Mercury 5-29-04 Part III of VI

[transactionchick]

5-31-04

Victoria, Canada

We have been particularly looking forward to this port as we have never visited it before. We found Vancouver to be utterly charming on a trip a few years ago and are hoping to have a similar experience in Victoria.

We declined to book a shore excursion through Celebrity. Thanks to all the good advice from the CC board we knew that we could go into town and pick up an excursion to Buchart Gardens on our own much more cheaply.

The boat docked at 8am but we weren’t interested in being the first folks off the boat so we had a constitutional on deck while the hoards fought to get off. (Everyone can’t wait to get on the boat and two days later everyone can’t wait to get off the boat…it’s a real mystery).

We woke Kelsy and informed her that she had a choice to make…stay on the boat or go with us to the Gardens and Butterfly farm. We informed her that it would involve some walking. She finally decided in favor of going, so we cooled our heels while she indulged in an interminable toilette. She was finally ready, and we stopped at the Palm Springs Café for her first breakfast and our second.

We made it off at a little after ten, after the obligatory photo, we hoofed it to town, about a 15 to 20 minute walk, depending on your speed. It is a charming walk and I recommend it if you have the time or inclination. You pass lovely little cottages literally covered in flowers. Tres charmant. One fantasy I like to indulge in when I travel is to pick a home I would like to live in and try to imagine myself living in this town and this home. I had soon picked out ‘my’ house, only to discard it quickly in favor of another, and another…Well. It is just that kind of town. We passed a hotel that had a large fountain in front, where several mallards (male and female) were making their home. There was even a baby mallard. Kelsy was smitten and we had trouble dragging her away from there! We had forgotten to bring any ‘bird bread’ off the breakfast buffet so she was unable to feed any of the interesting birds and ducks we saw on our walk.

There is a visitor’s bureau across the street from the Empress (very impressive, castle architecture) and tours can be booked there or directly with Gray Line on the backside of the hotel. We voted for the latter and soon had our afternoon arranged. For $95 CAD we had transportation and admission to both the Buchart Gardens and the Butterfly Farm – less than half of the cost of the same tour on the ship. Course with the ship’s tour we wouldn’t have had to walk to town, but frankly I wouldn’t have missed that for the world.

Gray Line is efficient and the buses are comfortable. The Butterfly farm is small but lovely and the butterflies are simply incredible. As it was cloudy and cool we were warmed that the butterflies weren’t too active but it was still amazing. Even the caterpillars were unusual. There were several serious photographers there with large cameras and tripods – whether amateur or professional I have no idea. However, we are content with out little digital…we can happily snap an unlimited number of pictures and then download to our laptop each night. I came away from this trip with more than 600 snaps…good, bad and indifferent.

Right next to the Butterfly gardens is a winery. If you wish you can add the winery to your package. Had we known it was so close and accessible we would have added that to our package If you do this same itinerary with Gray Line and are interested, by all means add it. We were concerned that it was another drive and thus did not feel we had the time. If/when we go back to Victoria we will probably visit the winery.

Next it is back on the bus and on our way to the Gardens (about ten minutes further on). The gardens are well done. Large, beautiful, tons of gorgeous flowers and landscaping. You get a guide that gives the names of a lot of the plants and flowers if you are interested. As I am not a gardener I just enjoy the scenery. There are fat robins on the expanses of green lawn snapping up worms and honeybees at work everywhere. Strategically placed are large bins of clear umbrellas that you can pick up and use when it’s raining (frequently!) and when the sun comes out again as it soon does, you can just leave your umbrella at the next station. Very well done.

After a couple of hours of touting the gardens we were hungry and decided to have lunch at the restaurant that is located in the Buchart house. We weren’t worried about missing a meal on the ship as the dining room was closed for lunch. What a warm and wonderful place. We sat on the veranda and watched the tourists and the robins and were entertained by the hummingbirds sampling the hanging flowerpots around the veranda. We had a truly memorable meal…..fresh, fresh ingredients skillfully and artistically blended. We also sampled two BC wines that were fantastic…a Chard and Cab, both by Jackson Triggs winery in Victoria, BC. If you visit the gardens, plan on lunching at the restaurant, it is a first class meal at a very reasonable price. It stands in the top ten of meals we’ve had, anywhere, including Paris. You are supposed to have reservations but they squeezed us in. To be on the safe side, you might stop on your way in and make your reservation for later in your visit.

We made it back to Victoria in plenty of time to make the ship and headed back on foot, taking a slightly different route so that we could see something a little different. We would have liked more time to see this lovely city and will probably plan a land trip here someday.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (on the ship), we had missed tea but Stanley had thoughtfully left us a sampling of the day’s offerings (can’t be letting us get hungry now, can he J) Moments later he was back with canapés. I caught a yoga class (much better than the previous day’s pilates) and then it was sushi time again. This time I stayed in the Palm Springs Café so I could sample one of the saki offerings – a draft saki served cold. Yummy.

Dinner was fun again. Our group got to know each other a little better each night and I am happy to say we got a little louder each night J

We were tired after our day of exploring and retired early while Kelsy again headed to the teen center (not sure where she gets the energy).

Our cruise is already half over! Where did the time go?

Good night and sweet dreams.

Happy Sailing!

Cyndi Wagner, AKA Transaction Chick
Carnival Celebration - 5/98
RCI Rhapsody - 5/00
Carnival Sprit - 10/01
Celebtrity Mercury - 5/04

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