Steve got up early and went for a quick jog along the board
walk. On the way he met a couple walking
along. The gentleman had a pet Military
Macaw on his shoulder wearing a little harness and a lead to stop it flying away.
The weather was quite overcast so decided not to do the whale
watching trip, so instead we scooted into town to look over the Craigdarroch
Castle.
The castle was built between
1887 – 1890 for Robert Dunsmir (a Scottish immigrant who made his fortune from
Vancouver Island coal) and his family. Mr
Dunsmir died in 1889 before it was completed and his entire estate (valued at
$15-$20 Million) were left to his widowed wife.
When Mrs Dunsmir passed away the fortune was split up between the
siblings, none apparently wanting to inherit the family mansion, so the castle
was sold off at the auction via a lottery draw.
The new owner lost it to the banks and the castle then became the
property of the local government and was used for various purposes (a war hospital
& college to name a couple). Finally
in 1979 the castle was passed to a conservation society (in a very run-down
state) who have since been restoring it and have run it as a historic museum. The castle covers about 25,572 square feet
and has 17 fireplaces, although there is a central heating system using water radiators. It was very interesting to walk around and it
was quite obvious that it was very opulent in its day.
After coming out of the castle we found that the weather had
deteriorated to showers, but we went back into the city area and found a little
boutique brewery and had a few tastings that were really quite nice. This brewery (Phillips) employs a traditional
method for takeaway beer. They use
‘growlers’. Yep…. You heard me right…
‘growlers’ (we had a fair ole snigger J). You buy a reusable glass jug ($5) that they
will fill for $10 and the jug holds the equivalent of about 4-5 stubbies. The name comes from an old practice of
patrons taking home beer in a metal tin with a lid. On the walk home the gas from the beer
escaping from the tin would make a growly noise hence the name.
We had a really nice sushi lunch & a Starbucks, then because
it was raining steadily, we headed to the Royal British Columbia museum where
it was warm and dry. We spent a couple
of hours wandering around looking at a photo display of Queen Elizabeth II, a
display on dinosaurs and a display about the Canadian Aboriginals. It was all very interesting.
The weather had not improved so we called it a day and got
back to the RV, quite wet.
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