vacation: Craigdarroch Castle

I forgot to post the part about the Craigdarroch Castle. After we went to Bouchart Gardens, the bus bought us back to Victoria and we started walking toward the castle. It turned out that the blocks were bigger than we thought, and gave up on that idea in favor of riding a bus. At a bus stop we found out how much the bus costs and that the buses only take Canadian money. We walked a little farther, looking for a money exchange business or bank, but soon sat down on some steps to look over the map and think about how to proceed. At that point, a man on a bike came by and asked us if we needed any help. After we explained the situation, he said that he had a shop just down the street and he would give us Canadian change. The Canadians we encountered were all very nice, unlike the Americans.

Once we had Canadian money in hand, it was a simple thing to catch the bus and ride to ... next stop after the castle, backtrack a block, and walk the last block on the side street up to the castle. The castle used to be a grand house on a hill at the center of its estate, but now entrance gate (reconstructed) is the entry to a neighborhood, the estate has been carved up into lots, and the castle is the big house on the hill, surrounded by a number of other, smaller, houses.


Craigdarroch Castle took three years to build, has four stories, and was finished 1890. The man who had it built was Robert Dunsmuir, a Scottish immigrant who made his fortune from Vancouver Island coal. He died before it was finished and his two sons had it finished. Dunsmuir's wife lived there with their family after his death.


Many of the rooms have stained glass windows.