Day 6

Back to hopping on and off today, that is once the bus managed to get back on route after detours because of accidents in 3 different places. It was obviously a busy day for the emergency services as when we were on our way back home we passed another where a small truck had demolished a light pole!

First hop off was at the Art Gallery where we got to see the development as an artist of Emily Carr (1871 - 1945) who was born in Victoria and of whom they are obviously very proud as we keep hearing her mentioned. She is known for her interest in the first nation and her painting of Aboriginal totems and themes as well as for her later paintings of forest scenes. We also got to view works of art from private collections - obviously very wealthy people who wanted the public to see what they owned!

Hopped on to hop off at Oak Bay Marino for short walk, coffee and wild life (rather tame actually because of the number of people who feed fish to the grey seals and sea otters.

Well fed seal!
   

My heart was in my mouth as the little girl was leaning forward so much to feed the seals and otter. I was sure she was going to fall in. Her parents were not in the slightest bit worried!        Jim was equally unaware that he was also in danger of getting caught in a fish weighing hook that was just in line with his head as he was taking the photos.

On we hopped again to hop off at Miniature World. En route we passed a statue of Terry Fox the young Canadian whose battle with bone cancer prompted him to run across Canada despite having had one leg amputated. He was forced to abort his trip when he learned that the cancer had spread to his lungs. The Terry Fox Foundation has raised hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research and treatment.

Terry Fox Memorial.

I was initially disappointed in Miniature World as I had anticipated playing at being Gulliver in the land of Lilliput and wandering through tiny cities and towns but the exhibits were all behind glass. However, it was amazing. The detail was phenomenal and we even saw Gulliver in Lilliput!

Well and truly tied down and clambered over!

Some of the models were very pretty. There were quite a few houses with everything in them, even the chamber pot under the beds! They had quite a few depictions of scenes from the novels of Charles Dickens and also lots of Nursery Rhymes.

The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe was busy trying to get all her children to bed!

That was the end of the hopping on and off. We lunched in Chinatown which is the oldest in Canada and second oldest in America. We admired the ice-cream in Oh Gelato but refrained from sampling! And we browsed the native Indian shops.

 Oh Gelato!

Jim has decided that Canada is cap country not hat country but has not invested yet in either.

Tomorrow evening we are going to Beethoven's 9th Symphony in the Royal Theatre. We plan to spend the day preparing for our Rockies trip which we start by taking the ferry from Sidney to Vancouver early on Sunday morning. I'm not sure how easy it will be to continue blogging while we're travelling but if the motels have WIFI I should manage unless I am too tired from fending off arguments between Jim and your one on the sat nav!