Our final port of call  was Victoria in British Columbia, Canada. We had booked an excursion to the Butchart Gardens, and so went in search of our coach. A very entertaining driver took us on a short tour of Victoria on the way out to the Garden's.  Jennie Foster Butchart started the immense task of building these wonderful gardens you see today back in 1904. Jennie's husband, Robert Pim Butchart, owned a cement manufacturing plant near Victoria, and they lived in a house nearby. The first garden was the Japanese Garden, and the Sunken Garden that followed was built in the disused quarry. An old tennis court was transformed into the Italian Garden, and in 1930 the Rose Garden was added. Still owned and managed by members of the Butchart family, these beautiful 55 acres have gained world wide recognition amongst horticulturalist and are visited by over a million visitors each year.

Thus ended a wonderful vacation. This cruise, our first, was everything we had wished for, and then some. The ship had been a wonderful home for seven days and her captain, Englishman Jonathan Mercer, and every member of his crew had been extremely polite and superbly efficient. Alaska had lived up to her reputation, being full of the most beautiful, wild, isolated and extreme places and experiences.

Until next time.

THE END

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