Ready for the island

After a restorative night, the next morning it was time to pack up and get ready to leave. A little butter and a fresh cup of coffee from the hosts meant it was time to set sail at 10 o'clock and our 'cruise' from Vancouver to Vancouver Island with the 'we didn't remember the name' could begin.

A cold wind and cloudy skies didn't make the journey feel like a summer outing. But it brought us much closer to the mountains and forests of Canada. The journey reminded us a little of the Hurtigruten, although the valleys were not as deep as those in Norway.

After about an hour and a half, we reached our destination, Victoria. At least the associated port of Swartz Bay. The city itself is about 20 km away. By the way, Vancouver, with about three million inhabitants, is not the capital of the province of British Columbia, but the much smaller city of Victoria, with about 80,000 inhabitants.

Here, the strong connection to England is quite evident. All the houses are built in the Victorian style, and there are plenty of gardens in the area that are worth visiting. Since we had hidden our green thumbs and were already overwhelmed by our balcony garden at home, these gardens were not on our priority list.

After visiting the parliament building, which is illuminated with fairy lights in the twilight - no, it's not just during Christmas but all year round - we went to the harbor and the Fishermans Wharf. Passing countless private residences, one quickly got the impression that this was the equivalent of Bonn-Bad Godesberg. The houses and grounds were all very well maintained, and the houses were built with high-quality materials, with lots of glass and probably the most expensive square meter rents west of the Mississippi... (does that work? - don't think about it too much, it's a common saying among travelers).

There wasn't much to see at the Fishermans Wharf (or is it at the Fishermans Wharf?). But there was a lot to eat... However, there were really beautiful little houseboats, where one could imagine staying for a few days... But what surprised us the most was that there were only two or three gift shops at all the tourist spots. And in those few shops, there were no decent magnets for our pin board in our hometown of Cologne... So we were driven further into the city to finally get a nice magnet. Victoria - you got lucky...

The path then led to Chinatown. And here again: who would have thought that Chinatown in Victoria is the oldest Chinatown in all of Canada?

Speaking of China and the Chinese people (Attention: this is not meant to be racist!): you can never have enough of them on holiday trips. The Ling-Lings are always everywhere. If you go somewhere and there are no Ling-Lings, then it's not a worthwhile place to visit, so you must have done something wrong... The more Ling-Lings, the more attractive the place, that's the ultimate measure...

But during this vacation, we were also amazed by the large number of Bollywood fans traveling here. This mixture of Ling-Lings with the Koothrappalis of the world was the discovery of the year...

After leaving the city center of Victoria, the road led to the 'Mile 0' of the Trans-Canadian Highway, the starting point of this road - similar to Route 66 - which leads from here all the way to Newfoundland. This route measures about 8000 km...

The hope of seeing the snow-covered Olympic Mountains on the American mainland from the nearby beach was unfortunately not fulfilled for the visitors. Although it was not realistic, it was the 'Southern Most Point of Canada' for our globetrotters...

After the time spent living in Vancouver, we now had a spacious room with a private bathroom. You wouldn't believe how important that can be... The Prior Castle Inn Hotel was a real gem... in the English style... but every detail was tastefully selected and incorporated. We could have felt comfortable here for a few more days, but the travel plans had other things in mind...