…the Inner Harbour

The Inner Harbour really is tourist central in downtown Victoria. Framed by the Legislature, the Empress, Wharf Street and the open water, everyone walks around the Inner Harbour to get from one attraction to the next. And it is, of course, an attraction in itself. You can read an extensive history of the Harbour at Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Harbour_%28British_Columbia%29).

There are two ways to walk around the Inner Harbour: up top along the roads, and down along the water on a walkway (or causeway, whatever…) that also allows access to the many boats docked in the harbour. This time of year, there are few, if any, buskers and artisans along the walkway down along the water, but during the “Season”, you will find any number of musicians, food stands, living statues, artists, and others selling their talents along the walkway. My understanding is that anyone who works on the Inner Harbour walkway has to apply and audition for their spots. There is also a wall, the one along the Legislature side, which is reserved for indigenous artists.

You can catch a water taxi from the Inner Harbour. They make stops around the Harbour, and also run tour of the Harbour. You can catch a ferry to Seattle or Port Angeles on the Coho (you have to take the Coho if you are taking a car) or the Clipper. You can also catch float planes to downtown Vancouver, or just for a tour of the Victoria area. Just so you know, the Inner Harbour airport is supposedly one of the busiest in Canada. And you can also catch a zodiac to go whale watching.

Here are a few pics of the Inner Harbour from the last couple of days. No real crowds yet, but I’ve included a couple from past events just so you can see…

A walk around the Inner Harbour

Starting up at Milestones at Wharf Street

Walking across the top along Government Street

Looking down at the harbour ferry dock

The Captain Cook statue

Plaques abound behind the statue

Now walking along the walkway from the middle across to Belleville (and the Legislature)

Looking back towards Milestones where I started

The Historical display in the centre

Continuing my walk around

The totem pole back up the stairs

Canada Day celebrations

Interesting Websites

• Victoria’s Harbour at the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority: http://www.victoriaharbour.org/victoriasharbour.php
• Victoria Harbour at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Harbour_%28British_Columbia%29
• Victoria Inner Harbour at Explore Vancouver Island: http://www.explorevancouverisland.com/victoria_inner_harbour_vancouver_island_bc.htm

…Government Street

Government Street is another main street in Victoria that runs from Dallas Road (see “D is for…Dallas Road”) to Hillside here it merges with Douglas (Douglas is, essentially, the Trans Canada Highway and runs up island through some very beautiful countryside and various cities/communities). As far as I can tell, Government Street has been around since the very early days of Victoria, and you can still see many of the original buildings proudly preserved as a part of Victoria’s heritage.

Some interesting notes about Government Street in James Bay and downtown Victoria

• Government Street in James Bay used to be Carr Street (see my E is for Emily Carr House post) and Birdcage Walk (I’ll talk more about the “birdcages” in my post on the Legislature).
• Lined with local, touristy, and national chain shops (as well as a mall), Government Street is tourist-central during the “Season”.  Really.  Wall to wall people wandering all summer long.
• Related to the point above, there has been talk recently about making part of Government Street a pedestrian mall. Since people (meaning tourists) walk down it and across it without looking to see if any cars are actually driving on the street on a fairly regular basis, this would seem to make sense.
• Government Street is where the annual Santa Clause parade takes place. It is also shut down (or parts of it anyway) for various celebrations during the year, such as Canada Day (http://victoriacanadaday.ca/) and Victoria Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria_Day) , as well as for the TC 10K (http://www.tc10k.ca/) run and the GoodLife Fitness Victoria Marathon (http://www.runvictoriamarathon.com/) . Don’t come on those days if you don’t like crowds!

Many of the landmarks I will be (and have already been) featuring for this Challenge are on Government Street. Like, the Emily Carr House (https://www.emilycarr.com/) , the Royal BC Museum (http://royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/) , the BC Legislature (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Columbia_Parliament_Buildings) , the Empress Hotel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Empress_%28hotel%29) , and the Inner Harbour (http://www.victoriaharbour.org/victoriasharbour.php).

Well, that’s it for my post for today. I did not walk the length of Government Street to take pictures, but I am sure Google can take you on a tour!

Some Pics

The end of Government Street at Dallas Road

Enjoy a carriage ride along Government Street…if you dare!

Interesting Websites

• Government Street at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Street_%28Victoria,_British_Columbia%29
• Government Street Shopping: http://www.victoriabc.ca/victoria/government_street.htm
• Heritage Buildings on Government Street: http://victoriahistory.ca/property.php?fun=search&sname=Government%20Street&order=Street&page=0&limit=50
• Government Street at the Chinatown Library: http://chinatown.library.uvic.ca/government_street

…Fan Tan Alley

Fan Tan Alley is one of the landmarks in an area of downtown Victoria known as Chinatown. Chinatown in Victoria is the oldest Chinatown in Canada, and apparently second oldest only to the one in San Francisco. I would have to say it looks like it is probably also the smallest, being really only one block of Fisgard Street (it used to be a lot larger back in the day), although you could argue for it being a bit bigger given that some of its landmarks are on different blocks. You can read more about Chinatown in Victoria at the websites listed below. My personal note is that I am amazed at how many restaurants, little groceries, and shops are crammed into this small space. And it is the place we always turn to for delicious BBQ duck!

Now, on to Fan Tan Alley. Fan Tan Alley lies between Fisgard (the Chinatown block) and Pandora in downtown Victoria and it is, as its name would suggest, an alley. But what a cool alley! Very narrow as you might expect an alley to be (3 feet across at its narrowest – hardly room for two people to walk side by side it seems), with brick walls and shop doors and windows welcoming you in from either side of the alley.

The name Fan Tan Alley, according to the Chinatown Library,

…is named after a gambling game that reached the height of its popularity in this location in the early 1940s. The game is named after its component parts: “Fan” being to turn over, and “Tan” meaning to spread out. The dealer takes a handful of buttons or beads and covers them with a brass cup. The players bet on how many buttons will be left after the dealer has removed all multiples of four. Once the bets are made, the dealer turns over the cup and spreads out the buttons to count them. (http://chinatown.library.uvic.ca/fan_tan_alley)

It came into existence (can you say an alley was “built”?) between 1885 and 1920 and “was a popular location for opium factories”. While today it is home to an eclectic mix of shops, such as Triple Spiral Metaphysical Gifts, Hearts Content (http://www.heartscontentvictoria.ca/) – Kevin loves going into this store – and Devil May Wear (http://devilmaywear.ca – locally made, eco-friendly clothing).

You can read all about Fan Tan Alley’s history at the Chinatown Library, so I won’t repeat everything here. One thing I will note about Fan Tan Alley is its spot on the Ghostly Walks tours (http://discoverthepast.com/ghostly-walks/).

Suffice it to say, if you’re ever in Victoria, make sure to check it out…maybe on one of those Ghostly Walks!

Some pictures of Chinatown

Don Mee’s – famous for it Dim Sum (but not the best in Victoria in our opinion)

And now on to Fan Tan Alley.  From Fisgard…

Looking out onto Fisgard…

Past some of the shops

Looking out to Pandora…

And out on Pandora.  Journey through the darkness completed.

Interesting Websites

• Chinatown Library, Fan Tan Alley: http://chinatown.library.uvic.ca/fan_tan_alley
• Fan Tan Alley at Wikipedia:   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fan_Tan_Alley
• Finding History in Fan Tan Alley: http://blogs.theprovince.com/2012/01/14/finding-history-in-fan-tan-alley/
• Victoria’s Chinatown: http://www.travelingtales.com/deefholts/chinatown/index.html
• Victoria’s Chinatown at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinatown,_Victoria
• Haunted Victoria Ghost Tours: http://www.where.ca/british-columbia/victoria/haunted-victoria-ghost-tours/
• YouTube video of Fan Tan Alley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPDG7txVnCY

Part of the April A to Z Challenge.

…The Empress Hotel

I thought I would post a reminder of my theme for this A to Z Challenge, now that we’ve had our first Sunday hiatus. I am posting about landmarks around my ‘hood – landmarks close to downtown Victoria, BC and James Bay (the neighbourhood me, my hubby, and our 4 kitties live in). So far A has been for (St.) Ann’s Academy, B has been for Beacon Hill Park, C has been for the (Emily) Carr House, and D has been for Dallas Road. Today, E is for the Empress Hotel.

Now, the Empress Hotel is one of the larger landmarks in downtown Victoria, across from the Inner Harbour on one side, the Royal BC Museum on another side, and kitty-corner from the BC Legislature building (all three of which will have their own posts in due time, when the appropriate letters arrive).

The Empress was built between 1904 and 1908 as a CPR (Canadian Pacific Railway) Hotel (there are many CPR Hotels across Canada – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Pacific_Hotels ). You can read all about its history on the Empress’ Wikipedia site, but I’ll include a couple of notes of particular interest (at least to me) here.

The Empress is known for its afternoon tea service. It is kind of fun to do, but ridiculously expensive. The view is nice, though! It has a Christmas Tree festival every year – we’ve been twice, and I’ve included a couple of photos from a few Christmas’s back below. It also has beehives, which is something I didn’t know until I was walking around taking pictures the other day. Very cool!

The Empress was extensively renovated in the 1980s, and the old front entrance is now no longer used. Weird, but true. In 1999 it became The Fairmont Empress. And just last year it was sold again. And apparently more renovations are being planned.

Some sadness we have about the Empress just recently. It was sold, as I noted, last year (not in itself sad), and just the other day, the new owners (I am assuming it was their decision) took out the two iconic weeping sequoia trees framing the front sidewalk of the hotel. They also took out a diseased arbutus (see pictures below), which I understand, but the other two trees were quite stunning, and the community is a bit ticked off (http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/trees-fall-as-victoria-s-empress-hotel-spruces-up-1.1813582 . You can see the trees in a photo I did NOT take below, and the “after”, without the trees, that I took pretty much right after they took the trees out. Very sad.

So now, without further ado, here are some pictures I took the other day, along with a couple of pictures from the web that I thought were interesting additions to this post.

Very early picture of the hotel – note that I did NOT take this one…

Various views as I walk around to the front of the hotel – you can see the front “fenced” off as the new owners start landscape renos.

This is what the front looked like a few days ago (not my photo…) with the beautiful sequoias.

General view of Empress Hotel, showing the presence of landscaped gardens around the hotel which separate the building from the denser urban areas, 2011. Parks Canada Agency / Agence Parcs Canada, Andrew Waldron, 2011.  http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/image-image.aspx?id=7414#i3

The other side of the hotel – the newer addition

And gone is the arbutus (I found this highly ironic as there was/is a sign in front of the stump talking about the arbutus tree…)

I like that there are beehives here though…

And beautiful gardens, although they have dug out quite a few of them.

And finally, some pictures of the Christmas Tree festival they have every December…

Interesting Websites

• Fairmont Empress official website: http://www.fairmont.com/empress-victoria/
• The Empress at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Empress_%28hotel%29
• Empress Hotel National Historic Site of Canada: http://www.historicplaces.ca/en/rep-reg/place-lieu.aspx?id=7414

Part of the April A to Z Challenge.