Westsong Walkway Revisited

We finally arrived at summer this last week, with genuinely hot and sunny days. Here's another favorite view of mine, taken from above the Westsong Walkway looking across the harbor towards Shoal Point. I've posted photos taken from this spot before but I like this one particularly because it has one of those lovely great cruise ships in it, visible at its Ogden Point berth. You can also see a whale-watching excursion boat (small and yellow) in the right center of the photo, another characteristic of summer in Victoria.

On the Back of a Whale

A fairly common form of public art these days is paintings on the exteriors of animal sculptures distributed around the city. I don't know enough about urban politics or art to understand why this has become popular. Perhaps someone can explain it. Victoria's animal choice is the Orca or killer whale and the people in the painting above are on the back of the whale in front of Victoria Visitors Information Centre. Whatever the rationale for this installation I am happy to see so much colour in this season's gray streets. (Added later: click here to see a bunch of urban cows in Madrid.)

I suspect the Orca has been chosen because whale-watching is a popular tourist pastime here. Victoria is one of the few cities in the world where you can view whales in their natural habitat within a half an hour from the Inner Harbour. There are about 15 pods of Orca that live in the area and numerous whale-watching excursions available year round.