These days it’s a scenic greenway, and we cycle the thirty-five kilometer trail and eventually cross the Johnson Street Bridge into the heart of old town. During several car-free days, we probe some of Victoria’s beguiling eccentricities.

Many visitors to Victoria head straight for the renowned Royal Provincial Museum to stroll through BC’s past. Across the way, a costumed Queen Victoria and Sir James Douglas guide still other folks through the revered Parliament Buildings…but we venture into the chateau-styled Empress Hotel for a tour and some memorable cups of English tea…

From stemmed goblets, we spoon sliced strawberries topped with Chantilly cream. Server Sean pours steaming signature-blend tea from silver pots into exclusive Royal Doulton cups, explaining, “In the 19th-century Queen Victoria’s lady-in-waiting, Lady Bedford, began this custom, serving thin-buttered bread and little cakes.” With that, a laden three-tiered plate arrives…

Nibbling tiny sandwiches filled with smoked BC salmon, curry-mango-chicken and shrimp mousse with papaya trimmings, we eye raisin scones, strawberry preserves, thick clotted cream and buttery shortbreads on the next tier. Miniature truffles and glazed tarts nestle on top.

As classical piano music floats unobtrusively across the opulent lobby, we visualize Kings, Queens and Hollywood celebrities taking Afternoon Tea at the Empress, exemplifying subdued elegance since 1908.

Greeting us at our table in authentic Edwardian traveling suit with hobble skirt, Mandy regales us with intriguing accounts of the hotel’s eventful past.

She points out where ‘official lobby-sitter’ John Roland sat daily for years, never spending a dime. In the magnificent ballroom below, she beams, “The famous David Foster played here as a teenager…just imagine…”

Dowager-era tales follow, “Some interesting wealthy widows resided here for $300-a-month, including meals: while Lady Swettenham supported charities by contributing baskets of the embossed soaps provided for hotel-guests.

Leah Rogers gave away her entire chocolate fortune, dying penniless. A staff collection buried her like the lady she was.”

When converting dowager accommodations into Romantic Attics during the 1980’s, last dowager Sybil Martin left in a huff…and took a handsome bellman with her to Florida!

Pointing to the receiving balcony high above, Mandy twinkled impishly, “Seagulls often stole the ladies’ bloomers from up there, right where Queen Elizabeth II later greeted adoring crowds and Goldie Hawn sunbathed nude.”

Aboard a foot-ferry next morning, we cruise the Gorge Waterway to Point Ellice House, owned and maintained by the O’Reillys for over a century. Today, an audio taped rendition of their staff leads visitors through their originally furnished, authentically restored upper- middle-class home.

The Chinese houseboy lists our duties as if we’re newly employed servants, carefully explaining ‘modern’ contrivances. The Irish maid chitchats about prominent guests as she conducts us to the ornate dining room; parlor, bedrooms and study prompt family gossip. Entering a daughter’s bedroom, the maid praises Cathleen’s artistic talents…and tells details of her romance.

The Scottish gardener points out heritage gardens and reflects on local politics and goings on. Showing off hollyhock glades ‘fit for an emperor,’ the houseboy concludes the tour by exalting a stately sequoia, flourishing since 1877. As afternoon tea-drinkers and croquet-players gather on rolling green lawns, we re-board the ferry.

Docking below North America’s oldest Chinatown, we stroll to Swans Brewpub for lunch. Surrounded by oak, brick and extraordinary artwork, we sip traditional British-style ales. Buckerfield’s once sold animal-feeds and grain here; today the on-site brewery ferments grains into eight hearty beers.

Beginning an art tour, Char introduces the Swans Hotel’s past owner. “Michael Williams restored this derelict warehouse and preserved numerous other heritage properties in old-town. You’ll also recognize his support for young artists.”

Walking through spacious loft-suites, we spot early works of Tony Onley, Jack Shadboldt and Roy Henry Vickers. She later points out Pierre Trudeau’s portrait by Myfanwy Spencer Pavelic, which also hangs in Ottawa’s House of Commons.

Over 1600 artworks reside at The Swan; Maltwood Gallery exhibits others. Williams died in 2000 and left his entire legacy to the University of Victoria.

On our last day, the Galloping Goose trail leads us up to James Dunsmuir’s astounding castle on Hatley Park Estate. Like his coal-baron father, he built an Edwardian castle outside downtown Victoria, declaring, “Money doesn’t matter, just build me what I want.”

This turn-of-the-century Premier and Lieutenant Governor contracted Samuel MacLure to create Hatley Castle, completed in 1908. Sixty masons built imposing granite and sandstone walls, battlements, towers, carriage gateway and baronial fireplaces.

Twenty-five English carpenters laid teak floors and paneled lavish interiors with golden oak and rosewood. The prestigious, specially designed electric light fixtures remain intact.

Including the Rose Arbor, croquet lawns and formal Italian garden off the spacious terrace where his wife Laura enjoyed tea, this luxurious 565-acre estate employed 100 gardeners. Soon-to-be-restored, the greenhouse once displayed exotic flowers year-round, including Laura’s favorite white orchids from India.

In the masterfully planned Japanese Gardens, original stone lanterns and bowls rest at shaded bends. Guide Joan reveals some sensory secrets, inviting us to touch satiny-red paper bark maples or listen to ‘dark and light sounds’ in the trickling streamlet and to peek under “splendid foliage-skirts to discover venerable gnarled trunks.”

We learn that James often sneaked off to ‘the island of ten thousand years,’ spending shady afternoons catching plump trout from the peaceful pavilion.

Nowadays a national historic park and administrative centre for Royal Roads University, the original outbuildings house various programs. This magnificent campus boasts a wildlife sanctuary in the saltwater lagoon and an urban forest with over 15 kilometers of nature trails.

Taking intimate tours into bygone days in BC’s capital adds intriguing new dimensions to visiting Victoria.

About the author:

This week Traveling Tales welcomes freelance travel writer Chris Millikan who lives in North Delta, a suburb of Vancouver B.C.

Photos by Rick Millikan:
1: Mandy regales us with her stories over High Tea at the Empress Hotel
2: The renowned Swans Holel.
3: Overview of Hatley Castle.

More information:

See www.tourismvictoria.com

In the historic heart of the capital sprawls Laurel Point Inn www.laurelpoint.com. Nearby Victoria Carriage Tours www.victoriacarriage.com offer epic rides through historic Beacon Hill Park.

Iconic Empress Hotel www.fairmont.com/empress captures the grandeur of a bygone era. Here you can take a Walkabout Historical Tour with Mandy Kray www.walkabouts.ca

Overlooking the scenic Gorge Waterway, Point Ellice House www.pointellicehouse.ca intrigues visitors with its extraordinary past.

Swans Suite Hotel www.swanshotel.com offers a treasure trove of B.C. art, history and unique accommodations.

Join John Adams www.discoverthepast.com/discvr/gwalks and his team of guides on ghost tours to Victoria’s spooky places.

Hatley Castle Victoria www.hatleycastle.com offers a unique look at B.C. history, gorgeous gardens and more… Joan Looy conducts Garden Tours all over Victoria www.victoriangardentours.com

At Victoria’s Royal B.C. Museum, a frisson of anticipation and curiosity ripples though the audience, as Brendan Moore, Curator of the British Museum takes the podium. He is here to talk about the RBCM’s forthcoming mega show, “The Treasures of the British Museum” and is about to unveil four precious objets d’art – a sample drawn from over three hundred artefacts which will astonish and delight visitors when the show opens in Victoria on May 1st. There is an eager rustle among the crowd as a curtain is drawn aside and TV camera-men and press photographers surge forward to take a closer look.

Before us today is a jug from Athens, Greece, dating from 510 B.C., an articulated iron dragon from Japan (1800s) and an intriguing, if somewhat unsettling contemporary piece-a Throne of Weapons fashioned in 2001 from decommissioned weapons collected at the end of the civil war in Mozambique in 1992. To the clicking of cameras, Moore holds up the fourth exhibit, an Egyptian Astrolabe dating from 13th or 14th century used to measure altitude, determine time, compile horoscopes and – very importantly – establish the direction of Mecca.

The exhibition covers nearly one-and-a-half million years of human history and spans seven geographic regions, each with its own cultural identity. Africa is believed to be the birthplace of mankind and this section displays a hand axe found in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania dating back to between1.6 and 1.4 million BC. Mind boggling!

By the entrance is a replica of the famed Rosetta Stone circa 196 BC that has intrigued and fascinated scholars since its discovery in 1799. The columns of inscriptions in hieroglyphics, demotic script and Greek consist of a series of decrees during the reign of the 13-year old Ptolemy V. A mummy and an elaborately decorated inner coffin dating from 305 to 30 BC exemplify death and eternity, as celebrated by the ancient Egyptians. Many exhibits are what you’d expect in a world-class Museum – objects of great beauty, and rarity, such as an headdresses of gold, lapis lazuli and carnelian from Iraq and a Zun, a ritual vessel from the Shang dynasty (1500-1050 BC) which is perhaps the British Museum’s most famous Chinese bronze.

In the European section, Harry Potter fans will recognize the red and white chessmen featured in the first film of the series; they are believed to be from Norway and stories about their discovery in the Outer Hebrides off the coast of Scotland is the stuff of speculative imagination and fable.

Art aficionados will be transfixed by great masters such as Rembrandt, Picasso and Matisse, and wonder-struck by an exquisitely detailed eight-fold Japanese Tsushima River Festival screen. Gold and silver coins, a rare stone pestle from Papua New Guinea, a Java Gamelan set, Peruvian and Mayan treasures, and several provocative contemporary pieces are a mere sampling of the 309 items on display.

The notable thing about our Victoria Royal B.C. Museum is its innovative approach to special exhibitions. Although many of the objects will be behind glass, the circular Enlightenment Centre at the hub of the 10,000 square feet area, is a dynamic, hands-on, interactive space. “Kids” of all ages, from five to ninety-five (yes, you’ll become a ‘kid’ again!) will be glued to enigmatic puzzles on computer screens, they’ll peer into the contents of the four Cabinets of Curiosity, experiment with cuneiform tablets, and handle ancient stone tools.

By way of variety, families will be able to join a Family Tour with special highlights for children; others can participate in a “Magical Mystery Tour” or a “Treasure Trove Hunt”. And if you’re around in the evening, you might enjoy a Wine Tour featuring artefacts that contained ambrosial elixirs which once intoxicated the gods!

Here in the Museum today, I feel the thrill and exhilaration that comes from being on the brink of what Pauline Rafferty, CEO of the RBCM, proudly calls, “one of the Museum’s most ambitious projects and the only one of its kind in all of North America.”

As Exhibition Designer Ken Johnson, leads the way through the galleries, we sidestep tools, ladders and hoists, listen to the rat-a-tat-tat of drills, and share in the shiver of anticipation felt by all the many crew – technicians, laboratory wizards, painters and artists who have spent five months behind the scenes preparing for this show. The scenery is up, the lighting is cued, the props are all in place and the stage is set. All that remains is for the curtain to rise. Be sure to get a front row seat!

For More Information:

The Treasures of the British Museum opens on May 1st and runs to September 30th 2009.

Royal B.C. Museum: www.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Treasures

Getting There:

Enjoy a scenic 1 hour 35 minutes trip via B.C. Ferries http://www.bcferries.com/ Treasures Themed Packages: Clipper Vacations (from Seattle) www.clippervacations.com
Inn At Laurel Point (a fabulous five star deal!) www.laurelpoint.com
Skanda Jewelers www.skanda.ca
The Fairmont Empress www.fairmont.com/empress
Abigail’s Hotel (delightful boutique B&B) www.abigailshotel.com
Hotel Grand Pacific www.grandpacific.com
Magnolia Hotel & Spa (luxury B&B) www.magnoliahotel.com
The Oswego Hotel www.oswegovictoria.com

Photos and cut-lines

1. Against an Ancient Rome backdrop, Brendan Moore, Curator of the British Museum stands beside the Throne of Weapons and holds aloft a 14th century Egyptian Astrolabe – Photo Margaret Deefholts
2. A magnified look at a chessman from Norway found in the Outer Hebrides in 1831 and featured in the first Harry Potter film. Photo Margaret Deefholts
3. Greek Jug depicting Herakles fighting the Erymathian boar. Photo Margaret Deefholts
4. Coffin – Egypt 305 – 30 B.C.
5. An engrossed viewer in the Enlightenment Centre. Photo: Margaret Deefholts
6. Panel detail from the Tsushima River Festival screen. Photo Courtesy The Trustees of the British Museum