High Tea at Abkhazi…And a Castle!
After a lovely ‘rooftop’ breakfast at our Chateau Victoria hotel we had our friend, Bev, meet us so that we could take her out for High Tea. Obviously, we just love this activity because we seek it out in most of our travels. I was not disappointed with the tea as they had most of the things I love in a high tea service like warm scones with clotted cream and jam. Yum!
The Abkhazi family built the ‘teahouse’ but firstly it was their home. They wanted to do it in the art deco/modern style of the ‘40s and most of the walls , wood, and tiles were original. I was told that the surrounding gardens are spectacular in the Autumn and although the Spring colours were just making an appearance you could tell that it was a very beautiful place.
After our leisurely lunch and lots of teacup refills we decided to head over to an actual castle in Victoria. It is called Craigdarroch and it seemed more like a large house styled with character. There were stairs to get in and four floors to the top. Could I manage it? I didn’t think so.
That’s me in front of the castle and then once inside taking a view of looking up up up. The last photo above is a view from the castle to the outside neighbourhood.
My knees were extremely sore from all the hills and stone streets of Victoria so I didn’t make it far up the stairs to the second floor before I tried to turn around. But my wonderful guy lifted me up from behind….from my behind….and it suddenly became clear that with his help I could see the whole castle. Woo Hoo.
An interesting thing about the dress above. The beautiful ‘jewelry’ on the hip is actually a sewing kit. And check out the ‘modern’ reading chair in the 2nd to last frame. I LOVED the stained glass designs in every single room.
After our wonderful castle visit we took Bev to the bus stop back to her home in Sidney and at her suggestion we drove around and checked out more of Victoria. Fisherman’s wharf was so cold but so colourful!.
We also enjoyed seeing the windsurfers out on the choppy waters….
And the deer!
A fun photo at the castle too…..
