Saturday 9th May

Today we awoke to a beautiful day - hardly a cloud in sight. After breakfast (me to the local deli for an egg, ham and cheese muffin together with large mug of coffee while Terry nibbled on a granola bar and banana in bed!) we went out for a stroll. We wandered up Government Street, which seems to be the main tourist street, to find Chinatown (disappointingly small). On the way we could hear bagpipes and discovered a nice Square where many kilted men and women were gathering. We were told that next weekend is the start of the Highland Games here on Vancouver Island and that today, as publicity for them, the pipe band would march through town to the Parliament Building. So that was a nice thing to see so far from home.

After our obligatory stop-off at Starbucks we strolled down to the Harbour and took a Harbour Tour on one of the little ferry/tour boats. They looked a bit like a marine version of Dodgem Cars:

The harbour was lovely - big but now lined with waterfront condo blocks and hotels - and the ‘Captain’ gave us a commentary along the way. There is a lot of First Nation (Indian) history here and it must have been beautiful before all the development. We passed umpteen million $’s worth of big yachts and also some amazing house shaped houseboats similar to those seen the other day on Granville Island (pic on Thursday 7th May).

We were collected on time from our hotel and began the journey back to the Howard Johnson (aka HoJo) Hotel in Vancouver. We took the ’scenic route’ out of Victoria and drove through a very nice residential area with some fabulous houses and amazing sea views. We could see, in the distance over the sea, the high mountains in Washington State (USA) - they looked enormous and were covered in snow. On the way to the ferry we stopped for the long-awaited visit to Butchart Gardens -

http://www.butchartgardens.com/

- a look at the website is well worth the time, these gardens have got to be the most beautiful ones I have ever visited. I was here 10 years ago, and a second visit was just as awe inspiring as the first. We caught the 7pm ferry back to Vancouver and had our evening meal on board. We had to queue and it was a bit of a scramble to find a table but we found one ok. The crossing was beautiful - calm blue sea, blue sky and the pretty pine tree covered islands. The setting sun gave everything, including the snowy mountains in the backgroud, a pinkish hue.
Altogether a fabulous day, made even better by the lovely weather. Lucky us!