Day 7 Of Our 2010 Alaska Cruise Vacation - Victoria, BC

Today we arrived in Victoria, BC around 6PM. We were only going to be in port for about 5 hours. This is definitely not enough time to take all of the great sites that this city offers. Victoria is about as beautiful of a city as you will find anywhere. The architecture of both businesses and homes, along with its residents, are quite diverse. Everywhere you look, it is crisp and clean. They really take pride in everything that they have and do. If you ever have a chance to visit the city, plan on spending several days to discover all of the beauty that is Victoria. You won't regret it. The photos that I took, do not do this city justice but it will give you a general idea of what I am speaking of.
As we were getting close to Victoria, a pilot boat approached the Pearl. This pilot boat transferred a pilot onto the Pearl to assist the cruise ship into port.

Below are 3 videos of the pilot boat from the time it approached the Pearl, transferred the pilot onto the Pearl and then the pilot boat leaving the area

Here is an Holland America ship that was already in port when we arrived

Here is the inner harbor, full of boats and flowers along with lots of people walking along the harbor walkway

A water taxi..we saw several of these puttering by

The Parliament Building

This is the Empress Hotel...oldest hotel in Victoria. They have the old section and then a new section. This year we walked into the old section at first...the architecture was great and the shops inside were great...especially a tea shop I found inside

More photos of the inner harbor area

Entertainment along the inner harbor walkway. Last year we saw all kinds of street entertainers in Victoria. This year there were not as many...a good saxophonist.....Darth Vader playing a violin...yes you read that correctly and we also saw Superman and Superwoman walking down the street. Victoria has quite an eclectic mix of people living there and everywhere we walk, the smell of food cooking was everywhere.

I took a lot of architecture photos this time around

The ivy growing on the side of the Empress Hotel

A fountain outside of the newer section of the hotel

Spring flowers were in full bloom around the city

They had some really interesting stores, bars and restaurants in Victoria. I really wished we had more time to spend in this city

Here is the top portion of a lighthouse

The Parliament Building

The streets were rather easy to cross. Traffic was minimal the night we were there

Inner Harbor and walkway...Parliament Building in the background and the Empress Hotel is just off camera to the left

Another water taxi

Statue commemorating the 100th Anniversary of the Canadian Navy. The statue and stone memorial had only been in place about a week when we saw it.

Unfortunately this was the last port of call for this cruise. Upon our return to our ship, we went to a huge Chocolate Buffet that the ship puts on. The most choclate desserts that I have ever seen in one place at one time. Tomorrow we return to Seattle.