Victoria’s Inner Harbour
Having checked into our favorite Victoria Hotel, the Grand Pacific on Belleville St., we had a quick lunch and set out to ride along the harbor front and on Dallas Road with its beautiful waterfront views. Although the traffic is fairly heavy, there is a decent bike lane and we always ride with flashing red lights on the back of our bikes when we are riding on streets. We rode for a few miles and then retraced our route back to Cook St. from which we zigzagged through a number of streets to return to the hotel. Some of these streets were choked with traffic, so the ride back was a bit dangerous, but I do love riding down pretty residential streets.
Near Sidney BC
The next morning, we set out to ride on the Lochside Trail from a few miles south of Sidney to Schwartz Bay. Although we have not done it all at once, we have covered most of the Lochside Trail at one time or another, except for the part to Schwartz Bay. On this bright sunny day, it was a pleasure to pedal along the Sidney Channel. Reaching Sidney, we stopped for coffee at the Toast Cafe on Fifth St. As we left the cafe, we asked an elderly gentleman cyclist how to wend our way through the streets of Sidney to reach the route to Schwartz Bay. He patiently outlined two different routes that it is possible to take. He even told us where to go for lunch in Schwartz Bay, although the location of that place proved more elusive than his very clear explanation of the routes. We reached Schwartz Bay in good time and then set out up and down several fairly formidable hills to find the Stonehouse Pub. in Canoe Cove. One thing that didn’t help is that we were hearing Canoe Cove as Conoco, reminiscent of the service stations that we remembered from when we were children. Finally a young woman with a stroller told us to make three right turns to reach the pub, and this worked out. We had a satisfying pub lunch and an enjoyable conversation with a couple of fellow cyclists about our age, who asked us if we had a death wish because we were not wearing the recommended bright yellow jackets. The ride back proved easier than we had expected, and we stopped again at the Toast Cafe where I had a delicious concoction called a Nanaimo bar. Our whole trip added up to about eighteen miles.
Our third ride in Victoria was a disappointment. We wanted to ride a segment of the Galloping Goose Trail that we had not ridden before, so we picked an area where parking was indicated on a map that we had, the Atkins Ave. parking lot. Turning right out of the lot we found some challenging hills, but we went on until we reached a part of the trail that was gravel. Our bikes were not doing well on this, so we turned around and went the other direction. There were lots of hills that way too and nothing too interesting, so after about ten miles we gave up. We drove across to Hwy. 17 where we had lunch at Bill Mattick’s Restaurant at the Cordova Bay Golf Course, a spot where we have eaten several times. After lunch we did a few miles on the Lochside Trail. However, we will tackle the Galloping Goose again next time we are in Victoria. Once before we did a pleasant ride on this trail, but it is confusing to pick out a section to ride.
Victoria is high on my list of favorite cities, and I hated to leave it. When we visited Munro’s bookstore on Government St., I discovered a book of rides around Victoria that I will try to buy before we visit there again.
Parliament Buildings at Night
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