2012/08/13: Vancouver Island

There are two obvious possibilities to go from Vancouver to Seattle by public transport: on a bus or on a train, both are running along the Pacific Coast, they need two to four hours. But we wanted to see Vancouver Island and its biggest city, Victoria. That’s why we had our shipping day: going by ferry to Vancouver Island (the all-you-can-eat-buffet is unique!!) and by speed boat from Victoria to Seattle. Sky train and bus took us to the ferry, a double-deck bus from the ferry to Victoria. As we had places in the front of the top deck, we could enjoy the varied landscape of Vancouver Island with its farms, villages, beaches and many garden centers. Some things look so British that you wonder why the cars don’t run on the left lane.
Victoria has a picturesque inner city with impressing British buildings (first of all the Parliament Building of British Columbia). A lot of pubs, souvenir shops, Union Jacks and some black cubs remind tourists of former times, when Victoria was indeed a British city.
Having scanned finger prints and eyes, we were allowed to enter the United States. After a second, again much too short ship tour, we arrived in Seattle. The city of Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks; Space Needle; Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain enthused me already five years ago. As we arrived in the late evening, we didn’t see anything but some piers and the skyline at night. A friendly bus driver allowed us to enter without ticket (we didn’t have any American coins). A friendly station officer helped me to print all the tickets and reservations we need for the upcoming train rides. A friendly hostel employee gave us the keys for our room. Good night, Seattle.