Victoria BC Bed and Breakfast Downtown – Gingerbread Cottage B&B
Nice. Hi there. Oh. How. Ha ha ha. That's beautiful. (Indecipherable greeting.) Good morning. Good morning. Ha ha ha. So, that's Canada Day. Canada Day. Horse carriage in front of the Gingerbread Cottage, look at that, eh? Yeah, it's the first of July. Ha ha ha. First of July, Canada Day. Yeah. So, tell me about the Gingerbread Cottage a little bit. Yep. Well, it's a 1905 heritage house. Yes. And it's kept exact, like the colours are a little bit different, but other than that, it's, everything is like it was in 1905. Mm Hm. And we have beautiful flowers here because Victoria is the city of gardens. I can see that. They… us for the flowers, and everything grows here, as you can see, we have beautiful roses, flower pots, and window boxes, and hanging plant hanging baskets. So, really Victoria is famous for the hanging baskets. Where is it located in town? We are about five blocks to downtown, eight minutes to walk, it's an easy stroll downtown. And that's where the Coho Ferry is? That's where the ferries are, where most sightseeing is, restaurants, everything is very compact.
Parliament buildings. Parliament buildings. Museums. The main harbour. Main harbour, museums, yes. Yes, okay and the Empress Hotel, everything. Empress Hotel, miniature world. Yeah. Yeah. And the two ferries end up down there. Down there. Could you walk here from that? Oh yes. Yeah. From the ferries? You can walk toward, or just take, if you have too much luggage, just take a quick cab, right. Yeah. An eight minute walk that way? Yeah. Eight minutes. Yeah, to downtown. That's how long it takes me, and I don't run. So, it's far enough away to be private? Yeah.
It's very private. From downtown. You don't have any. Quiet here. But, right away, you are in town, and you are where everything is. Yeah. Okay, yeah. Right. And what's up this direction? Here Two. Just half a block from here, two minute walk, is the ocean. Yes. You can see the Olympic Mountains in the back, in the United States. Right. And to the right is the cruise ship docks. Beautiful cruise ships coming in everyday. Yeah. And a little further down five minute walk, Fisherman's Wharf. Okay. Okay that sounds like a good location. Yeah, let's come in, yeah. And there's our Butler, our cat Butler. He is the boss here. He is the boss. Definitely. Yeah, and he has many friends. Beautiful cat. Many friends all over the world. Ha ha ha. So, when a guest enters here, what happens? Do they get a code for the door? They can ring the bell. Okay, ring the bell? The first time, before they check in. Yeah. And after they are checked in they get a code for the door. Yeah, okay. Oh, you've got those space age locks hey? Yeah, nice.
Get a code for the door, and they can come and go as they please. Okay. As long as they lock, of course, all the time. And where does that stairway go to? The stairway goes up to the guest room. Okay, so they don't even have to walk through the house to get to their room. It's a private entrance. Yeah, it's quite private. Okay. Here is a computer for people who don't bring their own. Other than that, we have WiFi for you. WiFi in the rooms. Yes. Mm hm. And in the breakfast room of course. Yeah. Here is the registration desk. Just like a hotel. Yeah. Did you have a hotel? Yes yes, I did. And two restaurants, so, you know, the last.
So, do the guests come and check in, just like a hotel there? Yes, they check in like a hotel. Yeah, and we have receipts and forms, you know, for check in, forms. Okay. Around the corner is a little living room, and there is a piano, people are welcome to play, and here we have a little parlour. There's a fireplace here. This is normally the cat residence. Yeah, and here is a little parlour. Okay, so here is a second parlour, because it's a duplex house, right? It used to be a duplex, we've knocked through half the wall, but it still has two staircases. So, if guests wanted to visit here in the evening, they probably could? Yeah, they can.
Play cards or whatever? I've seen people do that. Yeah. Or just veg out this room. Right here, yeah. Playing the piano. Okay. Okay. Can you show me the breakfast
room, maybe? Yeah, let's go to the breakfast room. Yeah. Right through here, leads through the kitchen. Here is the kitchen. Wow, that is a kitchen. Yeah, that's my toy store, it's fantastic stuff, everything in it. All commercial, Yeah. Very commercial kitchen yeah. Very nice. That's why we can cook these fantastic breakfasts. Okay. Because we have. Here is the breakfast room. So, is this a dedicated breakfast room or? Yes, it's a dedicated breakfast room. It's always set up, beautiful, with much silver and beautiful silver, you know, pieces, and silver place.
Silver chargers. Chargers and knife benches. Knife benches, and hand painted dishes from Austria. Yes. Very famous dishes. And different types of rock sugars. Yeah, rock sugars. Your homemade jams. Mm hm. And all sorts of antiques and interesting collectibles.
And we have many beautiful collections in here. Yeah. And it's very interesting for people who come for a few days, because they are always, they say they never get sick of looking around. Yeah. Always see something new, and Dean is happy to explain what we have here, each piece has a story. Yep, Mm hm. And, or I will explain too. Mm hm. Mm hm. Very nice. Looks a bit like a Bavarian Gasthaus. So, it's quite interesting for people, and we want to have that, the interesting part.
Yeah. You know, we had some people commenting, oh I could never live like that. Yeah. Which is, you know, of course not, but we do it for guests, so they can have an interesting time. Well, it's like a little museum. It's, you know, conversation pieces, and. Yeah. so on. Yep. Here is a little buffet area where people, when our guests come down in the morning, they can have some home baked granola, milk, yogurt, cheeses, fruit, fresh baking, juices.
And then we will ask them what they would like to eat, and we have a choice of three or four main courses, hot main courses, and then everybody can choose, and while I cook that they can enjoy the buffet. What would a main course be? Usually we do have a ham omelet with three cheeses, with some steak mushrooms on top, usually comes with potatoes, and a little salad. Yeah. All the herbs and vegetables mostly local. The eggs are farm fresh free run omega-3 eggs. And yeah, so one is always something with meat, like a ham omelet. The next one is usually a seafood, which could be a cold smoked salmon omelet with asparagus, or without asparagus, cream cheese, and a little béarnaise sauce, dill béarnaise on top, then we have a vegetarian omelet, and sometimes we offer a sweet hot dish as well, which could be dumplings, or crepes, or waffles. Okay. Whatever we serve. Alright, and over here, we have the garden outside. Mm hm. And not going to go out there in this video but are the guests allowed to go out there? Of course, yes, it's a little, cute little backyard, filled with herbs and edible flowers, which we use for the breakfasts.
Well, there are lots of flowers, that's for
sure. Yeah. Fruit trees. Yeah. Beautiful. Thank you. So, that's what you get when you come to the Gingerbread Cottage? Yep. You get all this museum style stuff here. Yeah. Artifacts, and antiques that are. It's an interesting place. Yeah. Very interesting. Yep. And you are very interesting too, so if somebody wanted to book here, how would they do that? They can call us toll free 1-877-767-2121 or text at the same number or on my cel. phone 250-812-5457. Okay. Or email of course, right. Yeah, okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Closed Captioning by Kris Brandhagen.
brandhagen@gmail.com.
