Week 7: Victoria BC Floyd's Diner

We have spent the past week in beautiful Victoria, BC.  We are staying at a hotel on Menzies St. across from the Provincial Legislature and a half block from the Victoria Inner Harbour.  While out walking we noticed a very purple house with white trim and awnings.  As it turns out, it's an eatery called Floyd's Diner. It was Sunday and there was a long line-up of people waiting to get in so we decided to wait until Monday (today) hoping that the wait was a weekend phenomenon!

We arrived at 9:30 am and were seated next to a large window facing the street, a perfect spot for people watching and enjoying the morning sun.  By 10 am the restaurant was full!  The menu is very interesting with dishes named after regular customers, historic locations (The Berlin Wall Omelette, You'll Be Liberated After You Eat This) and well known phrases (Listen To Me While I'm Talkin' To Ya Son), the two we selected.

The portions are beyond ample and the food tastes fresh and delicious.  True to Victoria's "hidden gem restaurants", the ambiance is casual, welcoming and the staff are very upbeat and attentive. The decor is eclectic yet reflects the overall theme of the menu.  Altogether, a clever overall vibe!

We are leaving Victoria tomorrow, returning to Calgary.  A quick mention of a couple of great places to eat: Fifth Street where the rotisserie chicken is "eyes rolling in the back of your head" delicious and Pizzeria Prima Strada. These are both places we return to each time we visit this beautiful city.

And then, there were the bookstores!

My husband is the consummate tour guide and is always on the lookout for local attractions and especially those that meet our individual interests.  He discovered that there were five independent bookstores in Sidney, a town just a short drive north of Victoria.  We decided to visit each one (a self-directed tour) and see what this concentration of bookstores was all about!  We checked out Beacon Books and new home to the Military and History Bookshop (overwhelming number of stacks of used books), Tanner Books and The Haunted Bookshop.  We didn't get to Galleon Books and Antiques as they had moved locations and we ran out of time.

Haunted Bookshop Sidney

The Haunted Bookshop, advertised as Vancouver Island's oldest antiquarian bookshop, was our favourite!  We purchased 3 fairly obscure books, one being a Biography of Vilhjalmer Stefansson's Explorations of the Canadian Arctic and a travel book titled A Short Walk in the Hindu Kush.  Neither of us had any indication that the shop was haunted but we were drawn to some rather unlikely reads!

In Victoria we visited Bolen Books which is Vancouver Island's largest (and to my mind, best) independent bookstore.