Butchart Gardens and castles in Victoria, BC

[Taz_Zoee]

Before I get to the gardens and castles there are a couple of pictures I'd like to share of Victoria.
The Empress Hotel (we did not go inside)


Parliment building during the day.


And at night. They are blurring. I was far away from it.



I always tried to get pictures of any animals I could, so I could not walk past these horses again without getting a picture.


These statues were all around the town. We had something similar in Tahoe but they were bears all dressed up differently. This was my favorite statue in Victoria.


Now we're off to the castles!
The first one is Craigdarroch. It was built in 1857 and was owned by Robert Dunsmuir.








Continued in next post.............

[Taz_Zoee]

This seemed very out of place for the castle.


I just loved this dress. Sometimes I wish I lived back then because the way they dressed. But then again, I'm glad I didn't...because of the way they dressed.


This is the tower floor.


And a window in the tower.


And the chandelier hanging in the tower.


The next four pictures are of Hatley Castle. Which was owned by the son of Robert Dunsmuir, I believe his name was James.
We did not get to tour the inside of this castle because the Prime Minister was there. In fact we were asked to leave the garden for an hour too. So we left the grounds completely.








Butchart Gardens coming up............

[Taz_Zoee]

Now on to Butchart Gardens. Bruce was not thrilled with the idea of going. But since so many people had suggested that we go he gave in and went. After he was surprised at how much he enjoyed it.
On the way in there is a sign with poop bags for dogs. I just loved the sign and had to take a picture to share here.


So the rest I'll just post without too many comments.


















More to come....

[Taz_Zoee]

This is my favorite!!












Well, that's it! We took about 400 more pictures than this.
Thanks for looking, if you made it this far. hee hee

[phesina]

What beautiful pictures, and what a beautiful city! Thank you.

[slick]

When were you in Victoria?? I'm only a ferry ride away! Would love to have met you in furrson.

[Asiel]

Those are gorgeous pictures. Victoria is such a beautiful city. Pretty handy with a camera, I noticed you even captured the bee on the flower.