow-to-elbow with everyone and soon drinking some really first-rate martinis and eating the most amazing garlic bread. Over our table, a mid-'80s photo of Mel Gibson presided; apparently he came to Pagliacci's while filming in Victoria and thought they had the best lasagna in the world. Of course David had to order it-it was very good, but massive. I was so full from bread and salad that I barely made a dent in my pasta, but there was such a fun atmosphere in there we immediately felt more at home in Victoria. After dinner, we strolled down the pretty streets in a light rain and peered into many closed shops. For a rainy Sunday night, there was a really comfortable vibe. People were going in and out of pubs and restaurants and we could hear laughter and music. We happened on a British "sweet shop" that was still open and were both excited to get stuff we hadn't seen yet in Canada-for me, that meant fruit pastilles. We thought about going to a movie (we passed two theaters) but were exhausted and wanted to get an early start the next day with so much yet to see.

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