Travelog for: Lemmy

Today we visited Craigdarroch Castle, home to The Dunsmuirs, the richest family in Victoria around the turn of the century.  Apparently it's haunted.  It is now a bit of a museum and there are tours through it, but we didn't stay for one.











This lion was sitting near the back door.  As I learned yesterday, lions are supposed to be good luck.  Apparently not for this family; Dunsmuir Senior died before the manor was finished and his children quarreled amongst themselves and parted ways.



Next, it was off to Hatley Castle, built and owned by the son of the Dunsmuir who built Craigdarroch Castle.  Apparently it is haunted too.



This is the view from the balcony.  What a pretty place.



The main entrance of the castle.  The castle now belongs to  and is on the grounds of Royal Roads University, a military college.



In the basement there is a small museum.  Here is a model of the castle.  A little too small for toyvoyagers, unfortunately.



Next, it was off to Government House, the residence of the Leftenant Governor of BC.  When the Queen visits BC she stays here.  Because it was BC day, part of the house was open to the public.  It has burned down twice before, roughly every fifty years.  It has been 49 years since the last fire, so everybody keep your fingers crossed.



And what a pretty view from here too.  I guess you have to be rich or famous to get these kinds of views.  The mountains you can see in the distance are part of Washington State.



This is the main dining hall.



Lastly, we visited the bathrooms downstairs meant for guest use when there are balls and state dinners.  I was nearly blinded by the chintz in the ladies' powder room.

The ferry back to the mainland was uneventful, and Abby didn't take any pictures because the trip was exactly the same as the last one.  However, we took the long route home and ended up taking another ferry.  Two ferries in one day!  This trip was much shorter, only fifteen minutes, across the Fraser River.

Lemmy wrote in his notebook...



Said goodbye to Yum Yum...



And crawled into his envelope to go to Finland.



Goodbye, Lemmy!

I'm here! I arrived just in time to help my host eat--- make her birthday cake  The cake is a self-portrait of my host  I was promised sightseeing very soon 

Here I am with my new friends. There's Roo (the kangaroo), Ninni (the bunny) and Alfie Langer (the bear). They have been with this family for quite a while already so I took the advantage and asked all sorts of questions about the family, city and country. Their replies made me feel comfortable, I'm sure I'll like it here! Ninni showed me around the house in her backbag. She told me she had to pack as she was leaving to Germany very soon to start her own voyage!

This is where I'll be staying for a while: by the Baltic Sea! This is the Baltic Sea, it's just not a open sea view as Finland has so much archipelago. Could you believe that the creator of the Moomin spent her summers in this part of the archipelago! No wonder Moominpappa loves the sea!  I also tried the lifesaver but it seems a bit big for me - my host said I could save all the small ones!  I love her already 

In the evening my host showed me some more boats  Here I am getting to the Porvoo River. That red building of bricks is called "Art Factory". They keep all sorts of artsy events there; exhibitions, market place - and most wellknown is the classical music concert called "Avanti!".

The big sailboat is m/aux Marita which was built in 1947. She sails only on request anymore. A 4h cruise costs 1850 euros. Just to give an example. It would be so cool to sail on this beauty! My allowance just doesn't cover the ticket...

We took the other photos on/under/by the newest bridge. It took about 30 years to get this bridge here! Some people kept complaining as they didn't want it and the majority who did want it didn't make as much noise. There was also all sorts of fuss about what kind of bridge it should be etc. But here it finally is and it looks quite pretty actually. I was told that the person who designed it got inspired by the wings of airplanes.

Toyvoyagares are not allowed to just hang around here 
My host took me with her to work! She works with mentally disabled who do all sorts of handicrafts. With the knitter they do for example triangle scarfs - and snakes, which are then felted and made into different things.

Felting is one of the favorite crafts. The last work (the one with sunset and dolphins) is made by my host. The houses are not yet finished, they'll put mirrors to the windows!

Everything the people make are meant to be sold. That is not hard, even my host wants to buy half of the things they make! And I don't blame her 

We went for a walk and found this mailbox. It's not a private regular mailbox but one for keep-fit enthusiasts. There was this notebook where people couls write teir name, town/suburb and how many kilometers they had ran/bicycled. They keep track that way and sometimes those who have ran the most get a price or something. And sometimes there is a competition between Porvoo and its friendship towns: which town has the most kilometers run/bicycled etc.

Here I am at the nearby forest! I got to smell fresh air, taste redberries - and wonder about the "private area" sign in the middle of the forest... I loved running around here! I tried to look for wild foxes but couldn't see or smell one.

The first picture shows me with rowanberries. There is a folk tale that a fox once wanted to taste the berries but they were too high for him to reach. He then said "They're bitter anyway!". Nowadays when someone claims he doesn't want something he can't get/reach people say "Bitter, said the fox of the rowanberries".

I also saw these huge mushrooms! The red one is poison - no wonder it's called "death cap". Although it's "kärpässieni" in Finnish (doesn't translate into anything poisonous).

This is the Castle Hill which is my host's favorite place in this town. There was a castle hundreds of years ago but now you can only see the hill and the castle moats. It's a good place to play Robin Hood I've heard  You can read some history of Porvoo here.

The second last picture is a view my host has photographed and made into postcards. There you can see all the 4-5 bridges crossing the river - and the old town with the famous shorehouses. She can't believe how little this site is used in tourism. Only some groups of kids are offered a role play game there during the summer. Maybe it's because there are some plants that need to be protected.

After the Castle Hill sightseeing we drove to a car sales place. They had this event for families and my host had decided to take the kids there. Alfie, Roo and I got to draw with chalks, try the bouncy castle, eat risotto, meet Panda bear who gave us candy... That board with round thingies in different colors is there to show in which colors you can get your car. There's a foxy red in the right, second from bottom - that would be my choise! There was also this guy who made tricks - with balloons too! He made those animals in the last picture. The balloon animals... The blue one is a cat, yellow is a dog and red one is a bear. We spent 3 hours at the event but my host forgot to take pics of me with any cars... 

This is Porvoo Cathedral which is dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus. It gained its present from at the end of the 15th century. It is still partially closed for renovations as the roof was totally burnt by arson a few years back. It takes quite a while to restore a building like this. The red, smaller building right next to it is the Small Church, dedicated in 1740. The pulpit dates back to the 1800s, and the organ was built by B.A. Thulé in 1887. The other photographed old houses are around the church. Most of them are living quarters but there are shops and museums as well.

As a final stop on this long day my host showed me the riverbank on the Old Town. I'm standing on the oldest bridge of Porvoo, looking at the Old Town. The red shorehouses are the most wellknown attraction of Porvoo. More about the Old Town here. The numbers on the grass are made with flowers. They plant new ones each year so that the present year in shown on the right. Between the numbers is the coat of arms of Porvoo: a big C.

Finland is a modern western country but they still have dinosaur eggs!? See, those white huge things!

We were visisting a stable where one of the girls got to ride a horse. I was too small they told me, no helmet suitable for me they told me. Ah well, I did like to chat with the horses and ponies