Brace yourselves... Victoria on Vancouver Island

Brace yourselves for our hugest blog post yet! We took so many great photos in Victoria and I couldn't choose which ones to show you all so you get to see loads, sorry...

Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, sits on the south tip of Vancouver lsland off the west coast of British Columbia. It is a city of 315,000 with a breathtaking inner harbour area. Victoria is well known for its Heritage homes and buildings. Much of Victoria's downtown area has been restored to original facades.

The Royal BC Museum has been home to the Titanic Artifacts Exhibition for the last 6 months so we decided to go. Its a great collection of several thousand artifacts that have been salvaged from the site. It was really incredible to see the things that survived 80 odd years at the bottom of the ocean.

Here is my model outside the museum. Unfortunately due to the fragile nature of the exhibits there was no photos allowed of the Titanic stuff.

Just because I love bears here is the stuffed one in the museum :)

Looking up towards the centre of town with the museum behind us.
The Royal BC Museum.
The view across the harbour.The Fairmont Empress Hotel - where we would have liked to stay! The hotel is 99 years old and boosts a Tiffany Glass dome as well as an amazing list of dignatries and celebs who've stayed there and over looks the harbour.
Parliament by night is beautiful! It's lit with over 3000 lights and transforms from a copper domed 100 year old building by day to a Disney like wonder at night. Its fully restored and it still functional as Parliament today.
The ultimate tourist - he will stop and read everything!

Victoria is full of history and old money which can be seen in the buildings there. It's a beautiful historic Victorian-era mansion, built in the 1890s by wealthy BC coal baron Robert Dunsmuir. It is now owned by the Craigdarroch Castle Historical Museum Society. Rising 87 stairs up through the 4 1/2 stories, there are 39 rooms, most of which are furnished lavishly in the 1890s–1900s period. With over 20,000 square feet of space, the house and gardens are being restored exactly as they were originally built. Unfortunately the castle has had loads of rebuilds to make it functional for the various purposes it has served and so is not original but still amazing. All the wood panelling inside cost more than the other 400 houses built in Victoria in 1889!

This is the wood panelled stair well that is central to the mansion.

The organ which sits at the top of one level of stairs so it can be heard through out the house.
This is the original hat, coat and umbrella stand.
The recreated breakfast room.

The gentlemans smoking room.
The mosiac floor in the turretted tower.
The view from the tower.
The drawing room.
The Castle.

The ornate iron work was beautiful.

Wonder if its haunted...
The Tower - no damsel in distress here.

Now to the most gorgeous place in Victoria. I can imagine that the gardens are beautiful all year round but it's 'Fall' here so the changing colours were simply stunning!

My model hard at work again.

A little more old money history.

Looking out over the Sunken Garden.
Changing colours.
One of the many statues that adorn the gardens.
My turn to be the model.

Soo much red.
The contrasting colours were so vibrant.
Model hard at work again.
There are several fountains in the gardens. This one is below the Sunken Garden and changing every few seconds.

Looking back across the Sunken Garden.
Couple of dorks we found in the garden.
More colour everywhere.

The contrast of colour.
Intricate rivers feed the gardens.

Nothing to say really, its just gorgeous - and I'm not really a garden person!

It wouldn't be Canadian without a totem pole!
Looking at the seedling garden and another lake. They do fireworks from here in the summer months.
Funky tree.

How skinny is my model?
The start of the rose garden.

Unhappy model poking out tongue as the rain started...
Walking through the rose garden.

Entering the Japanese Gardens.

The Dolphin Fountain in the Japanese Garden.

The Butcharts were so rich that they had their own pier to greet visiting dignatries.
Funny looking tree.

This is part of a cool star shaped pond.

Looking over the croquet lawn to the restaurant.
The courtyard garden within the walls of the house.
Another of the 100 year old fountains. It amazes me how they could build something like that and make it work...
This old boar statue was a gift from a dignatary. The nose is rubbed gold by all the tourists trying for some good luck!