Queen City

Victoria • August 5, 2022

7/19/22

I got up in the morning and took my bike to the BMW dealer in Victoria. I have a bad notch in my steering head bearing at this point and wanted to get that fixed since I still had a long way to go before I get home. I was thankful there was a dealer in town on the island. I rode over there but unfortunately they wouldn't fit me in. Like every other dealer in the US and Canada, they were booked out til August and this shop was down one mechanic. So while they were happy to sell me a spare clutch cable (just in case), they wouldn't even try to fit in a passing traveler. There were two BMW dealers in Vancouver on the mainland. Hopefully, one of them would fit me in once I got there.

Now that I have the morning free, I decided to go into Chinatown to get some Dimsum. I found a well reviewed place called Don Mee. I rode into Chinatown and found parking right in front of the restaurant. I was the only bike in the spot but after my excellent dimsum brunch, I came downstairs and saw a few friends parked next to me. Looks like I started a trend.

After Chinatown, I rode down to the City of Victoria Park. It was nice to get off the bike and just walk around for a while. The park was on the edge of the island so there were some great views.

I just spent the day walking around the park and seeing all the various monuments and statues.

World's Tallest Totem Pole.

I then went to the downtown area of Victoria:

My overall impression of Victoria was that it was a very beautiful small city with some great parks, museums, and restaurants to visit. It was pretty packed from tourists since it was summer and I think people were ready to be out and about from the last two years of Covid. In all, it was worth a full day to visit and definitely merit another day or so to see everything that was interesting. But I didn't have the time to stay another day and would have to decide if I'm riding all the way back to Gold River to take that plane ride.

Dirt Pony • 06 Aug, 2022

Oh wow, this is a star on the map for places to revisit! Sorry to hear the steering head bearing remained untended at this point. I know from experience how annoying that can get!

TLiang • 08 Aug, 2022

Victoria is a fantastic little land base to tour the island with -- which is filled with odd artist's studios across its many wee towns and population centers... their Chinatown is small and quaint but there is a bakery by the Chinese gates that has what is possibly the best baked bbq buns i've had and i've eaten a good many to reach my fighting weight (yes Chi-ho... i have gotten bigger)... They do have quite good dim sum, our people has done well in Victoria... speaking of our ppl... the next you are in Vancouver (another destination of fantastic food... Chinese and otherwise... across a vast price ranges), stop in at the Dr. Sun Yet-sen Garden and Museum (https://vancouverchinesegarden.com/our-story/)... it is a well laid out classic Chinese garden of the Ming/Qing period... moon gates and rock formations... Back to Victoria... my wife and i spent some time using it as a base and wandered from artist open studios to artist open studios with stops at small eateries and food producers as our hunger dictated... quite a pleasant way. We had gone to Victoria because my wife was doing a marathon with her run/walk friends and stayed behind because she wanted to see Butchard Gardens (https://www.butchartgardens.com/)... a garden laid out from the mind of a widow with way too much money... it was rather lovely to see the huge earthen/rock plinth upon which she sat and directed landscaping and planting in her garden... We did discover that the island was so much more... well, food stealing seagulls and what not! 8)

James • 10 Aug, 2022

The highlight of Victoria had to be the dim sum! Great weather here. Love the totem poles! You didn’t look for an independent BMW mechanic. I hope you get this fixed.