Just winging it

Well, this is totally unlike us, but today we just “went with the flow”.  No plans other than to find a laundrette!  

Tomorrow evening we join the Scenic tour, so this is our final day to chill out before we get wrapped in cotton wool and told what to do every minute of the day!  

We got the laundry done, found an Australian pie and coffee shop (great coffee, but US sized cups - just sooo big!).  Did a taxi run to a suburban shopping mall, found our way back on a bus, ate at an amazing Persian restaurant that is just at the bottom of our street, then went for a late evening stroll in Stanley Park, which is only a block from us.  Pity it was cloudy, because the pics look a bit flat in this late evening light (9pm). 

This is an 18 hole Pitch and Putt course.  What a find! just a 2 minute walk from our B&B on the edge of the park - but we can’t take advantage of it because we’re leaving tomorrow!!  Bother!

And on the way home we admire the little community gardens on each street corner - makes this inner city suburb so pretty.

Ha! Ha! Ha!

What the heck???!!!

And to give you some idea of scale:

It’s been a long day ...

A fun way to finish off though. Left our hotel on Vancouver Island at 11am, and it was 4pm before we arrived at our B&B in Vancouver Downtown.

Weather was dull, but no rain,  so the transfers were easy.  Anyway - Vancouver is a surprise: A tightly packed city of high rises.  We had the idea that it was a quiet small city - especially as its supposed to be one of the World’s most “livable” cities.  But our first impressions have been of a hustling conglomeration of high rise apartments - and the traffic is horrendous - one big traffic jam.

Anyway we have 2 nights in a quaint English style B&B in a city residential area - walkable to Downtown, English Bay and Stanley Park.  This little house has multi story appartments blocks on both sides.  I have a feeling its days are numbered.

After dinner we sauntered down to English Bay beach to be confronted by those laughing statues!  I think they might have been laughing at the beach actually - its a popular spot to watch the sunset, but we arrived there too late.  Then these geese ran up to us - the beach is so weird with row upon row of tree trunks people were sitting on, and all these geese running around, there were dozens of flocks amongst all the people - I’ve never seen anything like it before in my life!  On reflection its probably not an unusual sight, as loggers send timber downstream along rivers. We did see a bit of that on Vancouver Island. Maybe by the end of our trip we’ll consider this quite normal.

Canada is definitely all about trees - you must make sure you keep your gutters clear otherwise -  - - - -

A guy walking past commented “you do realise the roots run right down to the ground!”  

Colour overload

Here’s a surprise: Butchart Gardens - wow! 55 acres of flower gardens!  Manicured, weeded, dead headed to perfection.  Almost too good to be true. A feast for the eyes - colours, perfumes, garden displays taken to perfection. (we’re not gardeners, but this place mightily impressed us.  

This is about anhours drive outside of Victoria)

We have been so lucky with the weather - rain is forecast for tomorrow, so we relished the sun on the flowers, then returned to Victoria to take a quick squize at the touristy harbour area of the city as the clouds started to build.

We searched for a decent place to eat tonight, our first proper walk around this city, only to find a pub on every corner - literally!  Pity Alan’s off beer at the moment!

Fingers crossed for the weather tomorrow for our ferry crossing back to Vancouver.

Jet lag BE GONE!

At last, I feel like we’re coming to life again.  We arrived on Vancouver Island absolutely shattered after a long days travel that included a 5 hour night flight that we couldn’t sleep on at all, 2 bus trips and the ferry crossing.  But all is forgiven in Victoria, our first nights stop.  We actually staying in a hotel attached to a very English pub called The Sticky Wicket (as in cricket).  In fact the towns on the island are quite English in character so we feel very comfortable.

After decent food (brilliant compared to anything we had in Hawaii) and a good nights sleep we have hired a car for a couple of days.  We drove along one coast a fair way, almost all on dual carriageway, so very easy driving despite being on the wrong side of the road!

The scenery is all about sea views, harbours, with mountain and small island vistas.  We can even see snow capped mountains in the far distance.

We finished today with a stroll along Qualicum Beach (sooo beautiful as peaceful)  then back to Nanaimo for an evening snack at a pub on the harbour.  As you can imagine, the food is all about seafood, mostly local prawns, crabs, muscles and salmon.  And half the cost of the rubbish they were serving us in Hawaii!!  And tonight we’re staying at a nice English style B & B