01/07/2024
Our last stop was a short one in Victoria, British Columbia. What a beautiful city! I would definitely go there to stay for a longer visit. We saw the Parliament building, The Fairmont and my favorite was a magical little place called The Fishers Wharf. It is little floating house in a marina.
We also saw tons of whales going into Victoria. It would be a great place for whale watching.
Some fun facts….
1. Victoria lies on the southern tip of Vancouver Island while the city of Vancouver is located 76 miles northeast on the mainland. Traveling between the two cities takes about 4 hours via a combination of a car or bus ride combined with a ferry ride.
2. The city of Victoria is home to about 86,000 residents, while the Greater Victoria metropolitan area of has a population of 383,360.
3. Named for Queen Victoria, the city began as a Hudson’s Bay trading post in 1843. Victoria became a British crown colony in 1849, but remained a small town of less than 300 people until 1858, when news of the gold discovery in British Columbia reached San Francisco. Within days, Victoria became the supply base and port for miners on their way to the Fraser Canyon gold fields, and the city’s population quickly exploded to more than 5,000 people.
4.In 1908 the Canadian Pacific Railway built the iconic 477-room Fairmont Empress Hotel on Victoria’s Inner Harbor. Queen Elizabeth II is just one of famous guests who have stayed at the Fairmont Empress Hotel. Even if you don’t stay overnight, you can enjoy afternoon tea like a royal. The hotel serves more half a million cups of tea each year
5.Also near Victoria’s picturesque Inner Harbor you will find the Royal BC Museum (founded in 1886) as well as the British Columbia Parliament Buildings.
Daytime visitors to the Parliament Buildings can join a regularly-scheduled guided tour or take a self-guided tour. Once the sun sets, 3,560 lights illuminate the Parliament Buildings.
6. Although it’s located on an island, Victoria is the western terminus of the Trans-Canada Highway. The “Mile 0” marker stands at the intersection of Douglas Street and Dallas Road in Victoria. The Trans-Canada Highway runs northward for 62 miles on the east coast of Vancouver Island to Nanaimo, where traffic has to catch the Departure Bay ferry to Vancouver.
7. Victoria’s climate – the mildest in Canada — offers nearly perfect growing conditions for the city’s 55 acres of gardens.
8. Starting in 1904, Jennie Butchart envisioned a grandiose garden in place of a former quarry for her backyard. Today, more than a million people visit the famed Butchart Gardens located 25 minutes from downtown Victoria.
9. Victoria is a major tourism destination with over 3.5 million overnight visitors each year. Another 500,000 visitors arrive via via cruise ships which dock at Ogden Point near the city’s Inner Harbor.