Weekend trip to Victoria
Posted 10-29-2007 1:28 pm
by Admin Admin
I took a quick overnight trip up to Victoria a few weekends ago to see the Titanic exhibit at the Royal BC Museum before it closed (well worth the trip) and also to see the recently renovated south wing rooms at one of my preferred hotels in Victoria, the Laurel Point Inn.
I took the Victoria Clipper up on Saturday morning and back on Sunday evening—it had been a few years since I’d gone to Victoria via the Clipper and it’s a comfortable and relatively fast trip (a little under three hours each way travel time), so it’s a great choice especially if you only have a short amount of time to spend in Victoria. I always enjoy staying at the Laurel Point and this time was no exception. The newly renovated south wing rooms look great and the new beds are extremely comfortable. They’ve switched to Molton Brown bath products in the south wing, so that’s a nice touch as well. Thankfully they didn’t make any changes to the wonderful marble bathrooms—they are one of my favorite things about these rooms, along with the view of the harbor. I love just sitting and watching the boat and float plane traffic. Another thing that sets the Laurel Point apart for me is its location—just a short 5-10 minute walk along the water from the center of the Inner Harbor, but set on its own little point of land which includes a serene Japanese garden, so it’s a nice respite from the busy Inner Harbor. I arrive in time for lunch on Saturday, so I decided to check out the curry buffet at the Bengal Lounge in the Empress Hotel. I’d heard good things about it and it lived up to its reputation. Not inexpensive (about $25 per person) but the various curries were delicious and I especially enjoyed the rice pudding dessert. Plus the clubby old British empire atmosphere of the lounge is fun. That night, I met some friends for drinks and then went to dinner at Brasserie L’Ecole over in Chinatown. It was great. It’s small, so definitely reserve ahead. We started with an endive salad and I had a very nice steak frites. The restaurant offers the option of having your frites done with parsley, garlic, parmesan cheese and truffle oil—not traditional, but delicious. Then crème brulee for dessert. All around, a good place. I think Café Brio is still my favorite restaurant in Victoria but Brasserie L’Ecole is definitely worth knowing about. The next morning, I took a walk around the James Bay residential neighborhood then went to the Titanic exhibit at the Royal BC Museum which was very well done but very, very crowded even though the museum limited the number of people entering at any given time. I took a quick look around the (thankfully much less crowded) permanent exhibits depicting the natural and anthropological history of the province which are well worth seeing (I’ve been a number of times but always enjoy going and would definitely recommend this museum to anyone visiting Victoria). I decided to have a quick lunch at Milestone’s, a local chain that I’d been to in Vancouver, but I hadn’t tried the one here in Victoria. It was quite good—I had a salmon sandwich and enjoyed the view of the Inner Harbor. The ride back to Seattle on the Clipper was a little bumpy as it was a rainy, windy evening—it didn’t bother me at all but people are prone to seasickness will definitely want to have some Dramamine or similar remedy on hand just in case (they offer it for sale on board as well). The highlight of the trip home was seeing a few orcas as we were passing by Whidbey Island. All in all, a very satisfying overnight trip!
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