Navigating our way across Victoria

We're currently house sitting in the city of Victoria, British Columbia. Given its temperate climate, the city prides itself in being attractive to those who enjoy outdoor activities, including walking and cycling. There certainly are lots of pedestrians and cyclists here. In an effort to accommodate these activities, the city has reduced speeds in many areas from the usual 50 km (31 miles) an hour to 40 km (25 miles) an hour, and in many cases 30 km (19 miles) an hour.

Here's the sign that's at the bottom of our street.

Needless to say, sometimes it can take a while to go a relatively short distance. Take today, for example. We decided to go across the city to the township of Esquimalt - to a Honda motorcycle store - and here's the map from my phone.

Here's where those reduced speed limits kick in. It shows it would take 21 minutes to go 8.3 km (5 miles). I also noticed it would only take 10 minutes more to do the same journey on a bicycle.

I'll side-track here. Earlier this week, Greg questioned whether someone might get a speeding ticket on a bicycle in Victoria. He found his answer in the newspaper within a few days, when a woman was fined for cycling over 30 km/hr. Here's the article.

Once Greg had visited the store today, we went to the closest off-leash dog park, as we had Fanci with us. It was a trail through a wooded area, and came out at a beach, which would be to the right of this photo. What a lovely dog park.

The homeowners' vehicle we're using has a sophisticated large-screen navigation system. On it, Greg could see a sizeable river nearby, so decided we'd return along the riverside. He moved the cursor to what he thought was the road alongside the river, and this is what the screen displayed. We looked at each other and said "yep, this needs a photo for the blog!"

We did follow the road along the river and it was a lovely drive. There is a walking trail all along the river, as well as parkland and playing areas. We stopped at a couple of areas along the way.

We found it's home to Victoria's canoe and kayak club - which is written on the scull in the photo below - as well as a migratory bird sanctuary (so my phone says, although we didn't see it).

In contrast to the huge ships we see from our home, this is one of the vessels we saw on the river today. Greg seemed to get a kick out of it, because it was so small.

I'll finish with a Fanci photo, as we just love her. It's one of those photos that needs a bubble over her head, and you choose the caption. She usually tries to look so innocent, so mine would be "What? I didn't do it!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Location: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Weather: Sunshine & warm enough for t-shirts & shorts!

Note: The homeowners gave permission for their home and pet to be in this blog.