Secker Goes Globetrotting
28th Jun 2012 Our last day in Victoria, I spent it in the museum! It was our last day in Victoria and there was one thing on the must do list that I had yet to do and that was the Royal British Columbia Museum. The parents decided it was probably too much walking for dad (the knee) and so they went off on a trolley bus tour of the city while I ventured to the museum. Probably ended up being the best day to go as it rained all afternoon. I chose to splash out and go for the admission ticket and one imax film. I had a choice of about 4 different films and settled on one about the Canadian pacific railway (as we were off to the Rockies tomorrow). The first exhibit was all about dinosaurs. Things of particular interest to me/what I learnt include: A mould of the only known T-Rex footprint which they estimate to be 99-65 million Years ago. so pretty old. There was a whole display on why Dino's might have died out. Apparently they think a comet did do something to bring about their demise but also they now believe climate change and possibly volcanic eruptions may also have had an impact Birds are descendants of dinosaurs so technically they're not extinct, just the non avian dinos are. In 1994 a comet crash on Jupiter provided info that has been helpful in the whole comet theory. Tracking the effects of that comet provided ideas as to how it might have happened on earth. And there are some rocks that were discovered that proves it might have happened. Scientists estimate that the comet collision on earth would have released as much energy as 300 million nuclear bombs. No wonder it probably wiped out the dinos! The next exciting thing was the Wooly Mammoth. Not a real one obviously! The special exhibition was a collection of photographs of Queen Elizabeth taken by Cecil Beaton. I might have missed all the jubilee celebrations back home but at least i got to see something related to it. They also have a good exhibition on the first settlers, the Indians and they're culture and then the decline of their customs and Canada was colonized and they were expected to become more like the British. Good old Empire strikes again! The IMAX film was also interesting. I wasn't sure what to expect really but I knew it was about the building of the Canadian Pacific Railway. It's an interesting story of how the newly united Canadian government wanted to keep out the American railroad and so picked a route that went further south despite the fact it would be harder to build a railroad through that terrain. To find a route through they employed an eccentric surveyor who found a route through the mountains but at the cost of many men's lives. The notorious section is named after him, we drove through it a few days later - Rogers pass. When the railroad was finally complete, it almost bankrupted the company. Until the government realised that they could sell Banff as a tourist destination. That essentially saved the railroad from collapse (and probably stopped it from being bought by the Americans!). The film was beautifully shot, well the scenery itself is truly beautiful so it hardly needs much to make it attractive. I came out even more excited about our trip to the Rockies than I already was. I longed for the mountains (I was missing New Zealand!). By the time i had seen all the exhibiys i wanted to, I'd been there for well over 4 hours so I headed back to see what trouble the adults had got themselves into. Dad was back but he'd let mum and B loose on the shops. We cracked open a beer and waited their return to see what they'd been up to. Looks as though they'd kept themselves out of trouble but they came back with gifts and presents of course. We spent a bit of time packing our things as we were leaving early tomorrow and then we went to the nearest place for dinner. Just as we were about to leave I went to put something in Brenda's new bag and as I pulled the Zip the bit I was holding just ripped open. I was so embarrassed and for a second I thought - I can't cover this up so I fessed up. B was as usual very forgiving but I still felt bad. We managed a few games of Rummikub but tried for an early night as we were aiming to leave at 6.15am.
|
| 850 Words | This page has been read 13 times | View Printable Version |