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Published: December 22nd 2008
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Picture perfect
What can you say about these gardens After our shopping and looking at the Parliament building and Museum, we changed and were off to the Buchart Gardens, to be told that the roads were closed as it had snowed heavily and Victoria is not set up for heavy snow. Luckily, the hotel was able to organize to get us on a bus which was prepared to risk the trip. What normally takes 45 mins took two and a half hours. It was a fairyland; you cannot give enough words to describe this place. Apparently it even brought tears to the seasoned tour directors who had never seen it so beautiful. One of the side aspects was the search for the 12 days of Christmas as tableaus. How hard is it to remember other than the partridge in the pear tree - we only missed photographing two turtle doves, but caught all the others. We were on a real high after this place, but were starving when we returned, but nothing seemed to be open. The concierge rang across to a restaurant and they held it open till we got there and had a late dinner. We had a great time with the staff and even tried egg nog.
After a late night we slept in, not good when you have to leave early! After a quick pack, it was out to find the bus to go to the ferry. The NEW backpack has been a nightmare, and it has finally ed up completely, the handle will not extend and it would happen at the one time that I will be trekking around pulling cases. Deb and I caught the local bus to the ferry, and then a couple of hours later arrived in Vancouver, a really pretty city, a cross between Melbourne and Sydney. Wandered around the city at night, then had a reasonably early night. The following day we traveled up to Grouse Mountain, which was a beautiful ski resort which is basically the outer suburbs of Vancouver. Up on the top of the mountain, there is a panoramic view of Vancouver and the bay. Down to the city and gas town which is powered by gas and steam even the street clock is run by steam! We meandered back to the hotel and picked up our bags. Pulling heavy suitcases across the snow is a challenge. We caught the bus to the skytrain, but the
driver took us all the way to the train station. Due to the large number of Aussie tourists, the train had to put on another 20 carriages; this meant a long delay before we left. During this time, we got pretty bored and were holed in a tiny waiting room. I found a box of Christmas decorations and decided to fill in the time by decorating a small tree sitting on a table. Finally we were underway. It didn’t long before we were ready for bed; both of us had a great sleep. The trip across the Rockies was spectacular, scenery that was hard to describe. Cold as all get out at -35 degrees c. and deep snow drifts. The day was spent talking travel adventures with other passengers (over 100 Aussies were on the train) and eating great food. Played scrabble with Mary Jane. The train ran well over an hour late, but we enjoyed the extra time. I stepped out of the train and finally understood Dr. Zhivago. In the scene where they are in the snow and his moustache freezes with icicles hanging off -I finally get how cold that it -I can feeeeeeeeeeel it, even your
Again!
I have hundreds, cannot put them all on nose hair freezes.
Poor Deb has succumbed to the lurgy and has spent the day in bed. I ventured out into the icy weather. Jasper is a pretty ski town which is focused on the tourist trade. I had layer, upon layer, upon layer (thank you Sue for the parka!) without these layers, you would freeze.
There will be more photo's to follow, but I have run out of time to put them all on.
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