Today is our last full day in Victoria as we are heading back to the mainland on the ferry tomorrow. Whenever I talked to anyone about coming to Victoria, Butchart Gardens is always on the list. It takes about 30 minutes to get there by car or around an hour by the public bus, but the first order of the day was breakfast. We tried one of the other local hotels which wasn’t too bad although they did seem to confuse hash browns with the grilled potato pieces that were delivered and I did have to carefully explain that 3 shots was an acceptable way to drink a cappuccino. Unfortunately, Deb thought they might have forgotten to put the chai in her Chai Latte. The service was good and our server had lived in Brisbane for a time and was keen to display her knowledge by mentioning the Maroons Rugby league team. I can respect that.
With breakfast done, we decided to UBER to the gardens to cut down the travel time. Unfortunately, that wasn’t a great plan as the UBER took 20 minutes to arrive, so we probably saved 15 minutes and spent a whole lot more. While we were waiting though we watched an officious Parking Warden issue tickets seemingly with some glee – job satisfaction is important. We also discussed the volume of bird shit that seemed to cover most buildings and pavements. There is a large population of noisy seagulls in Victoria and more bird poop than I’ve seen in other coastal places.
The Butchart family started manufacturing concrete in Ontario in 1888, but moved operations to Vancouver Island in 1904 to exploit the rich limestone deposits on the Saanich Peninsula. In 1907, Isaburo Kishida, a famous garden designer from Yokohama, Japan, came to Victoria to work on another project which became wildly popular. Several prominent citizens, Jennie Butchart among them, commissioned Kishida to build Japanese gardens for their estates. In 1909, when the limestone mine was exhausted, Jennie started to build the gardens as they stand today. These gardens are among the best I’ve seen and although I’m not really a gardener I certainly can appreciate the beauty of this garden. By the numbers … there are 55 acres of gardens, 900 plant varieties, 26 greenhouses and 50 full time gardeners!
Finally, I was admonished by a blog follower for not revealing yesterday’s gelato flavours, so at the gardens we both had rasberry sorbet and wildflower honey and lavender gelato in a 2 scoop cup… both excellent.
Today was to only get more educational for me. Deb often disappears with her friends to events called ‘High Teas’, but because she had no friends to go with here, I got to go and find out what this secret business was about. In fairness, we did do one at the Burj Al Arab in Dubai in 2011, but it seemed to be more focussed on supplying a quantity of food as I recall. The Fairmont Empress is famous for its High Tea, and the quality and quantity was just right.
We were served some tea of our choice, a glass of champagne and a selection of delicious food all on custom-made bone china. We struck up conversation with a woman sitting next to us who had emigrated from India some years ago, who now lives in Toronto. She was having her first holiday in 3 years.
I do approve of a High Tea as a nice way of spending our last afternoon in Victoria.
An early night is in order because we have to get up early to get the ferry back to Vancouver tomorrow.
We were able to buy some Nanaimo bars without nuts so we ate those tonight. Very nice … I will continue my research as we travel further afield!
Anyway… that’s it for today.
Until tomorrow!
Rob's "Beats Working" Blog 
Goodness, you are really into your descriptive and informative blog writing stride now! Gelato flavours, historical facts, travel tips, exceptional photos AND Nanaimo bars!! (The Gelato choices were inspired – I’ve made a note of them to pass onto Charlie’s Gelato on my next trip north)
My hope is that you had another whale sighting on the boat journey back to the mainland.
When are the beanies going to make their appearance?
Mwah!