One of the most impressive buildings in Victoria (along with the Parliament Building) is The Empress. This hotel was built and 1908. It's a must to visit The Empress for Afternoon Tea when coming to Victoria. So that's what we did...
A view of the hotel from the Parliament Building
The grounds of The Empress are simply stunning. There are flowers everywhere. Bushes after bushes of hydrangeas are a sight to see.
We arrived a few minutes before our 4:00 tea time, but were seated right away.
Hand cut glass dome
The Queen Mary portrait has been on the wall at the Empress since 1908.
Fresh blueberries were served to start.
Hot tea was entirely inappropriate after spending the day at
Butchart Gardens in the extremely rare 90 degree heat, so we drank a bucket of ice water as well.
Those scones were to die for!
The tea sweets were just darling. However, after the scones and the chocolate treat, we were too full to eat the rest. The waiter packaged them up for us. Unfortunately, a few hours later they all fell into themselves and ended up getting tossed. They were sure pretty though.
Tea at The Empress was a nice experience. I would say it is definitely a must do, at least once.
And this concludes the Summer Vacation 2015 posts! ;)
It's only been in the past year I've gotten back into drinking coffee more often than tea and I always enjoyed hot tea year round, even in the sweltering summertime heat around here. That spread looks wonderful! I love scones (savory OR sweet) and the other treats look great, too (yum on those blueberries!). What are the things at the front in the bottom photo? While I do like chocolate, I'll often choose other things first and I'm curious about those.
ReplyDeleteI've loved all the hydrangea photos. Even though this concludes your vacation tour for us, you can always throw in more photos of those along the way. ;)
I'm with you on the chocolate. The only reason we ate those on the top was because, as I mentioned, it was a billion degrees and the hotel doesn't have ac (because it's never a billion degrees there), trying to keep it 1908 authentic, and therefore the chocolate was MELTING while we sat in the restaurant. They couldn't be packaged and so we ate them. :)
DeleteIf I remember correctly, the green ones were pistachio tarts, the pinkish ones were raspberry moose in a chocolate cup, coconut balls, and there are shortbread cookies peeking out in the back. I'm not really a dessert person, but I like the idea of those small bites in order to try each one. If in fact we were able to try them! :)
Yes, the flowers were incredible. Truly the best part of the trip. Someday I will grow hydrangeas...someday!!!
I figured it had to be that or key lime. I prefer the lime, but I'd take the pistachio! I'll pass on the raspberry, but bring on the coconut and the shortbread! Oh wait... we all know that has tons of butter, which I no longer eat. Oh well. ;)
DeleteSorry, lovely photos but I've the other type of hormonal makeup.
ReplyDeleteHa! ;)
DeleteEvery time we take our Mom to tea my sister and I think the portions are too tiny! : ) I am glad you had a fun time. What a gorgeous location.
ReplyDeleteIt was a very nice thing to do. I wouldn't say I'd go again, but I'm glad we did go and experience it.
Delete(chuckle) I've really tried to take that ball and run with it, but any time I tried to empathize the comment got away from me and ended up using terms like girly, Downton Abbey, fiddly little cups, circle of hell and tight arsed prissy staff.
ReplyDeleteSorry !.
:) Funnily enough, it was somewhat like that. On the other hand, it wasn't as "fancy" as I would have expected a tea to be. It's very touristy, and they turn people out rather quickly. The auxiliary staff was a bit prissy, while the servers just ran around trying to move us through it all as fast as they could.
DeleteYeah, that'd be annoying right enough. I suspect half the fun is dawdling over a pot of tea for an hour or more.
Delete