{"id":23342,"date":"2010-04-13T21:26:57","date_gmt":"2010-04-14T04:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/travelswithmiranda.uskeba.ca\/?p=5880"},"modified":"2016-09-14T20:28:16","modified_gmt":"2016-09-14T17:28:16","slug":"first-impressions-of-victoria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/first-impressions-of-victoria\/","title":{"rendered":"First Impressions of Victoria"},"content":{"rendered":"

Victoria has thus far presented herself as the graceful fair lady I expected her to be.<\/p>\n

Of all the major Canadian cities, only Victoria ever stood out as a possible forever home city for me, if only for its climate. I have wanted to walk her streets for a long, long time. I have now visited the capital city of all the provinces and territories I have visited and only have Yellowknife, St. John’s, and Iqaluit left.<\/p>\n

Mrs. H and I pulled into town mid-afternoon and she directed me to her favourite hotel, a Traveler’s Inn located in a convenient location. I quickly left her to take a nap while I set off on foot to scope out downtown, about fifteen minutes away.<\/p>\n

I was surprised by how many people were out and about and I found the crushing crowds a bit shocking. I haven’t been surrounded by so many people since the last time I was in downtown Vancouver, almost a year ago! It was exhilarating, with all these different types of people from all social classes hurrying about and the most amazing smells spilling out of the restaurants. I was a tad overwhelmed, but it was pleasant because Victoria isn’t that big. I wouldn’t have done so well in a truly populous metropolis!<\/p>\n

I bought an ice cream cone and enjoyed it as I scoped out the major landmarks I hope to visit in the next few days. I will be doing a lot of exploring on my own, but Mrs. H will also be showing me ‘her’ Victoria.<\/p>\n

Some parts of downtown felt very old, like what I imagine streets in the 17th and 18th century might have been like. Other parts felt very modern. The city has a nice skyline where the diverse architectural styles complement each other. I look forward to exploring!<\/p>\n

\"a<\/a>

a palm tree outside our hotel \ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/div>\n

\"This<\/a>

This brewery has tours; so this picture is a note to myself to try to book one. \ud83d\ude42<\/p><\/div>\n

\"entrance<\/a>

entrance to Chinatown<\/p><\/div>\n

\"I<\/a>

I love the expression on this lion’s face<\/p><\/div>\n

\"a<\/a>

a street in Chinatown<\/p><\/div>\n

\"dragon<\/a>

dragon statue in Chinatown<\/p><\/div>\n

\"a<\/a>

a street near downtown Victoria<\/p><\/div>\n

\"a<\/a>

a street near downtown Victoria<\/p><\/div>\n

\"downtown<\/a>

downtown Victoria<\/p><\/div>\n

\"downtown<\/a>

downtown Victoria<\/p><\/div>\n

\"downtown<\/a>

downtown Victoria<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Empress<\/a>

Empress Hotel<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Empress<\/a>

Empress Hotel<\/p><\/div>\n

\"downtown<\/a>

downtown Victoria<\/p><\/div>\n

\"visitors'<\/a>

visitors’ centre<\/p><\/div>\n

\"downtown<\/a>

downtown Victoria<\/p><\/div>\n

\"downtown<\/a>

downtown Victoria<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Empress<\/a>

Empress Hotel<\/p><\/div>\n

\"plaque<\/a>

plaque about the James Cook statue<\/p><\/div>\n

\"statue<\/a>

statue of James Cook<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Netherlands<\/a>

Netherlands carillon<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Netherlands<\/a>

Netherlands carillon<\/p><\/div>\n

\"the<\/a>

the carillon ringer has to climb this staircase and then climb a ladder to ring the bells<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Royal<\/a>

Royal BC Museum<\/p><\/div>\n

\"dinosaur<\/a>

dinosaur footprints (moved from the Peace River Valley)<\/p><\/div>\n

\"CIMG0072\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Thunderbird<\/a>

Thunderbird Park<\/p><\/div>\n

\"all<\/a>

all the electrical boxes in town are covered in pictures to prevent grafitti<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Thunderbird<\/a>

Thunderbird Park<\/p><\/div>\n

\"behind<\/a>

behind the Empress Hotel<\/p><\/div>\n

\"cool<\/a>

cool bike rack<\/p><\/div>\n

\"this<\/a>

this condo complex is called The Waterfall<\/p><\/div>\n

\"another<\/a>

another electrical box<\/p><\/div>\n

\"cherry<\/a>

cherry tree<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Victoria has thus far presented herself as the graceful fair lady I expected her to be. Of all the major Canadian cities, only Victoria ever stood out as a possible forever home city for me, if only for its climate. I have wanted to walk her streets for a long, long time. I have now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1442,632,635,5,3,1416],"tags":[853,790,796,800,707],"class_list":["post-23342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britishcolumbia","category-canada","category-north-america","category-rving","category-travel","category-victoria-vancouver-island-bc-canada-travel","tag-accommodation","tag-breweriesdistilleries","tag-city-tours","tag-natural-history-museums","tag-statuesmonuments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23342\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.raecrothers.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}