We finished our cruise from Seward down the coast and through the inside passage to Vancouver. However, our itinerary after the cruise still included two full days in Vancouver, two days of travel by rail across the Canadian Rockies, and a day in the Banff area, so stay tuned for future blog posts! For our time in Vancouver, Viking surprised us with a full day excursion to see Butchart Gardens and Old Victoria. The gardens were one of the best highlights of our trip, and here are some photos:
Butchart Gardens is privately owned and operated, or we think it would become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We have been blessed to visit Shaw’s Garden in St. Louis; Filoli Gardens in California; botanical gardens in Hawaii and other states; and royal gardens at palaces in Vienna, St. Petersburg, and other parts of Europe, but Butchart Gardens in Victoria would give any of them a run for the roses (pardon the pun). It was that good!The story goes that a man made his fortune mining limestone to make cement back East somewhere, and decided to sell out, retire, and move to Victoria. Once settled in Victoria, he was restless and decided to once again mine limestone to make cement. His wife took him to task for leaving a big, ugly hole in the ground, so he said that she should take it over and see what she could do to give it a better look. She had money and ideas, and the result was Butchart Gardens. This photo shows part of their Sunken Garden, in what used to be a limestone quarry. I think she did pretty well!A different angle on the Sunken Garden. Note the people on the path for scale.Yet another view of the sunken garden. Dorcas was in a wheelchair because of her knee, and I pushed her all over this place for at least two hours, up hill and down dale. Plenty to see, and we had a great time!Closeup of Royal Lily plants. My only quibble with this garden was that none of the plants were labeled. I used the “Identify This” app on my iPhone to find out what they were. The app uses a photo of the plant to do the ID process, tells you if the plant appears healthy, and suggests what to do about it if the plant is not doing well. I am pleased to report that all of the plants we identified in Butchart Gardens were in fine shape. No surprise.This is a Showy Lily, also known as a Japanese Lily. Guess lilies caught my eye…A different part of the Sunken Garden, with dahlias in the foreground.Flower basket hanging near the entrance/exit. Butchart Gardens included a rose garden, Japanese garden, and other gardens, but the Sunken Garden was the most spectacular, so it turned up the most in my photos. Needless to say, there were plenty of colors everywhere we looked. We had only 2-3 hours there, but could have easily spent all day.Near the waterfront in Old Victoria. Think that is the Hotel Grand Pacific in the background. The weather was back to its sunny best behavior, and it was a good day to see flower gardens, sight-see, and people-watch, so we did all three.Here is the ferry that took us back to Vancouver. It was getting late by the time we left Victoria, so we grabbed a light supper in the cafeteria on the upper deck. A good day, and not to be missed.
