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Old 13 Apr 20, 04:56 PM  
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Scruffette
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O Can-aska - Day 11 - Disembarkation, Travel to Vancouver Island, Victoria

O Can-aska - Day 11

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Monday 9th September 2019 - Disembarkation, Travel to Vancouver Island, Victoria

Disembarkation day

It’s always sad getting off the ship, but we were excited for the rest of our adventure.

We packed up our room and took our cases with us to breakfast to leave outside the restaurant. In previous trips, we’ve left our cases out the night before, not realising we could take them off ourselves.

Breakfast this morning was in Tiana’s Place at 8.30am. We were aiming for a quick breakfast, as we weren’t sure how long it would take to pick up the hire car later.



Our main server was rushed off his feet this morning, our Assistant Server, who was fairly new, was moving cabins this morning and had been delayed. He turned up half way during breakfast and was put to work straight away!

For breakfast, I had my usual sugar fest of For A Sweet Journey - Blueberry Pancakes and Belgium Waffles



Our server also brought me out a fruit bowl on the side – possibly a commentary on my breakfast choice!

Ollie started with some cereal and then went for the Almost Home - Corn Beef Hash, Fried Eggs, and Bacon Skillet topped with Fried Onions





We said goodbye to our servers and table mates - we had such a great time with them over the cruise.

We were heading out the restaurant by 9.15am and joined the line to get of the ship, which was fairly quick.

Vancouver looked a lot greyer and rainier than when we left last week –





Annoyingly, the Alamo desk in the parking garage was not in service, so we had to go to the desk inside the Pan Pacific Hotel. Finding the desk confused us a bit – we managed to get out of the lift on the wrong floor, and then got re-directed to the first desk again when we asked someone for help! It didn’t take that long in the grand scheme of things, but felt a lot longer with suitcases!

While sorting out our car, Ollie asked if there was one available with a reversing camera, which they accommodated. This worked out in our favour, as we got a bigger car then we were originally going to get.

Ollie was down as the named driver, but they said they could add me as well for free (although two drivers was more expensive online). Not that I had any intention of driving, but it seemed like a sensible idea. Ollie said this was a good idea – if a bear attacked him and he lost a leg, I could drive. I pointed out that as the car was automatic, he could drive perfectly fine without two legs. The guy behind the desk wasn’t sure what to make of our conversation! (Fortunately, Ollie didn’t lose any legs during the trip and I didn’t have to drive).

I was glad we had booked in advance, I overheard someone trying to get a car rental without having booked and it was several hundred dollars per day.

The only pictures I have of the car are the photos we take of all the slight scratches, in case the car hire company try to dispute anything when we give the car back.





We were driving away by around 10.15am – our ferry from Tsawwassen to Victoria Swartz Bay was at 1pm, and we aimed to arrive 30 minutes to 1 hour before as advised.

We hired a sat nav with our car hire, but it wasn’t showing our position correctly. This made for quite a stressful drive out of Vancouver and meant we had to be really alert to try and navigate.

After about an hour we arrived at the Walmart in Tsawwasen. Our plan was to pick up road trip snacks, as well as something for lunch. Every Walmart I’ve been in before has had grab and go lunch items, however we couldn’t find anything in this Walmart.



We did however manage to buy all the essentials – 12 cans of pepsi max for $4.47, 3 sharing size bags of crisps – bugles for $2, onion ring flavour pringles for $1.67 (which actually made it home with us) and the amazing parmesan and roasted garlic crisps for $2.97. Ollie got his obligatory sweeties – I could take him on holiday and only let him go to the sweetie aisle in Walmart for the whole trip, and he’d be happy (2 bags for $2 each and some fizzy peaches for $2.97)

I also got this trail mix for $4.38 – this was seriously good and I did manage to make it last until the end of the trip.



There was an A&W burger near Walmart, and being a Canadian staple (we saw them everywhere), felt like something we should try.

I had a Mama burger - A perfectly seasoned patty of 100% pure beef – raised without artificial hormones and steroids – topped with pickles, a slice of onion, ketchup, mustard and Teen® sauce, served on a freshly toasted sesame seed bun – and Ollie had a BLT chicken burger - Deliciously seasoned 100% chicken breast – from chickens raised without the use of antibiotics – battered and breaded to perfection with toasted wheat crumbs, wheat flour and spices, topped with mouth-watering bacon from pork raised without the use of antibiotics, crisp lettuce, tomato and mayo, served on a toasted 7-grain bun. We also split sweet potato fries and onions rings, totalling $22.27.

I forgot to take any pictures, as we ate the burgers in the car whilst waiting for the ferry. The ferry was pre-booked and we had to pay the balance on arrival at the terminal ($91.90 left to pay, plus $10.00 deposit, for a car and two passengers).



The process was quick and easy, we were directed onto one of the car decks, and once parked we headed up to one of the passenger decks.







The ferry crossing was about an hour and a half. 5 minutes into the journey I took a nap on Ollie’s shoulder and didn’t wake up until the end of the crossing. I think he was quite uncomfortable during the journey, but was too nice to move me! I was starting to think that those ‘less drowsy’ travel sickness meds I was taking were still a bit too drowsy…



Once off the ferry, the journey to our Bnb in Victoria was about 45 minutes, fortunately the sat nav was a bit happier on this journey.





We chose the bed and breakfast mainly for its location, which was convenient and walkable for the centre of Victoria. There was plenty of free on road parking, as well as limited off road parking available.

I must admit, I wasn’t too impressed with our room – it didn’t match the pictures online at all and looked not very well maintained. It was only 2 nights, and we weren’t planning on too much time in the room anyway.

Some room photos –











Annoyingly, I didn’t find the hairdryer in the bathroom until we were checking out.

After a quick pit stop and freshen up, we were soon heading out around 4.40pm.

It was a lovely walk into Victoria, passed both the Parliament building and the Fairmont Empress.





Lovely views across the harbour –













Just in case we forgot where we were…



Our first stop was the BC Whale Tour information booth. We had whale watching booked tomorrow, and wanted to confirm the check in procedure. Our booking documents advised arriving an hour early for the tour, but the desk confirmed that around 40 minutes early would be fine. I did notice on the sign that they hadn’t seen any orcas that day, for the first time in weeks.

We did spot this adorable duck ramp nearby –







The next stop was food (obviously)! Our plan was to visit La Taqueria, and even better, we had made the end of happy hour.

Oddly for us, we both stuck with water instead of an alcoholic drink.

We started with guac and chips ($5, usually $8) which was really fresh.



We than ordered two tacos to share – Cabo – Three battered jumbo prawns, cabbage romaine mix salsa, fresca chipotle mayo, cilantro ($6, usually $8). Look at the size of those prawns! I made a complete mess eating this, but it was amazing.



Fish Baja – Battered wild seasonal fish, cabbage romaine mix, salsa fresca, chipotle mayo, cilantro ($5, usually $6.50) – Again, really big pieces of fish.



We also shared a Tinga de pollo burrito ($13.75) – chipotle chorizo chicken stew, beans, sour cream, mozarella, salsa fresca, corn chip julienne – which was really well packed.



Overall, a really enjoyable and reasonably priced meal.

I declined the lure of churros, as we had a couple of dessert spots on our list.
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Old 13 Apr 20, 04:58 PM  
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The first was Chocolats Favoris, which became a real favourite of ours (we actually visited three times in two days).







This is a Canadian chain selling various chocolate items. Their signature product is ice cream coated in chocolate. There are lots of different chocolate flavours to choose from, and you can have your ice cream topped with various treats.



We chose a medium ice cream (the largest size they do) dipped in the salted caramel chocolate coating. We then payed extra to go ‘kooky’ (ie have the extra toppings added) of maple syrup and caramel popcorn, chopped pretzels, caramel coulis and crunchy caramel crumbles.





An absolute pain to eat (and share), but this was seriously delicious. In fact, we regularly still talk about this ice cream. We have a trip booked to Canada later in the year (which hopefully will still go ahead), and may have chosen our Montreal accommodation based on its proximity to a Chocolats Favoris shop. This gem was $8.59 including tax, and worth every penny.

Although we’d been seriously spoilt in the dessert game tonight, we did have another dessert spot on our list to try (our plan was to share one dessert from each place).

Next was Beaver Tails, another Canadian staple. A beaver tail is basically a fried dough, and we chose the brWOWnie flavour ($7.35) – chocolate hazelnut spread, brownie and white chocolate chunks.





Whilst we really enjoyed this, following the Chocolats Favoris cone was always going to be a challenge for the Beaver Tail, which took second place.

After a second dessert (a week of cruising had really paid off!) we were ready to head back to the b and b for the evening.









The Parliament building looked really pretty lit up at night –







We had a lovely relaxed stroll back and our first impressions of Victoria were really positive.

Day 12 - Victoria

Edited at 08:04 PM.
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Old 21 Apr 20, 12:06 AM  
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Loved reading about Victoria - a wonderful place and The Empress is on that list of 'must stays' in our future.
Excited to read about a place we last visited 13 years ago and your pictures are testament to a place that is well worth the effort to get to

Edited to add - I've just gone back and read from the start What a great trip and looking forward to more too
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Edited at 01:04 AM.
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Old 21 Apr 20, 12:26 AM  
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Beautiful pictures! Victoria looks wonderful. Fingers very, very crossed that we get to do our trip there in September. Looking forward to reading the rest of your days!
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Old 28 Apr 20, 07:38 PM  
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Originally Posted by walt4it View Post
Loved reading about Victoria - a wonderful place and The Empress is on that list of 'must stays' in our future.
Excited to read about a place we last visited 13 years ago and your pictures are testament to a place that is well worth the effort to get to

Edited to add - I've just gone back and read from the start What a great trip and looking forward to more too
A stay at the Empress would be amazing - I hope you get there soon. More of Victoria coming soon! Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by anji View Post
Beautiful pictures! Victoria looks wonderful. Fingers very, very crossed that we get to do our trip there in September. Looking forward to reading the rest of your days!
My fingers are crossed for you. If not, I hope you'll be able to re-book for sometime soon - this part of Canada is beautiful. Thanks for reading
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