Victoria

After being able to maneuver our car onto the ferry to Vancouver Island after a 4-hour wait, we spent two hours on the ship and finally had a 1.5-hour drive to our hotel in Victoria ahead of us. Once we arrived, we sat down for dinner at the hotel's own restaurant, where we were treated to the live music that was advertised outside. The rock band was admittedly not bad, but for our taste, way too loud... We found it amusing that all band members looked over 60 and that we probably significantly lowered the average age of the (enthusiastic and dancing) audience.

The next day, we set out to explore Victoria. By early afternoon, we had walked down pretty much every street in the city center and visited the sights. Since we still had time, we spontaneously booked a whale-watching tour for the later afternoon (better one too many than one too few!). During the tour, we were able to accompany a group of orcas for a while and also saw some humpback whales. Remarkable fact: one of the humpback whales jumped out of the water and briefly lay horizontally in the air before splashing back into the sea. Incredible! Unfortunately too fast to capture it in a picture, but the main thing is, we saw it!