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Published: April 20th 2006
The day started way too early, for people who are supposed to be on holiday, at 6am! Today we were going to catch the ferry to Victoria on Vancouver Island, 1 ½ hours away. It was tipping it down and we hoped that it would improve, as today would involve plenty of walking. Breakfast was again the delights of Mc D’s before heading to Tsawwassen ferry port.
We arrived in good time so pulled out the lap top to update the blog while sitting in the car waiting to board the ferry. Once on, we strolled around the decks taking in the passing views, then moved down into the warmth to have a proper breakfast! We chose the ‘meatless’ breakfast which consisted of scrambled eggs, hash browns and two slices of brown toast with jam and it was surprisingly tasty for ferry food.
Arriving in Swartz Bay, we took the back roads to Butchart Gardens through some beautiful countryside with plenty of eye catching houses and gardens. Butchart Gardens was an old quarry site that was turned into a spectacular garden by its owners. Today it’s one of the top tourist destinations on Vancouver Island. We ambled along the
BC Ferry to Vancouver Island
Loaded up and ready to go - we're on the left.various parts of the gardens taking in the beautiful spring planting. Had we come two weeks later it would have been better, as more flowers would have been in full bloom, but still it was very nice and not too many tourists to get in the way of picture taking. Feeling cold we warmed up with a very bitter and supposedly mocha decaf coffee before venturing into the gift shop for a wander around.
Thirty minutes later we arrived sleepy in Victoria. We had an hour to kill before afternoon tea at the Empress Hotel, a grand old tradition that all should partake in. As our eyes were nearly shut with sleep from the early rise, we took a cat nap in the car before walking to the Empress. The Empress Hotel is situated right on the Victoria Harbour overlooking the boats and to the side, the Parliament Building.
Afternoon tea was taken in the stately Harbourside Room, complete with a chap playing soothing piano music in the background. Liisa had previously requested a vegetarian afternoon tea. After being seated our strawberries with Chantilly cream topped with a gooseberry arrived followed by our tea. We chose a decaf
BC Ferry to Vancouver Island
Sailing through the islands. tea from Zimbabwe and this was poured for us with great ceremony by our waitress. The tea was delicious and shortly after the remainder of the food arrived. This was tea sandwiches filled with cucumber, carrot & ginger with cream cheese and tomato and something green - possibly spinach? In addition to those were prawn and salmon sandwiches too. Hmmm, vegetarian? I don’t think so! We brought this to the attention of the waitress who brought out another plate of three sandwiches to replace the fishy ones. All of them tasted superb, but the best was the carrot & ginger with cream cheese. Must try and make this at home. Next was the raisin scones with Devon cream and Tiptree strawberry preserves, cardamom shortbread cookies, miniature chocolate éclairs filled with milk chocolate mousse, fresh fruit and lemon curd tartlets, and finally French Valrhona Manjari chocolate truffles. Wickedly sinful and tasty! Feeling stuffed to the gills we paid the bill and received two boxes of complimentary Empress Hotel special blend tea to take home and recreate the whole experience.
Rolling out the hotel, we waddled along the harbour to walk off all the fattening goodies we had just eaten. The
harbour was a hub of activity in the late afternoon, with artisans selling or making their handicrafts. Many were local Indians who were sculpting from either wood or stone, some had made beautiful pieces of jewelry, and some were just doing caricatures of passers by.
Following our walk, we headed back to the car as our ticket had nearly expired. We then drove around the pretty seaside drive. The Olympic Mountain range looked stunning spread out across the waters, but unfortunately, the pictures don’t do it justice.
As the day was coming to an end, thought we better start to make our way back to catch the 9pm ferry. It took us less time than imagined to arrive there, so we pulled off the main road and headed down to a beach to kill some time. From the beach we could see both Mt Baker, in Northern Washington, and the Olympic Mountains on the Olympic Peninsula in Southern Washington. The beach was awash with driftwood, some new and some well worn, making it a great place for pictures. Another photo shoot coming up! We asked a guy carrying an arm load of wood to take a picture of
us, which he did. Gail asked him what he was planning to do with the wood, he said him and some friends were going to build a fire and tell some tall stories around it. He asked us to join him but we declined saying that we had a ferry to catch.
Once on the ferry we crashed for the duration of the journey as we were both beyond pooped! The Days Inn sign was a welcomed sight after long but very enjoyable day.
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