Juneau

I am in Juneau for less than 24 hours, having arrived at 1pm. They have reopened their museum yesterday, so it is half price this week! It is quite good, but I had lots of problems with the lighting shining onto cabinets, so few of the photos were any good.

There is another museum on the history of Juneau and Douglas (the island connected by a bridge), and I went to the Sealaska Heritage Centre, which had just finished putting an exhibition together, so it had free entry today. Their exhibition is of work done in the last two years, and it was very good.

Unfortunately, there is an enormous festival starting tomorrow when I won't be here. They will have 50 First Nations dance teams...

There are four cruise ships in port, and the streets very close to the ships were full of people.

 

Up on a hill (Juneau is Very up and down) is the oldest Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska.

Leaving Victoria

I didn't think I would write this post, as yesterday was just going to Seattle, but I have a few pictures.

As promised, here is a photo of the Canadian answer to an Eskimo Pie.

In 1966, totem pole artists were asked to create totem poles for the highway from Victoria to Port Hardy. This was fantastic, as the work was done by the last generation of carvers who had learnt in the traditional manner. They were asked to create a bear, and whatever else they wanted on their pole. I saw the Duncan pole on the highway.

And this before leaving Victoria, I saw a similar pole in Victoria, which I think is the Victoria pole. They were all valued by their communities, and refurbished a few years ago.

On the way to and from the Butchart Gardens, we saw Mount Baker, and we also saw it on the ferry.

Grounds

I visited the Bulchart Gardens, Craigdarroch Castle and Government House. Because the castle closes at 4:30pm rather than 5pm, I only saw the grounds. The gardens of Government House are open to the public between sunrise and sunset. So I saw three sets of grounds.

The Bulchart gardens were somewhat marred by the sheer number of people in them. However, there was a lot in bloom, including the rose garden.

The Italian garden

The Japanese garden didn't have much in bloom

And neither did the sunken garden.

I even found some totem poles.

The castle didn't really have much in the way of garden.

But Government House made up for it. I liked its rose garden.

On the way we passed the town hall. The clocks were ordered from England, but were sent to Australia rather than Canada, so were installed a while later.

Second location in Victoria

Yesterday I changed to a B and B. As I said, I accidentally booked the wrong hotel initially, so when I extended my stay here, I decided to go somewhere else. I didn't have much choice because I had left it late (I was deciding whether to stay). It is called Trutch Manor, and, apart from being a much longer walk to the Clipper to Seattle, it has everything I originally wanted. The area is full of grand Edwardian houses (it is between the legislative building and government house), most of which appear to have been changed to appartments. The owner has collected an enormous amount of period stuff, generously distributed it into the suites. The dining room is opulent, and I had my orange juice in that crystal glassware with pink colouring. My suite is meant for one, but it includes a full kitchen, as well as the areas in the pictures.

I returned the car this morning, as I was too tired to do any driving today, and I got lost on the way, so I returned it late. However, they didn't charge me for an extra day. The place was very busy, and one woman had money problems, so she couldn't use her credit card. The person at the desk rang the other car hire companies and found one that would accept her, then drove her to the other car hire place. I was amazed, but Canadians are genuinely nice people. 

Most of the people were hiring a car to go to the Bluchart gardens, when you can get a bus there, or go with the tour bus. Either is cheaper than hiring a car, and probably quicker (especially given the length of the queue). I guess I will have to go there tomorrow as it will be my last full day in Victoria. Both busses leave on the hour from just about the same place, but the public bus starts at 11am on Sunday while the tour bus starts at 9am every day, so I guess it depends when I get there which one I take. I also should see the castle and government house, since they are so close.

I didn't get to Tofino

I hired a car, and planned to go to Tofino, but by the time I reached Nanaimo, I decided it would take too long to get there. In a fit of idiocy I decided to do the loop drive which includes Port Renfrew. However, the drive meant that it was twice as far back to Victoria, and it is full of slow roads made even slower by silly people in RVs or with large boats trying to negotiate a road full of one lane bridges (I only had to reverse once), and often getting very narrow - to one lane at times (even around hairpin bends). However, it was very scenic even if it was virtually impossible to take photos.

Why did I take so long on the major highway? There is a town called Duncan, and it decided to make totem poles a tourist attraction, so it got a lot of authentic totem pole makers to make poles and to tell the story of the pole. Each pole has a placard with its story attached. It is very well done. They put the poles all over town, and there are yellow footprints on the pavement to show you where to go. The fact that you visit just about every shop in Duncan in the process of the walk probably adds to the enthusiasm of the citizens for totem poles.

There is even one carved by a visiting Maori!

These are scenery from the main highway.

Just Walking Around

On my way into the city, I found a Japanese garden at one of the other hotels.

The other day I took this picture of the front of the legislative assembly.

Today I took a tour of it. This is the window which was British Columbia's present to Queen Victoria on her diamond jubilee.

And this was for Queen Elizabeth on her golden jubilee.

They kept the presents - ours always seem to end up in Britian. This is the chamber.

And the dome

Too Many Photos

Maybe I did too much today, but I seem to have selected an enormous number of photos.

I wandered up to Chinatown, which is the oldest in Canada. Their sister city gave them a pair of lions. I think Melbourne's sister city also gave them a pair of lions. Maybe there is a factory in China that manufactures lions for every sister city.

Then I went to the Royal BC Museum. Never go to a museum when they open a major exhibit the following day. The museum is absolutely amazing. For the European human exhibit they had  what looked like a town street, with double story buildings that actually had an upstairs, a fully working gold sluicing operation complete with waterwheel, and most of a ship, that you could go into.

Their First Nations exhibit was really good too. I kept on going around in circles and it was very difficult to find the exits (I think I found one that isn't surposed to be an exit). 

Then I visited the gorge in a pickle boat.

I saw a statue of Captain Cook that could have been a duplicate of the one in Anchorage. I still don't think it looks like him.

And there are two miscellaneous photos.