Plymouth by the Pacific

Victoria – a bastion of English charm some 4,700 miles from home. Named in honour of the famous Queen, today the capital of Canada’s westernmost province boasts a temperate climate, multiple universities and a famously laid-back attitude that attract tourists, students and retirees from across Canada. With Vancouver so close, we had to visit. Although, when we said in the last post that Victoria is only a ferry-ride away, that wasn’t strictly true. The ferry ports are at the tips of their respective islands, so the journey involves two buses and light rail as well as a boat. But the scenery is so beautiful that the challenges of public transport were entirely forgotten as we motored around tiny islands in the Georgia Strait.

In downtown Victoria, with seaplanes taking off beside us, we found British Columbia’s legislative assembly and a statue of Vicky herself. Unlike the hipster cafes and micro-breweries that have sprung up in Vancouver, Victoria’s culinary highlights are more traditional, with afternoon tea at the Empress Hotel among the local favourites. At Fisherman’s Wharf, just a short walk or ferry taxi ride away, we enjoyed browsing among the market stalls – fish and chips, anyone? – and the floating houses are remarkable.

As with Vancouver, we found Victoria’s natural scenery to be its greatest asset. The sea views as we walked around the city were spectacular, and particularly resplendent in the autumnal sunshine. The city has preserved its green spaces too: at Beacon Hill Park, among the ponds and the peacocks, we discovered the Moss Lady, a mysterious sculpture of a giant sleeping woman, who is said to be the cousin of Cornwall’s Mud Maid.

Victoria is a little older than Vancouver – settlement began in 1843 – but with a similar location by the Pacific it has also been heavily influenced by Asian migration. Today it boasts Canada’s oldest Chinatown – and its smallest – with markets, a school, and the country’s narrowest street, Fan Tan Alley. (That said, we popped into one of the area’s tearooms expecting an authentic Chinese experience, and were surprised to find scones, jam, and cucumber sandwiches.)

The impressive Royal BC Museum, with its life-sized woolly mammoth, Kwakwaka’wakw ceremonial masks and 1920s cinema, offered a vivid picture of the province’s history and a chance to reflect. It was a familiar dilemma: how a place with such rich indigenous heritage and so far from the UK can feel so like home. Where else can you enjoy afternoon tea in the shadow of totem poles? On one level this creates a palpable tension, felt more acutely here because the challenges of colonialism are fresher than in eastern Canada. But on another level, time in these western cities was calm and even rejuvenating. Perhaps it was because we were staying with kind relatives, but with the open-mindedness and growing historical awareness in even this most English of cities, it gave us hope that Canada can be a country where all traditions flourish.