Victoria, British Columbia

The Royal BC Museum in Victoria is a wonderful place to visit, especially with children. Currently, one of three worldwide traveling exhibitions named TITANIC the Artifact Exhibition is being presented. This was well worth the visit - extremely moving but educational. On entering you are handed a Boarding Pass, mine is shown below, with the name and details of a passenger (hopefully this photo will enlarge for you - is there anyone out there who knows why some do and others don't?). I was actually another Mary - Mary Davis from London, traveling alone to visit a sister in NY. At the end of the exhibition the passenger lists are displayed on a wall and one is able to see if the person on your Boarding Pass survived the tragic event. Mary Davis did, as did my Granddaughter's person, however the Swedish gentleman who's pass my husband held did not! Of course the victims' list was mostly men as they had to relegate the lifeboats to the women and children. There are amazing actual relics from the Titanic in this exhibit along with photographs and depictions of the terrible accident that occured on that night to remember.

A visit to Craigdarroch Castle was interesting - those of us with small cottage style homes would be totally lost in a home like that! Afternoon tea at the Empress Hotel is now so overpriced, we had to pass. Instead we returned to this cute cottage tea room nearby.
In the evening we took Beach Road out of the city enjoying the fresh air and the view across Oak Bay toward the San Juan Islands and the mainland.

.........................next time - Victoria's colorful Chinatown and Bubble Tea!!